I feel pretty "meh" about this book. I enjoyed the author's previous book "Revolution" and have heard great things about her other work. It felt like she was writing to someone else's outline on this one, not up to her usual skills. Honestly, I've read better-written fanfiction. Sorry, Ms. Donnelly!

Such a sweet and beautiful story! It adds more depth to the relationship of Belle and the Beast, not to mention the cute encounters with the magical objects! There is also an ice skating scene!

3.65* I really liked the voice of the person reading it on the audiobook

Lovely fairytale! I almost wish they had done this as a prequel film and left the original alone. Great fun, great to see the characters interact in a new way, also an introduction to some very interesting new characters like Love and Death. I loved the whole concept of this story, even though I don't think it works as cannon. Great for late elementary, early middle school and up. Short, sweet read. Also, the cover art is GORGEOUS!

2.5 stars
you can't read a fairy tale retelling and call it childish but it was

This book was working off the latest Beauty and the Beast movie and promised to focus on an enchanted book. Silly me, I thought we would be talking about the traveling book from the movie since this is exactly where this book picks up. Oh no, the enchanted book here is called Nevermore and has nothing to do with the traveling book from the film. Major letdown since there was huge potential in writing more about that as a plot hole filler for the adventurous spirit of Belle agreeing to stay with the Beast. Nevermore boosts the danger of being sucked in by deception and focuses on the art of Love and Death.
I’m disappointed in this authors lack of faith in the reader of not being smart enough to figure out what’s going on in Nevermore. Belle and the Beast are in France, yet the author thinks it’s clever to veil the characters names in French. Since Belle herself is French and would know the French meanings of these evildoers names like the “Comtesse of the Land of the Dead” or “Informer” or “Duke of Things Past”.
This author had way too many mistakes, plot holes and in general, disregarded the plot of the exact movie she was building her story from. It’s really a shame because if she told us more about the traveling book and kept with the plot, that would have been a fantastic addition to a story we know and love while filling in some desperately needed plot holes.

3.5

2.5

Taking place in the days Belle lives at the Beast's castle before they become good friends, Lost in a book gives the reader a more detailed look at the Beast's curse and the battle between Love and Death.
Belle enters a magical world when she opens the pages of Nevermore. Inside this book she can experience all the adventures she has always longed for. Belle must decide what is real, what is fake, and who she wants to be in life.

I feel like this book started out pretty good but then just got worse and more rushed as the plot thickened. I suppose this would be the perfect book for people that love Beauty and the Beast, Alice and Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz because that is what this wound up being a combination of. I also think this would have been much better without being Beauty and the Beast — if it was its own stand alone novel. It felt too much like a published fan fiction. It would have made more sense if Nevermore was the book Beast showed Belle to take her to Paris in the live action movie. She would have just kept going back and that’s how all of this happened instead of her finding another book. I think that would have tied into the storyline better and made more sense later when Belle got trapped and everyone was trying to find her.