Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the advance listeners copy.

Since The Great Gatsby entered the public domain, I've seen quite a few retellings get professionally published. This is the first one to take the supernatural route. We have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, so why not Great Gatsby vampires? It moves the setting to the modern day, which has its pros and cons. The parallels between the consumerist dreams of the roaring 20s and influencer culture of the 21st century work well. I'm fine with the modern slang and mentions of youtube and tiktok, but the name dropping other media properties took me out of it for some reason. Explaining how Daisy's parents are nerds by referring to Serenity and Mikasa from Attack on Titan gave me mental whiplash. The story very loosely follows that of the original, up to the point where Gatsby should have died because -surprise!- he's a vampire, he can't die. The romance depended on comparing Gatsby to Daisy's abusive ex Tom Buchanan, your stereotypical 'alpha' bro that sees Daisy as his no matter what she says. The thing is, Gatsby is also kinda toxic as a boyfriend, and it only kinda addresses that. Not enough for me to feel satisfied, at least. The ending was this huge fight between vampires but resolved fairly quickly. I kinda wanted more from the rival vampire faction throughout the whole book, not just the latter half. Overall though, this was pretty fun as a dark fantasy/romance retelling of The Great Gatsby. Once it got going, it was very entertaining.

I enjoyed this audio book. I’m not usually a fan of audiobooks because I was a little distracted, but this book held my interest well.
This take on the Great Gatsby was so refreshing and was definitely new. I loved it!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

This wasn't for me sadly. I love paranormal fantasy books, but I didn't love the Great Gatsby vibes. The pacing was really good but some of the spice felt out of place and it just didn't work for me. I thought the writing was fantastic, the author is clearly brilliant, but this just didn't work for me.

I didn't know I needed a vampiric Great Gatsby until I came across this title and I'm so glad I did! Fun and flirty, this is a perfect vacation read.

The only parts of this book I liked where the parts from the Great Gatsby - all the other elements I found to be poory written, awkward and unoriginal. The narrator did a good job though.

SUCH AN AMAZING RETELLING/REIMAGINING. I'm simply at a loss for words. I think this was such a perfect way to take a classic and put an incredible new spin on it. By now, I feel like we can absolutely trust Rebecca F. Kenney to take the stories we have grown up with and known and put a unique spin on them that makes them new, and interesting in a way that I hope will inspire others to think as creatively as she does when making adaptations and reimaginings of stories. This was beyond brilliant and I am so so so looking forward to more from her.

Okay, I definitely had some mixed feelings about this one but I did like it overall. Beautiful Villain is a paranormal Great Gatsby retelling and I was honestly really excited for it. What I liked about this book is that it was familiar and fun. Unfortunately, I don't think this worked very well as a retelling. The vampires in this world are unique and different and the plotline differs so much from Great Gatsby that I think it would have made a better original. Daisy's personality was drastically changed as well, which is hienstly great because she was much stronger and more independent, but it still threw me off. That aside, the only other issue I had was the dialogue. It was almost cringe worthy at times. I just don't think people talk like that. Everything else was really enjoyable. The vampires were unique. The world building was quick and didn't have too many big info dumps. It had fun, sexy vibes. And the audiobook has amazing narration. While it might not have quite what I expected, Beautiful Villain was still a fun and unique retelling.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am loving the spicy NA great gatsby but add vampires retelling vibes. This one does fall solidly into the NA category for me in tone. Yes, they are all over 18 (which is a hard line for spicy books for me) but there is definitely a feeling of youth particularly from our FMC. Which totally tracks with Daisy in the Great Gatsby so it makes sense. Just wanted to throw that out there because the synopsis felt more adult than the book is feeling (for me at least). But I still am really enjoying it! The Great Gatsby is one of the few classics I actually like so I was excited to see this was a twist on it. I enjoyed the narration too!

3 Glutton Stars ⭐
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️/5

So, no one is more disappointed than me in that I didn't like this because Rebecca F. Kenney is one of my favourite authors if not my ULTIMATE favourite. I absolutely adore her writing, her characters, her world-building, and her ability to just tell fantastical stories. But something about this just didn't hit the mark for me.

