I adored the previous book in this series, Charming, and was absolutely ecstatic to see what the sequel would bring to the table! I unfortunately found it falling a little flat in my expectations. I wanted more of the story to focus on Charming and the “Beast”, and found going back to the original characters from the first book took away a lot of enjoyment for me.

The book was okay. It was a little bit all.over the place for me but still a nice easy read. Thank you netgally for letting me read this early.

A.G. Linwood's Beast is a wickedly funny and creative retelling of classic fairy tales, with comedy, adventure, and a dash of romance. Following the adventures of Prince Charming, it brings together a collection of former fairy-tale heroines, one very reluctant hero, and a haunted house with secrets to keep. With a plot as quirky as it is smart, Beast defies convention without losing an ounce of its fairy tale heritage.

Jean-Marc Charming Arundel, aka Charming, is a cad—dishonest, flirtatious, and always in trouble. He's on the move, staying barely one step ahead of those trying to catch up with him in a world where every woman he ever wronged appears to have an axe to grind. And when he arrives at a strange, magical house surrounded by rose bushes that appear to be moving of their own accord, he is caught up in a high-stakes game.

The manor house imprisons Beast, an ugly but pathetic being, sentencing him to loneliness. Along with Hans, a chivalric student, and Will, a boy pragmatist who senses a responsibility, Charming is responsible for discovering the secret behind the curse of the house and the reason why they were selected.

With a deadline on leaving and the ghosts of the past chasing him, Charming will need to draw on more than his fabled charm if he is to survive.

Jean-Marc Charming Arundel – The Fallen Prince
It's that kind of nice hero: the kind of hero whom you just want to bang your head and want to knock some sense into every now and then, but charm gets the better of you in the daytime. Well, he's charming, and he's smart, and at escaping trouble by fleeing, brilliant-but now he might just find himself in one place he can't charm his way out of.

His development during the course of the novel is quite fascinating to notice. He describes his affliction in his usual pomp at first, but with the course of the novel, the layers are slowly unwrapped—his guilt, his repressed sorrows, and the inner turmoil of holding on and staying upright.

Beast – The Mysterious Host
Beast is not an agony-racked prince trapped inside the body of a monster. She is capable, strong, and conscious woman cognizant of the limitations within which she must work. Her interactions with charming are most compelling throughout the book—she will not be tricked by deceit.

Her internal struggle—between human former self and beast she is now—such is a pathos that invokes pity in her.

Hans & Will – The Other Captives
Hans is an intellectual who treats the entire experience as some sort of master thinking challenge. His thoughtful, analytical nature provides a relief from more emotional strife exhibited throughout the novel.
Will, however, is practical, committed, and very much bothered about what he had lost. His agony gives the story its reality because it reminds readers that ordinary people do get touched by this type of paranormal occurrence.

Minor Characters
The solid supporting cast of a cohort of Charming's retired fairy-tale heroines with motives adds humor and narrative tension. Power imbalance as both a society theme, a theme between relationships, a curse theme, and a theme concerning the nature of fate is engrossing.

Charming's past is finally catching up to him. This novel does the whole idea of charm and wit taking you so far before you then have to pay the piper and account for things. All the characters are, in some way or another, stuck due to something outside of their control—bargains, curses, expectation. The novel poses the question of whether or not destiny is predetermined, or if maybe an individual has the ability to make their own.

Beast's curse is physical as well as symbolic for fight with self-esteem and identity. The novel is asking whether people (or beasts) can ever change or not. The novel tantalizes by the implication that love is both a trap and redemptive, particularly where there is imbalanced power.

Linwood's text is full of snappy dialogue, witty repartee, and fairy tale metatropes. The book is never overstuffed but manages to get the emotional bang for its buck when it has to. The novel is an actual page-turner, and there are just enough turns and twists to keep the reader guessing. The action, the humor, and the navel-gazing are well in balance.
The magical house, black roses and otherworldly magic, is evocatively, beautifully described.

A clever, fresh retelling of fairy tales. Intelligent, pleasant heroine. Good character development and understated relationships. Gothic, atmospheric world-building.

Terry Pratchett Discworld fans will appreciate the fantasy convention skewings and humorousness. The Princess Bride fans will appreciate the swashbuckling adventure and irreverent humor. Readers of Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver will appreciate the twist given to fairy tale mythology.

