A paranormal Great Gatsby retelling? Vampires? Yes please! The audiobook was well done and I enjoyed the narrator's voice. I found the modern day setting to be entertaining and worked well for the story. I LOVED the paranormal aspect and thought it was unique and intriguing, I don't want to spoil anything, but it was a very interesting spin on a vampire origin story. The spicy scenes were fun and I really enjoyed Daisy and Jay's relationship. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.

Wow, this one is so different. The story is rather wild, narration is great though. VAMPIRES! What can I say. Love vampires and Jay Gatsby becomes one? Seriously? How fun! Thank you NetGalley for the ALC

The Great Gatsby… but so much better. Rebecca Kenney’s writing draws you in from the beginning to the end. It’s fast paced with vampires and the perfect amount of spice. I love the way she used an old story to turn it into something new.
The characters felt like faithful modern versions of the originals. Overall, everything was well executed and Beautiful Villain was exactly what I was hoping it would be.
The narrator did an excellent job, and now I want to find other books she’s narrated.

I was provided an ARC of this title for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Daisy and Jay.
A spicy take on The Great Gatsby with a fun & modern vampiric twist.

I always love a Rebecca F Kenney title, so it’s not a surprise that her first traditionally published title was a ballpark knockout for me.

Easily five stars. A fun and fast paced romantasy that will give Gatsby & vampire fans alike a little thrill. Rebecca is a retelling queen, who has a fun and spicy take for every tale, and I will happily continue to gobble her books up for breakfast lunch and dinner.

I did also listen to the audio and it was amazing— highly recommend!

Thank you to Rebecca F Kenney, SourceBooks Casablanca, and NetGalley for the ARC & ALC!

First book of an urban fantasy Great Gatsby retelling with vampires and other creatures of myth. Great cast of characters, fun easy to follow plot with a dash of spice. Thoroughly engrossing! The narrator did a smashing job, she had the perfect sultry voice for the FMC. Thank you NetGalley & Rebecca Kenney for the gifted ARC

This book just feel flat for me & that’s unfortunate because I was super excited about the premise of this book. I felt like the MMC was just incredibly lacking. I did not particularly like Daisy either.

I felt that relationships could have been built up better and had a better backing. While I know there were feelings there from a previous history, it just didn’t feel natural or genuine. I felt that the vampire premise of the book was rushed and I just really did not love the plot for Gatsby involving that.

Unfortunately this book was just a miss for me.

𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗯𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗰𝗮 𝗞𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘆 offers a modern retelling of "The Great Gatsby" with an intriguing paranormal twist. As a fan of the original story, I was both curious and skeptical about this new take. The book follows Daisy Finnegan, who reconnects with her childhood sweetheart, Jay Gatsby, now a mysterious and sinfully attractive recluse. The plot quickly thickens with themes of wealth, lies, and darker obsessions, culminating in a shocking act of violence. I had mixed feelings throughout my reading experience. At times, the story's references to "The Great Gatsby" were clever and amusing, but the romance felt more like possession and obsession rather than true love. This element mirrored the original's themes, which I appreciated. However, if you’re a purist when it comes to "The Great Gatsby", this might not be the book for you. Despite my reservations, I found the concept of Gatsby selling the secret of immortality fascinating. If you enjoy a blend of classic literature with a spicy, supernatural twist, 𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗡 could be an intriguing addition to your reading list. It’s an original and addictive start to the Gilded Monsters Series, and I’m looking forward to seeing how "Charming Devil", the retelling of Dorian Gray, unfolds.

DNF at 40%. This book is just not what I thought it was going to be. I love The Great Gatsby so much and this is like Twilight Great Gatsby. I was not this book’s target audience. Adding one star because I enjoyed the author’s writing, I just could not get into the plot.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for my copy of the ALC.

Beautiful Villains is a retelling of The Great Gabsy with vampiries. Daisy is home after graduating college for the summer. She is depressed Tom her boyfriend of 7 years has cheated on her and she left him. Her cousin Nick and her best friend Jordan have invited her to the Gabsy Estate for the party of the summer. Daisy wonders if Gabsy is her long lost love Jay that she lost contact with once her parents came into money and moved to a better neighborhood. Daisy soon relaizes that Jay has changed and is now figuring out what he is exactly. I am a sucker for vampire books and this one doesn't disappoint.

My head hurts just writing this. I wish I could count the number of times I rolled my eyes, especially towards the end; it was endless!

While I'm no fan of vampires. I do not think fans of the genre will like this ether, the dialogue was just bad, I mean it was insufferable. If 20 year old's talk like this, id hate to see what teenagers talk like!

Plus I don't think the author allowed for an introduction of a plot to build before jumping to another one, World building is also at the speed of light and plots were just so out there, my eyes almost pulled from my socket.

So no I would not recommend this.

Solid 1 star!

I always see this author's TikToks on my FYP so when I say this was available on NetGalley I knew I wanted to give it a try.

The premise for this story was so intriguing. Retelling The Great Gatsby with a paranormal twist is so cool. I think the author did a good job of combining the two genres. They meshed well and gave a classic story new life.

The characters were flawed but fun. I liked the relationship between Jay & Daisy. Their romance was steamy, forbidden and dramatic. Really kept me engaged and interested. The angst and drama kept me engaged and the story thrilling. The romance was perfect.

I liked the narrator as well. I think Ruby did a fantastic job bringing the story to life. Really helped me immerse myself into the story.

