My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Carlyle Labuschagne’s fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast is an utterly dark and grim story that I don’t want to even classify as a retelling of my favorite story.
A Beast So Beautiful is a must-read for all fans of fantasy, for no other reason than to enjoy the vivid imagery that the author has created with the descriptions of the Beast’s Kingdom called Ruith. It is an absolute mastery of words by Labuschagne with an explosive twisty ending that had me gasping at the end. My heart bleeds for Prince Leif, his kindness and fervent desire to control the beast in him and not be the reason for any more murder after having being locked for years together made him the perfect hero to root for.
The story begins in a way that had me scratching my head for a time, there’s no introduction of a scene or a prologue to ease into the story, it was sort of like a flight take off without any cruising thru the runway. Except for Prince Leif though I couldn’t enjoy any other characters. There’s a sense of wrongness that lurks underneath as you read the story and it is honestly hard to wait for book 2 to know how the curse and the greatest betrayal of Leif’s life are gonna play out.
A Beast So Beautiful is not a story that will have the readers smiling with romance in the air, if truth be told, the climax shakes the very core of the original fairy tale. The happy endings that we are so used to is probably coming up in the next book of the series but who knows what surprise Labuschagne has in store for the reader.
Highly recommended, just dive in expecting the unexpected. 4 stars for the story and a whole 1 star for that enchanting cover image.💦 💦 💦 💦 💦
Many thanks to BookSirens and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.
A darkness falls over the land when the Queen of Rurith dies.
Consumed with grief, King Ivar blames their son, Prince Leif, for her demise, and locks him away in the castle.
The Prince is left in total despair, until a girl, with hair the colour of a red sunset and green eyes shows him mercy.
For six years she visits him in secret, giving him hope where none existed before.
But Ruith hides many treacherous things that threaten to bring the Kingdom to its knees.
Until the Prince and his beastly curse are released.
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AMAZON US
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Rain'n'books 
Great review! Perhaps this should be my first book sirens book
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Thank You Juliana, the writing was something else. I hope you love it.❤️
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That cover is gorgeous 😍. Definitely worthy of a star. I mostly avoid retellings because they often seem to walk down that dark path and that just leaves me cold. Thank you for your insightful review on this one!
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Beauty and the Beast is one re-telling that I always return to. But as u said, this was a grim one with an ending that I wouldn’t classify as a re-telling!🤔
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Great review! I think I’m gonna have to wait and see if we get that happy ending in the next book before picking this one up. LOL!
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Thank You, Alison. I am also waiting to see how everything will unravel in book 2😊
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