Overall Rating: ★★★★★
Writing Style: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
World-Building: ★★★★☆

Trigger Warnings:
Mild violence
Curses & magical coercion
References to past betrayals & emotional manipulation

Beast is pure delight—a funny, intelligent, and completely inventive retelling of the fairy tale. If you're reading for the questing, the humor, or the sheer genius of deconstructing Prince Charming himself, then this book is for you.
A fantasy novel must-read if you enjoy clever dialogue, edge-of-your-seat world-building, and a touch of magic.

This book was not for me at all. There was so much going on that it all got so confusing and it was hard to keep focus on the main plot. I feel like there was more that the author could’ve did with the plot but it was just wasn’t the best and tad bit boring.

This wasn’t for me. Writing felt lackluster and the plot was a bit all over the place. Also worth noting this is book 3 in a series which I wasn’t aware of before starting.

This was a lot of fun.

I haven't read the first book, Charming, which presumably introduces the titular prince and the variety of ladies he has rescued. Fortunately, there was enough backstory provided - and without it being super info-dump-y - that that wasn't too much of a problem; I picked up fairly quickly that Charming is every Prince Charming, that he's therefore regarded as a conman and a rogue by the rescuees who have now banded together, and that there's also some sort of curse on Charming himself, organised by Mephistopheles, that the ladies need to work with Charming to break. Which is all well and good until Charming gets pulled into yet another curse - the focus of this novel, which is of course the Beauty and the Beast one. And it's gender-swapped, with Charming as the Beauty and a woman as the Beast.

It's interesting to read a flipped B&B, especially when it's primarily from the man's perspective (now I want to read a flipped version from the woman's perspective). Because of the sort of story this is, Charming never finds Beast particularly offensive, and indeed appreciates many of her qualities from early on. The novel does acknowledge that other men have not been as generous, with some reduced to gibbering wrecks because they're incapable of seeing past the idea of a very large furry bipedal 'animal' coming towards them while inside a house. There's no great interrogation here or psychoanalytical discussion of what it means to have been transformed; that's not what this novel wants to do. But there is commentary on Beast having to use a tankard rather than a wine glass, and not wanting to eat in front of potential suitors, and a few other notes that compare how a well-bred lady of the pseudo-medieval society would be expected to look and behave compared with how she looks now.

Other fairy tales also get a look-in here, in particular Red Riding Hood and Hansel & Gretel; they are likewise fractured in really fascinating ways. Linwood seems to have had a lot of fun playing with all of these stories and thinking about how to make recognisable and yet just a bit other. (Red's hanging out with werewolves; Gretel is traumatised from her childhood - and not by a witch - and now protects herself with bears.)

Fast-paced in a good way, easy to read, some delightful characters: this book was great.

What if Prince Charming is not only devastatingly handsome and as charming as his name, but also a con-man, liar and fraud? That’s what the first book in this series explores, together with the princesses he’d duped (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel etc.) who were hot on his trail and out for payback. In the follow-up book Charming himself is caught up in another twisted fairy tale as he ends up in the stately home of an ensorcelled beast along with two other hapless victims, Hans and Will. The beast is as much a prisoner as they are, and only solving the riddle can save her. Charming might even have feelings for her, but he has a date with Mephistopheles, and time is running out. Our princesses need to free him. They come across two potential enemies, or maybe powerful allies, in the Bear Witch and Red Cap (analogues of Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood). More delightful grown-up fairy tale nonsense from the assured pen of Jade Linwood. And though this has a satisfying ending there’s obviously another book to come. Looking forward to it.

This was so fun! I love the gender-swapped take on Beauty and the Beast. It's a great retelling and I enjoyed these characters.

thank you to netgalley, rebellion | solaris and author jane linwood for this ARC of this book.
this book arrives march 15, 2025.
this wasn’t for me.
and i did invest time and even money to making sure i gave this book a fair shot. this book was given free for the review but i did buy the first to make sure i had all i needed.
this was a rough and unhelpful start as i really did not like book one. and my qualms with book one continue to book two. there’s so many story lines around and none of them engage me. the idea is up my alley but i cannot get into these.
unfortunately for me, i did not like these but am sure it will find its audience.