Would recommend for fans of paranormal romance.

Usually, I like this type of story, but for some reason, this one was not for me. I wish it got to the magical elements before halfway through the book. That ended up being the true focus, even though we didn’t see it until much later. I guess I had a hard time believing the relationships between characters. It felt like intimate scenes were more about using repeated sexy words than the actual relationship between the characters. The skeleton of the story is interesting, but I was distracted by trying to make sense of things.

I don’t think this one was for me. I was excited for a Gatsby reimagining but it just never clicked for me.

I'm leaving my rating as a neutral 3 star due to the fact I DNFed the book at 41%.

I really enjoyed the narration done by Ruby Cherise. I would like to find more of her in the future. Her voice was very alluring and probably the only reason I stuck it out for as long as I did.

But lets get into why I DNFed...

I can understand the draw to this book and why others really enjoyed it, It deal with life and the struggle we have as individuals with a paranormal twist but for me it really was just kind of boring, unfortunately.

The Great Gatsby is a great story but when you bring it into modern times and add twilight elements it just ends up being weird. I also felt like there was a total disconnect with the spice of this book. The spice is good, from as far as I listened but it didn't' fit the setting of the book. It's kind of hard to explain.

Again, this is just my opinion so, take it with a grain of salt.

Genre: Paranormal Retelling

This is a modern retelling of The Great Gatsby with vampires. The characters’ names are the same (Daisy & Jay). If you have never read The Great Gatsby or don’t really remember it, you can still enjoy the book.
It has a college age contemporary cast and a few spicy scenes. I enjoyed the pacing and storyline with nods to the roaring twenties. It reminded me of a spicy Twilight.
I listened to it on audio and liked the narrator. I will read the next book in her series.

If you like paranormal romances & retellings, give this one a read!

Thank you Sourcebooks for the ARC! 🧛💚

Beautiful Villains is a WILD ride. All our favorite characters from Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are here, but if you are a teacher looking for a modern retelling, this is not your best option because it is SPICY 🔥 It is so spicy, there's even an extra bonus spicy scene at the end that's set in the 1920s, where Daisy goes to a Gatsby party just before she marries Tom.
In the world of Beautiful Villains, Gatsby is a vamp, and Daisy is a FEMINIST! Somehow it's the second one that is more shocking to me. There were a lot of fun literary allusions, and an attempt to explain the science of vampirism along with a vampire Fitbit that tells them how hungry they are. Overall, this was an unexpectedly fun read with a weird allegory about making choices about your own body and mortality.
The audiobook was narrated by Ruby Cherise, who does an excellent job bringing Daisy's persuasive voice to life.
Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this advanced copy to review!

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6628569365

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Check out this review of Beautiful Villain on Fable. https://fable.co/review/8976f511-8d71-49ab-a6a1-a20a19195347/share

This book was……alright. I have loved Rebecca’s other books like Jack Frost and Captain Pan. This one fell a bit short for me. The FMC was so wishy washy. One minute she was strong and powerful and the next she was cowering and leaving. I liked the past connection between her and Jay and the growing friendship between her and Jordan, There could have been a little more spice in my opinion. One of my fave scenes was when Jay was shot and he flung himself out of the pool. Yum. Overall this was an okay story. I will read the others coming out though because all the stories seem very intriguing! Also loved the narrator of this audiobook.

Quotes:

Can’t say what we were, because there’s no word for it in this language, maybe not in any language.

Truth always forces a choice.

Even now, I can feel myself making space in my soul for the morally grey zone he inhabits. (Aren’t we all??)

You to know what I am? Well, if Jay Gatsby is the vampire king, as you called him, that would make me his queen.

Want a spicy read that feels fresh but also familiar? Look no further. Who would have thought that vampires and Gatsby would work so well together? Rebecca Kenney, apparently. I love Jay and Daisy’s story, and this was a great take on the classic! After the big vampire reveal, the plot seems to stall for a bit, but it wrapped up nicely and I’ll be recommending to all of my dark/fantasy lovers!

Beautiful Villain by Rebecca Kenney is a captivating and unconventional twist on the classic romance genre, skillfully blending elements of dark fantasy and intense emotional drama. From the very beginning, Kenney draws readers into a world where the lines between good and evil blur, challenging our perceptions of morality and love.

The protagonist, Daisy, is a complex and multi-dimensional character whose journey is as enthralling as it is heart-wrenching. What sets this book apart is its focus on a love story that unfolds between characters who are far from perfect. The titular "Beautiful Villain" is not your typical antagonist; instead, they are a deeply flawed individual with a backstory that elicits both sympathy and intrigue.

Kenney's writing is lush and evocative, painting vivid pictures of the settings and emotions that drive the story forward. The tension between the characters is palpable, and their interactions are charged with a mix of passion, conflict, and vulnerability. This dynamic keeps the reader hooked, eager to see how their relationship evolves and whether they can overcome their inner demons.

One of the standout features of Beautiful Villain is its ability to make readers question their own judgments and biases. The narrative challenges us to look beyond surface-level perceptions and understand the complexities that define each character. This depth makes the story not only engaging but also thought-provoking.

Overall, Beautiful Villain is a mesmerizing read that will appeal to fans of dark romance and character-driven stories. Rebecca Kenney has crafted a novel that is both emotionally intense and intellectually stimulating, making it a standout in its genre. If you're looking for a book that will challenge your notions of love and villainy, this is definitely one to add to your reading list.