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

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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

Roseblood

Book Review

Title: Roseblood

Author: A.G. Howard

Rating: ★★★

Date Published: January 10, 2017

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Page Count: 432

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Synopsis:

In this modern day spin on Leroux’s gothic tale of unrequited love turned to madness, seventeen-year-old Rune Germain has a mysterious affliction linked to her operatic talent, and a horrifying mistake she’s trying to hide. Hoping creative direction will help her, Rune’s mother sends her to a French arts conservatory for her senior year, located in an opera house rumored to have ties to The Phantom of the Opera. 

At RoseBlood, Rune secretly befriends the masked Thorn—an elusive violinist who not only guides her musical transformation through dreams that seem more real than reality itself, but somehow knows who she is behind her own masks. As the two discover an otherworldly connection and a soul-deep romance blossoms, Thorn’s dark agenda comes to light and he’s forced to make a deadly choice: lead Rune to her destruction, or face the wrath of the phantom who has haunted the opera house for a century, and is the only father he’s ever known

My Thoughts:

I received an Ecopy from NetGalley and Abrams in exchange for an honest review. 

When I saw that my favorite author was releasing a new novel, I was beyond excited; when I read it was a Phantom of the Opera retelling my excitement was at an all time high. A.G. Howard has a way of taking a story and making it completely unique and her own. Unfortunately, it was very difficult for me to get invested in the story.  I gave this novel three stars because it just did not meet my expectations, I love Howard, I loved her Splintered series and I was hoping to love this novel as much as I do that series, but it just did not do it for me.

In this retelling the main character is not the Phantom, it is Rune who is the Christine in our story, she has the beautiful gift of music, but as of late it has become more of a curse, she has no idea where her “gift” came from or why she has it. I enjoyed reading about Rune, she had amazing character growth throughout the novel, I liked learning where her gift came from and seeing her take control of it.  

Thorn is our love interest and the reason I kept going, I wanted to know everything about his broken and mysterious past! Unfortunately, there wasn’t as many chapters with him as I would have liked, but the ones he was in would suck me in and had me turning the page wanting more.

The main reason I didn’t give this novel more stars was because it was a very slow, it took me a month to get trough it and it usually takes me a week to finish a novel that size. The story did not catch my attention until more than halfway in, that’s when the story got very fast paced. I think Howard concentrated a lot in the character growth and that is not necessarily a bad thing, but it did make for a very slow-paced novel.  

SandraTheBookWorm

The Deadbringer

 Book Review

Title: The Deadbringer

Author: E. M. Markoff

Rating: ★★★★

Date Published: May, 2016

Publisher: Tomes & Coffee Publishing

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Page Count: 298

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Synopsis:

In the aftermath of the Purging, the Deadbringers are no more. The Ascendancy has positioned itself as the land’s dominant power by exploiting the people’s fear of the Deadbringers’ innate abilities to summon souls and reanimate the dead. Yet its hold is not complete, for in the North the Bastion stands in the way of the Ascendancy and its iron-willed elite soldiers, the Sanctifiers.

But, somehow, a single Deadbringer has managed to survive. Kira Vidal, a boy of fifteen, has remained hidden, living peacefully with his uncle in the northern city of Opulancae under the Bastion’s protection. But it seems their luck is at an end when rumors begin to spread, and a strange man shows up at their door, seeking the forbidden services of a Deadbringer.

Aware of the dangers should word of his nature reach the Ascendancy, Kira makes a promise to himself to protect his beloved uncle at all costs, even if it means pursuing the limits of his powers … and learning painful truths.

My Thoughts:

I was sent a copy by the author in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me hooked from chapter one! I loved the creepy factor and the way our main character Kira can bring the dead back to life. The author did so much character building in this book and I loved it, we get to know Kira and the other characters so well throughout the book; I also really liked that she gave us information on the characters slowly throughout the chapters and didn't just dump a lot of info all at once that we would later forget. Markoff did an amazing job at world building that at times I felt like I was there with the character myself. I really enjoyed that this book was told from multiple POV and I loved every single one of them, but I really became intrigued with one character in particular and that was E'Sinea! Gah, I just couldn't get enough of him. Markoff hit me with some twists at the end that I just did not see coming and that left me begging for more! I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel and see where the author will take us! The only reason I didn't give this novel five stars was because towards the middle it got a little slow, but it quickly picked right up again and Markoff gave me the gory scenes I was looking for. If you have yet to pick this novel, I highly recommend it! It's the perfect read for this month or if you're just in the mood for a dark fantasy. 

-SandraTheBookWorm