Thank you Jade Linwood, Rebellion and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in return for my honest review.

To keep it short, I DNFd it at 31%. I was confused a majority of the read. It felt like there were too many 3rd person povs to keep track of. I wanted to like because beauty and the beast is my favorite fairy tale. I was also still determined to read the book even after finding out it was book two and I hadn’t read book one. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t keep going.

This was a fun story. The amount of widespread fairy tale characters who were drawn into the story was delightful, and I enjoyed the way they were all reimagined - Rapunzel as a sorceress, Belle as faerie-touched, Goldilocks as a powerful but untrained witch - even Puss in Boots makes her cleverly -wrought appearance.
Prince Charming’s thread was my favorite of the colorful tapestry of the story. Watching his growth as the story progressed was a joy, and I definitely found myself rooting for the Flynn-Ryder-esque rogue. I was hooked all the way through to the end!

If you love a retelling of a fairy tale then this one is for you. A fun fast pace read with all the fairy tale tropes we all know and love.

Although I didn't know that there was a book one, I think as it is a retelling as a reader you are familiar with the characters so instantly makes you feel comfortable reading it.

It is an easy read and one to read if you need to escape reality for a little while.

This retelling had some great twists and turns and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a fairy tale. Thank you to NetGally and Jane Linwood for my advanced copy.

Ohhhh I did not like this at all. I like a good fairy tale retelling but it didn’t really seem like the author added anything super groundbreaking to the story. The writing seemed juvenile as well

I enjoyed this book way more than the first as the reader you knew what the heroes were working towards way more clearer.
This also helped to follow along the shifting of pov’s and stories as there were quite a lot going on.
I did also love Charming having somewhat of an redemption arc but still am bit annoyed the fact that his brother has been mentioned a lot since 1st book but we know almost nothing else about him and his story.
I do think it is a very fun fairytale twist and found it exciting to guess what fairytale a character is from whenever someone new was introduced to us

Dare I say I think I like this more than the original? This gender-bent take on Beauty and the Beast is the epitome of romance. It's been a long time since a book has truly felt romantic to me and this wonderful story gave me all the feels I was hoping for. I love that the author continued the story from book one while also adding a new plot line with new characters while still managing to thread the two together perfectly. I love all of the characters and I looked forward to reading each POV (which I think is rare with books that contain multiple POVs.) The original story of Beauty and the Beast has been transformed into something truly unique.

3.5 rounded up!

I enjoyed Beast but admittedly not as much as I enjoyed Charmed. I wasn't as invested in the princesses this time around, although I did like the subplot between Marie and Red Cap and would like to explore that more.

This book made me like Charming, which I didn't think would happen. I love the relationship between him and Beast and would have gladly read an entire novel with just the two of them.

I'm looking forward to the next book and I really hope Charming and Beast have a future

My initial reason for chosing this book is because it is a gender reversal retelling and our FMC is the Beast not the MMC. This entire series is the same with gender-reversed roles and I am here for it!

The humor in this book is the best part to be honest Jade was able to write a fairytale based book that has moments of making fun of said fairytales. If I had to describe this book it would be a captive dating game where the men get trapped with their potential lady, except the lady could rip them to shreds.

In this story, the Beast is a woman. Or, WAS a woman? She's faces a similar curse as we've seen before, though the details aren't clear to us or the inhabitants of her world. Her world also has variations of Prince Charming, Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretal, Merida, Snow White, Rapunzel, and more. There is humor and a sweet love story along with redemption, and it ends on a cliffhanger that has me impatient to read the next book!!

Thank you to Rebellion/Solaris and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I had read the first book in the series and enjoyed that so I was delighted to be able to read this one early too, Having a take on Beauty and the Beast is always fun and I was delighted that it was not solely focused there but did bring in the main characters of Charming. It also brought in more fairy tales like Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and Goldilocks. I was able to read this in a day as I had a long flight and it kept me engaged. I am curious if there will be more since there are some plot threads left hanging which could be explored in another book. I would give this 4 stars.

If you want a short read and like fairytale retellings this one is worth it. The writing is easy and enjoyable. I did want a little more from the story which is why I didn't rate it higher but I will continue to read from this author.