This is a Great Gatsby retelling.

𝙎𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨:
Daisy has just gotten out of a long-term emotionally abusive relationship where her ex-boyfriend was cheating on her. To help her distract herself and entertain herself she finds herself at a lavish party with her close friend, who also happens to be a popular daredevil social media influencer. It turns out this party is hosted and paid for by Jay Gatsby, who happens to be her childhood best friend and almost sweetheart. They were never actually in a relationship, but they were definitely each other's first crushes and if they had stayed together would have developed into more. Daisy hasn't seen him since she was a teen. Turns out Jay has done all of this for Daisy (and by this I mean he established his extravagant wealth for her). He wants to rekindle their past relationship, but he has a secret... He also happens to be a vampire.

The Great Gatsby was never part of my prescribed reading. I think, because it's a very American novel, it's more likely to be covered in the American school curriculum, so I'm not the South African one... So I am NOT that familiar with the story outside of the Leonardo DiCaprio movie and one other "retelling" I have read. Therefore, I don't know how much of the character's portrayal was that of the "original" Jay and Daisy from The Great Gatsby, or if it was Rebecca F. Kenney's portrayal of these characters. But the one thing that I know from Rebecca F. Kenney's previous books, is that while she puts an excellent and unique spin on her retellings, she is often very true-to-the-original-story characterisation. But there lies the problem because I didn't like the characters of Jay or Daisy, and I DON'T KNOW IF I DON'T LIKE THEM BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS ARE LIKE THAT OR IF IT WAS HER PORTRAYAL...

Specifically what I didn't like was this felt VERY insta-lovie. There is already a historical relationship between these two characters from when they were children. And now that they are older they have some unrepressed anger toward each other and slight animosity because Jay never reached out even though Daisy tried.... She feels like he just abandoned her, but she's also got these feelings that he was the one that got away, so very quickly forgives him for his silence. Jay is from the start obsessed with everything Daisy, she is his single-minded target and I didn't like that because insta-love is not one of the tropes that I particularly enjoy reading about. Their attraction didn't feel like it had a lot of merit and growth, because it was already there - so there was nothing to build up to...

Daisy is an interesting character because she does grow substantially in the book as she gains some of her self-confidence back, now that she is no longer with Tom. Initially, she is meek and quiet because she's been very much repressed and controlled by Tom. After her breakup, she discovers her independence as the story progresses and she becomes more comfortable with Jay.

I did expect a little more of a freak-out when she found out Jay was a vampire. The fact is THROWN onto her (so she didn't have the clues and buildup Bella'had in Twilight) and she's almost like "cool story bro". So that did seem a very abrupt change (the story felt almost contemporary up to this point when the change to supernational happened, it didn't have time to blend). And while it was a shock of a reveal, I think it needed more build-up... and then it needed to be expanded a bit more because the lore of supernatural beings isn't expanded on after. They are just "there"...

This is a single POV story (which I think might be one of the first times I've seen RFK do this - not counting the warlord book, since that was two books of either POV) so I don't know much about Jay except what is "shown" through Daisy's interactions with him. Jay is elusive and secretive. Very quick to anger and sometimes very immature...

𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
▶ Childhood Best Friends
▶ Touch Her You Die
▶ Burn the world for you
▶ Second Chance Romance
▶ Friends to Lovers
▶ Obsessive MMC
▶ Billionaire Romance
▶ Hidden Powers
▶ Always been you
▶ Mine
▶ Vampires and "Sirens" (Voice Control things)

While there were some unexpected aspects of the plot - it very much followed the course of where I thought it would go. Overall I enjoyed this but it's not taking any of the top spots that previous books I have read by RFK currently hold.

I love a good retelling. And then you give it a beautiful ending after all. I'm sold. this is the great gatsby as i think we all wanted it to be.

I throughly enjoyed this book. It was a good reimagining of the Gatsby story and well adapted to the modern fantasy. I had the right amount of mystery, suspense and steamy scenes. I highly recommend this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! I've never read The Great Gatsby, I've seen at least parts of the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, so I have a bit of a grasp of the story. This modern day retelling of the story-but with vampires, yeah, I loved it!

