Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge

Book Review

Title: Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge

Author: Lisa Jensen

Rating: ★★★★

Date Released: July 10,2018

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Page Count: 352

Meet the Author: Blog, Facebook

Buy the Book: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository

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Synopsis:

Filled with magic and fierce emotion, Lisa Jensen's multilayered novel will make you question all you think you know about beauty, beastliness, and happily ever after.

They say Château Beaumont is cursed. But servant-girl Lucie can’t believe such foolishness about handsome Jean-Loup Christian Henri LeNoir, Chevalier de Beaumont, master of the estate. But when the chevalier's cruelty is revealed, Lucie vows to see him suffer. A wisewoman grants her wish, with a spell that transforms Jean-Loup into monstrous-looking Beast, reflecting the monster he is inside. But Beast is nothing like the chevalier. Jean-Loup would never patiently tend his roses; Jean-Loup would never attempt poetry; Jean-Loup would never express remorse for the wrong done to Lucie. Gradually, Lucie realizes that Beast is an entirely different creature from the handsome chevalier, with a heart more human than Jean-Loup’s ever was. Lucie dares to hope that noble Beast has permanently replaced the cruel Jean-Loup — until an innocent beauty arrives at Beast’s château with the power to break the spell.

My Thoughts:

I was sent an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

I feel like in the past one and a half years a ton of Beauty and the Beast retellings have been released and I have made it a goal to read every single one. why? because it is my all-time favorite fairy tale and I never get tired of reading different takes on it. I do have to say that this is one of the darkest retellings I have read so far, it concentrates more on the monstrous aspect of the tale. There are some triggers that I feel I should warn some readers about one is a rape scene, it isn't extremely graphic, but it doesn't shy away either. There is also a suicide attempt. 

This tale is told by Lucie a chamber maiden who has been sent to the Chateau by her mother after her father’s death. Lucie is soon entranced by the Chateaus owners’ beauty, but she soon finds out that he is truly evil and vows that she would see him suffer until the end of his days. Soon enough an enchantress grants Lucie’s wish and turns Jean-Loup into a hideous beast, showing the world how ugly he is in the inside by his appearance. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, I did cry and had to put the book down for a few after the rape scene, but I decided to keep going and I'm glad that I did. This is a book that if I go into too many details I will spoil, but I will say that the Beast and Jean-Loup are polar opposites and after reading a while I did not even remember Jean-Loup. Lucie was a very hard character to connect with and it took me a while to like her, I felt like all she concentrated for a good part of the book was her revenge, but as the book progressed her growth started to be more apparent, she began to see that she was more than what happened to her, she started to gain confidence in herself and began to make her way into my heart. What I really liked about this novel was the different direction the author took the beloved fairy tale and how she truly made it her own, also the ending, which of course I will not go into details about, but will say that it was not something I saw coming! I loved the note the author included at the end, which explained why she decided to write this dark tale the way she did. I will say that this book is not for everyone, but I do recommend it and if you do decide to pick it up I really really suggest you finish it, it is worth it. 

SandraTheBookWorm