[Book Review] The Beast’s Heart

Title: The Beast’s Heart
Author: Leife Shallcross
Pages: 403
Genre: Fantasy, Classic Retelling, Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This is an Advanced Readers Copy. That means that this is not the final version of the book and some facts and quotes are subject to change in the published book.

Release date: 2/12/2019

This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast but only from the Beast’s point of view. It is quite well written and we get way much more detail than from any retelling before. The plot moved very quickly with the Beast meeting Isabeau right in the beginning. She was then given a choice to stay or go in the Beast’s castle and the potential love story evolved. This story concentrated on life outside of the castle as well as the inner turmoils inside.

Oh No’s

This book felt like it was more about the sister’s than the Beast and Isabeau. We kept watching this family ‘move on’ and it was not something I was interested in reading about at all. I’m happy the subplot combined together in the end and the last quarter of the book was at least great to read.

The chapters are very repetitive. Isabeau goes for a walk, Beast is nice to Isabeau, Isabeau has a bad dream, it all goes down hill. Every single chapter. Nothing changed except the subplot of Isabeau’s family, which was equally boring. It was just a shame that all Isabeau seemed to do was cry the whole time until the end.

Yay’s

I loved the Beast’s transformation in the beginning. Such a great catching first couple chapters. I loved it and it caught my attention. The end was also pretty good.

I loved Isabeau in the beginning of the book. She seemed to have such vigor and thoughtfulness. She then lost all of her shine as the book went on and she just turned into a sobbing mess. But, in the end, she redeemed herself by being amazing. It was a really good retelling but the character development was really weird.

Finally,

This book was a good read if you are obsessed with the story of Beauty and the Beast. If you read A Court of Thorns and Roses you will definitely see a connection to how it was a retelling. As for mid-entertainment, that was thoroughly lacking.

Favorite Quote

“But, knowing what I know now, I have a notion this thing, this very small thing I had so clumsily overlooked, was something akin to setting light to a wick that burns away with a tiny flame until it finally reaches the powder keg and sets the world on fire.”

ARC

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-PM