There is a certain art in taking a beloved childhood movie and rewriting it, making the themes a lot more serious without making it feel like a completely different story altogether!

I think this book has all the charm of the original while also a lot more tension and rounding out the familiar characters!

I could not put this book down. Braswell's retelling is one of the best ones I've read yet.

Not only does she incorporate the Disney movie so seamlessly that you can practically see the specific scenes playing in front of you and hear the original voice actors speaking the lines, she also gives us an amazing backstory. We see how Belle's parents met and fell in love, the events that led up to the young Prince being cursed, and how Belle goes about breaking it. Braswell jumps back and forth through fairytale history to weave this twisted, enchanting tale As Old as Time.

I had been questioning if I would even enjoy this book, due to putting it off for so long I believed it would seem childish and boring to me. This was not at all the case. The story is so unlike the original, so entirely unique, it's amazingly thought through.

The definition of I don't how to feel. There are some core elements of the book I really liked once everything came together but I really felt let down by the first half of the book.

I'll start with the negatives first. My first negative is the beginning of the book, we did not get enough build up and it felt like it was going for a whole knew Twisted story whilst also trying to stick to the movie. It might just be my taste personally but I just couldn't get into it at all which didn't help with the fact that the characters personality felt off. Really did pick up for me in the second half though.

Did not like the characterisation of Belle at the beginning of the book. The Beast was understandble as that's the whole point of the original movie but Belle didn't feel like herself. It was like she was one of the people who constantly critise the story. Her hostility to the servants was also weird as in the films even when she didn't know they were cursed, she trusted the servants a lot more than the beast. It unfortunately spoilt my enjoyment a lot.

Finally, I appreciate the story they were trying to tell but it should have been longer with more chapters from The Enchantress pov. There's a lot Braswell could have done with this narrative but I feel like she didn't do enough. The Enchantress being Belles mother was just their for motivation. I would have loved more flashbacks and a longer established redemption and apology for literally cursing an eleven year old boy. I loved the Enchantress in this but I was expecting more.

Positives, this one actually bumped up my enjoyment of the book and gained it half a star. The mystery of what happened to the Encharmtes is a huge hook in the book and leads to some dark, shocking and disturbing. We know some stuff but don't know everything until we're trying to solve the mystery with Belle and Beast. I truly never expected things to go so dark and that's good because a good mystery needs to leave you speechless when you get the answers you were searching for. 
If your a parent do not give this to your child if they're not 15 as this is definitely for older YA readers. Stuff gets dark really part and that was a huge hook for me.

As well as being probably one of the Darkest Beauty And The Beasts retellings it leans into heavy subliminal messaging and has a good moral to pass onto the readers. As a marginalised person the treatment of the Encharmtes hit deep. No more beauty is found within being the only message, we also learn how important to not harm or hurt people we do not understand. It's especially relevant to what's happening in modern times with political leaders but I won't spoil. Its so important that media starts teaching our youth that difference is not less or scary through the Encharmtes. Braswell doesn't execute this perfectly but she does it in a respectful and sensitive way.

Finally, I'd say I loved the fact that the horrors of the curse was developed more. The live action film touched on it a little bit but this really leans into it and it allows for High Stakes as the novel processes. Won't spoil but it creates some really suspenseful and horrifying moments that Disney would never even consider putting on the big screen. I'm also impressed that this is written well in a way that doesn't bleed into the adult genre instead of YA. 

Overall not the best but it was enjoyable and made me think a lot. Definitely recommend checking out if your a Beauty And The Beast fan but maybe pass if your not into dark stories with real life undertones.

I picked this book because it was the highest rated of this series and Beauty and the Beast is one of my faves. This story is similar to canon, though definitely diverges and heads towards an alternate ending. It was way too long; four hours in, I realized that the book was four hours too long. A major focus of the story was Belle learning about how complicated her mother was, but I didn’t feel like any of the other characters had greater depth than the original movie gives. The past storyline was interesting. Check the trigger warnings because there’s some dark stuff going on. Overall, I am not sure I enjoyed the reading of this book, and I don’t see myself reading the others unless they are much shorter.

The ending is a bit of a bummer, it still has a lot of creativity, and it addresses the hiccups in a more fascinating fashion.