Did you read The Great Gatsby in school? Well, I have a hot 🔥 retelling with a paranormal twist to share with you that will have you looking at this classic tale with new eyes!

Whether you’ve read the original or not, I recommend this one if you like spicy romances or paranormal romances. But I applaud the author for this clever retelling. The main characters are all here, and she even managed to incorporate many of the central themes: class, money, gender, immortality and yes, even the green light.

Daisy is looking forward to summer now that college is over and she is free from her cheating boyfriend, Tom. She, her cousin Nick, and her best friend Jordan are heading to a party. Daisy is shocked when she learns that Jay Gatsby owns the gorgeous house where the party is being held.

Jay was her childhood friend, her sweetheart. But they lost touch. Now Jay is here, wealthy and amazingly hot. But he has changed. Something is different; something is very different.

If you don’t want a spoiler, don’t read this section. At first, I was uncertain if Gatsby being a vampire would work, but it did, and it was pretty hot. Daisy’s voice control gift felt a little unnecessary to me, but it didn’t distract from the story.

This was a steamy, sexy, paranormal retelling that I had a lot of fun with. Besides all the romance, there was some suspense and action too. I’m excited to see what monsters the rest of the series brings.


Thank you @sourcebookscasa for this gifted book.
Thank you @dreamscape_media for the gifted audiobook via NetGalley

I never read more than a sentence about a book before i start the book. which is for the best I think!! I got into this thinking, hey this is a modern retelling of The Great Gatsby. At 40% in something shifted. This wasn't the Jay Gatsby I was familiar with - and it certainly was a surprise. Very spicy and graphic, this paranormal reimagining of a familiar story with teenage characters was really not what I had expected, Thanks to NetGalley for the arc/audiobook!

I haven’t read a vampire book since Twilight! But this! Whew! It brought back all the thrill and love for vampires! I must confess I have never read or seen The Great Gatsby. I really enjoyed this book though! I finished it in 2 days I just couldn’t stop listening! I loved all of the characters. Daisy being her sweet caring self, Jay being the ultimate book boyfriend with his “everything was for you” lines, and the badass best friend Jordan who brings risk and thrill to the story. Even the unlikable characters were so well placed in this story with their classic controlling, narcissistic personalities. The chemistry between Daisy and Jay was just *chefs kiss* amazing! I also loved Nick & Cody’s relationship and their personalities. The pacing of the story was great, I never felt like it was too slow or boring. The conflict/resolution was a little too easy but I still enjoyed it! Ruby Cherise was fantastic at narrating this story. Over all I’d give this book a 4.5 rating.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

<b>Beautiful Villain</b> is a new adult fantasy romance loosely based on The Great Gatsby book.

I found it really entertaining, with very sad and dark parts (check the tw) and funnier parts.

If you like:
💫Childhood friends to lovers
💫Vampires
💫Major The Great Gatsby vibes
💫Protective and possessive MMC
💫Action
Then this one is for you!

I loved the magical system and found it quite unique. Even if the base elements were classic, the author gave a creative twist to everything.
I was dubious on some parts, because when trying to explain a fantasy element scientifically many things may end up not adding up, and sometimes it felt like it here. Still, it wasn´t too big a problem because the story was very good.

The audiobook production was perfect as always!
I tandem read it between book and audiobook and I sort of whished we had Jay´s voice! I really would have loved to have him too.

Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC.

Beautiful Villain will be out on July 16th.

Take the Great Gatsby and add spice and some vampires and you have Beautiful Villain. I admit it may have been silly of me to read this book despite having read the original Great Gatsby and hating it (I know, I'm the minority) but I was surprised by this book and ended up listening to it quite quickly. While it wasn't my favorite book, I definitely see the appeal especially if you loved GG and wanted something similar but a bit more modern and sexy with a bit of a magical twist.

The audio narration by Ruby Cherise is well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for access to the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I love it! This is so good! It's going to be great with a modern audience because it has things that people can connect with like social media.
However, listening to this more. It sounds like a knockoff of King of Wrath.

