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Thursday, February 13, 2014

|Review| Beauty by Robin McKinley

This review is part of the Beauty & the Beast retelling feature we're hosting with Alexa!

Title: Beauty
Author:
Published 
Genre: historical romance retelling
Rating: C+
Goodreads summary:
A strange imprisonment...

Beauty has never liked her nickname. She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.

When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows she must go to the castle, a prisoner of her own free will. Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, "Cannot a Beast be tamed?"

This is a quick Beauty and the Beast standard retelling. Not exactly super original with different twists but it's still an enjoyable retelling and romance!

The heroine's name is actually Beauty and her two sisters are Grace and Hope. One thing I really liked about this retelling is that it has a strong sense of family connections. I loved reading the family interactions parts because Beauty truly loved her sisters, her brother in law, and her father.

Beauty is given to Beast when Beauty's father accidentally takes a rose from Beasts' garden. Her family refuse to let her go but Beauty insists. She wants an adventure and she will get one! What I like about Beauty is that she's very stubborn and headstrong. Beauty is a bad ass! I was honestly not expecting this but Beauty is strong and not scared of Beast.

On the other hand, you have Beast and is actually very shy. Very reserved and humble. The reason he requests from Beauty's father that he gives him one of his daughter is because he's lonely. This was an interesting dynamic. Sure the beast is usually good hearted beneath all his growling and fur but this particular Beast is nice through and through. Again, this is surprising! Because this retelling really reminded of the Disney movie and it wasn't super creative but the characters certainly had different dynamics.

Beauty and Beast worked really well. Seeing the big bad Beast as such a humble creature and Beauty as the adventurous one was cool! This is a once sitting read, extremely well written and enjoyable. If you want a good Beauty and the Beast retelling, Robin McKinley will deliver.

Rating: [C+] Super enjoyable read!
First:
I was the youngest of three daughters. 

Favorite:
Cannot a Beast be tamed?

Teaser:
"Will you marry me, Beauty?"

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