That this book is set in the modern day, means modern day standards, like the fact that Daisy's parent's don't want her to get married and only see her to fulfill that purpose. They were actually pretty fantastic and got along with Gatsby. Which was easily shown in the chapter at the end, set in the same time as the original, but still with vampires. Loved it!

This book covers maybe a third of the original story, and condenses it down, because the whole kill Gatsby thing, well, doesn't really work when he's a vampire and you didn't know. So there was a whole bunch of story left after that and I loved seeing them have that time together! It also meant that this story was not predictable to following the story beats of the original story, since it had already gone past that, and had it's own original story plots because of the whole vampire thing. Which was so fascinating to read, this take on vampires!

One thing that was brought up in this book was the idea of checking your privilege, which is an idea that more people should embrace, this idea that hey, maybe you have enough, you don't need this and someone else does, then even though that's not the best move for you, you give it to them. Which is a really good idea!

This book was really fun and enjoyable, and I loved this take on these characters and this world! I loved their romance, and how close they were after their shared past, and I'm excited for the sequel! I'm not sure if it's going to be set in the same world, or if there's going to be stand alone stories, since it has a different kind of magic. But since this one had a few varieties, I think it could be set in the same world! We'll see!

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read the sequel!

A very unique spin on the popular tale of Gatsby with a much happier ending! Full of fun, danger, wit and thrills!

Rebecca Kenney delivers again! There is nothing I’ve read or listened to by her that I didn’t enjoy. Love the narration.

What if The Great Gatsby was reimagined as vampires???

Love. Everything abut this. Inject this into my veins. Tattoo it on my heart.

GIMME MORE.

I truly had no idea what to expect from this book so everything about it (besides the Gatsby elements) was a surprise. I listened to the audio narrated by Ruby Cherise who does a beautiful job with it. She's clear, easy to listen to, and everything flows so well throughout the audio. It's The Great Gatsby supernatural edition but with a bit of science to it. It is a bit instalove but Daisy and Jay have a history so it doesn't feel all that unrealistic. I think fans of new adult/vampire romance will really enjoy this one and if you've read The Great Gatsby as well that'll add to the experience. It's steamy and fun, with some action scenes and interesting plot aspects -- like why Gwen's voice is so alluring. I'd definitely recommend listening to the audio version because Ruby does a great job and really brings Daisy to life.

Thank you Dreamscape Media for the digital ALC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The great gatsby and immortals! Read it, you will not be disappointed. Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape for the audio arc of Beautiful villain by Rebecca Kenney another author to add to my ever growing list. 4/5

Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️.5

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book, the description was basically just “Great Gatsby but with a supernatural twist” but I did really enjoy it.

In the beginning I wasn’t a huge fan of the FMC or the MMC, which does go well with the whole Great Gatsby thing, but they did grow on me a lot as the book went on. They were both flawed in what felt like very honest honest way. There were secrets kept, but the FMC thought through it logically which I really enjoyed.

I really liked the scientific explanation for the supernatural part (not saying what kind of supernatural to avoid spoilers) and I think that was a really interesting twist on the genre. I do think it was a little weird that things like TikTok and Twilight exist in the story, yet apparently The Great Gatsby doesn’t since the FMC and MMC have the exact same names as in the original.

The spice was really well done, and while it was kinda insta-love I did also like the romance a lot. I’ll definitely read more from the author in the future.

Beautiful Villain is the Great Gatsby meets Twilight, a steamy new adult retelling of the classic. Readers might recognize the characters' names and some plot points, like Gatsby's parties of legend, but that is where the similarities end. Daisy has just graduated from college and broken up with her terrible boyfriend Tom, so she moves back in with her parents and reconnects with her friend from high school, Jordan. Jordan brings Daisy to a party at Gatsby's, where she learns he is the same Jay Gatsby who was her best friend from childhood. Now he is a wealthy, attractive man, who seems to be keeping some secrets about where his money comes from. I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator did a good job with voicing all of the characters. I thought the vampire lore was interesting, but the writing was about what you would expect for the new adult genre. It was definitely an entertaining book, but I think it could have pulled a bit more from the source material and the ending felt like it was too long and it wrapped up a bit too tidily.