Rated 3.5 Stars

I like the premise of Beautiful Villain but it didn't fully work for me. I do think the narrator did a good job of bringing this book to life. I liked the world and the author's take on vampires and The Great Gatsby. However I wasn't fond of the characters and that's mainly where this book fell short for me. I didn't believe the connection between Jay and Daisy, to me there was no chemistry between them and so the romance didn't work for me. Although I didn't love it I did enjoy it and I'd read more by this author.

An entertaining and supernatural twist on the Great Gatsby! I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook, so much so that I couldn't put it down and listened to it all in one day!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

ARC Rating 3.75/5 ⭐️

This is a fantasy romance story. The Great Gatsby inspiration with a magical twist was very nice, especially as I wasn't very versed in the original story.

The story follows Daisy, who had recently broken up with her abusive boyfriend Tom, and has finished college. She reconciles with the wealthy reclusen Jay Gatsby, her childhood sweetheart. But somethings have changed with Jay, and he's not quite the man she remembers.

This was a nice story with a lot happening throughout. The romance was good and I did feel the connection between the two.

This was a nice quick listen/ read and it kept me entertained and engaged.

Thank you NetGalley, Entangled Publishing, Helen Hardt for sending this eARC for review. All opinions are my own.

AMAZING! I had the privilege of ARC reading Beautiful Villian and let me just tell you...the audio made the book just that much better! The narrator did a fantastic job of bringing Kenney's book to life! Just amazing and job well done!

This book was rough. It felt like I was reading a first draft Wattpad book….and don’t get me wrong, there is an audience for that. I am not that audience. I feel like the author tried to reel readers in with “a Gatsby retelling” but completely tricked everyone with what this book actually was. Not for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️

🧛🏻Modern Gastby Retelling
✨supernatural romance
🧛🏻Vampires
✨Spice

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for this ALC.

I really wanted to read this book once I knew it was a modern retelling of the Great Gatsby. I love how the characters evolved and had the modern feel in this book. The fundamentals of the great Gatsby are still present, but not enough to where it’s completely the same. This book is its own book. I love that there was a supernatural element because some of them are vampires. I found it most unique that Daisy had a special trait to her. I am so glad that the book did end like how the Great Gatsby did, just because I didn’t want the sad ending. I love the world building in Beautiful Villain. I enjoyed the scientific elements to it. The narrator was amazing. I would definitely recommend this book or the audio. The spice scenes were very good, especially if you love a vampire romances.

As a massive consumer of Rebecca's work I was so excited for this book. I initially fell in love with her Wicked Darlings Series and have been hooked since. I really thought there wasn't a book that she could write that I wouldn't absolutely completely love. I was wrong. It could be because it's more contemporary based and I just love the fantastical worlds she creates, but I struggled with this.

I've never been one to be a fan of things in modern day that get mentioned in books unless it's a memoir so I get thrown off when things like tiktok, youtube, etc are mentioned. I was also a little disappointed that the main characters names weren't changed for the retelling since the story was told modernly and mentioned things in media that exist in our world. My brain just kept circling back to the fact that The Great Gatsby was literally apart of my school's curriculum so I was like like how does she not make a silly reference or anything when we have twilight references.

<spoiler>Jay didn't feel like much of an upgrade to her other ex. He blamed her for something that was out of her control that was her parents fault and for something as wild as them not trying to adopt him. Which was crazy because they were dating, like why would you want that? And to the jealousy of her sleeping with someone else when they spent 7 years apart when he slept with people. Also the biting into the lady bits, I was screaming in horror. </spoiler>

Though the writing was great in this book, I did not like the characters at all. Why incorporate vampires? IDK not for me, but people probably like it if they like contemporary fantasy and retellings.

It was a slow start to set the scene, the reimagining of The Great Gatsby paranormal elements was clever. The first half was a bit cluttered with unnecessary details, like she was on her fifth car because she was not a great driver. Just a random fact that did not help the story. The other half was where the action picked up and the author shined with her version of Gatsby.