This month I've been reading mainly retellings, and this one so far is probably my favorite of the month. There have been a lot of Beauty and the Beast retellings lately, especially thanks to Disney's live adaption that was released this past March. I like that Michaels put her own spin to the original and made it very fresh.

This is set during modern day society in a little town in Georgia (very Riverdaleesque). Bellamy is a high school student just trying to survive since everyone thinks her father is crazy and makes fun of her for it. To help out with finances around the house, Bellamy takes a summer job as a nanny for the Baldwin family. (Remember that movie with Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer? Beastly? Kinda got that vibe a little bit) Once she starts working there is really when the plot starts to take shape and move along. As much as I enjoyed the book, it almost seemed as if it was on a rotating checklist. For a few chapters we will focus on the relationship between Bellamy and Tate. Then we will rotate to the ghosts haunting the house. Then we will go back to Bellamy and Tate for awhile. Then back to the mystery. You get the idea. Overall though Michaels tied everything up very neatly and all the different checklists merged into one for the climax. The ending kind of dragged a little bit for me after everything was resolved, but the author sets it up for the next book. Thankfully, the author didn't leave us on a cliffhanger it's more of a Nancy Drew type of situation where each book will be it's own mystery for our MC's to unravel. 

Overall, I really enjoyed how Michaels interwove the original story with her own. She gave us just the right amount of elements from the original that we love and gave her own spin to make a fresh new story. Also, I liked how Bellamy is a person of color and not just your stereotypical white girl with blonde hair main character with parental issues. I also liked how then the author incorporated an inter-racial relationship. As I am part of one myself, it made the story a bit more relatable (minus the ghost seeing part).

This was definitely an original take on a beauty and the beast retelling. Definitely wasn’t expecting ghosts and corruption but it was fairly decent. I liked parts of it but other parts were a bit flat. I think Bellamy liked Tate a bit too quickly to feel natural for me. I also have a huge beef with the only descriptors for the little sister Emma pointing out how pretty she is. She’s also fun, feisty, sweet, and silly but all that is pointed out is that she’s pretty. For a retelling of a story about focusing on what’s on the inside instead of the outside, it felt a bit off. I have similar complaints for Bellamy always being described as beautiful and rarely anything else. Also, the trope of the main female character never thinking/realizing she’s beautiful was a bit overdone.

All in all, decent enough read with an interesting spin on a much loved fairy tale.

Well, it was free.

And also it wans't bad at all. I really liked the plot,since it had a lot of themes. First paranormal (the ghosts), then a mystery and a crime to be solved, then the retelling of Beauty and a Beast (my personal favorite). It all combined turned out to be pretty good. I liked the relationship between Bellamy and Tate and it resembled a lot the original story, with the rose petals, the roughness of the Brute (a.k.a Tate), the Beast that turned out to have a soft heart and a romantic soul, that was buried underneath all the layers of ugliness. Altough it technically came from a curse, I enjoyed the fact that what cause his ugliness was a disease, because it turned the fantastic a little bit more realistic. Belammy was brave and fearless and even when her life was threatened she still wanted to do the right thing. I loved that she wasn't a stereotypical black charachter!! The fact that the writer kept saying how much beautiful she was got me like "YAAAAS, she is beautiful."
I saw comments saying that the moment the romance entered the room, the crime was put in second place, but I have to disagree. Even though they had their special moment (cof cof), the focus was still getting justice. The only thing I disliked was the dramatic scene at the end, the description of the fight with Lincoln was way to loooong and therefore boring. It seemed a bit out of place, because it added unnecessary drama to a storyline that was literally almost finished.

3.5/5

This book was utterly refreshing. I love a little ghost story with my romance and the cherry on top was the mystery that unfolded. I LOVE that there were no steamy sex scenes that last the chapter long, but there was romance and tender moments. It is hard to find in books today. This is a book I can share with my daughter without scarring her. Great read!

Loved this!

I enjoyed it a lot. It got a bit sensational at times, but still digestible.

Beauty and the Beast retelling with a ghost twist!!

I liked the plot and the characters. I was really interested in the story and enjoyed reading the book. The thing that really bugged me was the writing. Sometimes I had to reread a sentence multiple times because the sentence didn’t make sense. Another thing that drove me nuts was that the setting would change to 3 days into the future and you wouldn’t even realize until 2 paragraphs down. I understand that the author didn’t have to start a new chapter, but please make it clear that this isn’t the same scene anymore.