The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: A Tale of Beauty and Beast: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Series: Beyond the Four Kingdoms #2

Author: Melanie Cellier

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Clean Romance

Rating: 4.25 stars

Review:

Princess Sophia has helped her twin sister Lily save the duchy of Marin. But now Sophie faces an even greater threat when she sets out to free the cursed kingdom of Palinar from its beastly prince. Alone, and with danger on every side, Sophie must navigate a magical castle and its even more mysterious master to discover the secret to breaking the curse.

Except the more time she spends with Prince Dominic, the more she starts to question who exactly she’s supposed to be saving. With time running out for the trapped inhabitants, and the reappearance of an old enemy, Sophie may have to choose between saving the kingdom and following her heart. – summary from Goodreads

This was a nice Beauty and the Beast retelling!

This book follows Sophie after she wins the Princess Tourney and is betrothed to the beastly Crown Prince of Palinar. She travels across a wasteland full of rabid beasts to a castle with invisible inhabitants and the beastly prince.

This reminded me a lot of the Disney Beauty and the Beast, but with more fleshed out characters and slightly more realistic magic system and a curse that had more of a purpose.

The reason behind Dominic’s curse is actually very sad and shows how you learn things from your parents. It also shows, to a minor degree, the consequences of inaction. There was also a little more sense as to why Dominic was cursed, than I have seen in other iterations of this story, which I really liked. Especially in the Disney version, I think the punishment was extreme for the crime.

I don’t know why I thought this, but I viewed Sophie as the milder of the two sisters, and I was pleasantly surprised. Sophie had this backbone that I really enjoyed. She made it very clear, while still being kind, that she was not a prisoner and she was going to be treated with respect, and when she was treated poorly, she would leave the conversation. I really liked that part of the book, and how the Beauty was given a little bit more of a character.

I also think the character growth that we see throughout this book follows a more realistic timeline than is commonly seen. As an added bonus both Sophie and Dominic go through character growth. Sophie has to find out who she is away from her sister, and she works on being open minded, while Dominic works on letting go of his anger and pride. This growth comes with setbacks and successes, and it felt real.

I think that a lot of the romance in this book is built upon mundane moments. These moments still appeared, but they were definitely more montaged than anything else. I wish there was a little more time dedicated to these moments, but I also understand that may be a little boring to read.

I did love the parts where Sophie takes care of Dominic, and you can see the love between them growing! There were actually a lot of scenes that stood out to me! I loved the birthday, the ball, and the ending! Honestly, one of the things I think I liked about this book is the fact it feels really similar to Disney. It was cozy because of this!

I will say Melanie Cellier is a genius! She knew what she was doing by bringing up the mirrors in the first book and weaving that into this world. I’ll probably talk about it in more depth in a future review when it makes more sense, but it was truly brilliant!

I did like Dominic. I thought he was a good love interest and went through strong character growth but also didn’t completely lose himself. He is very different from Cellier’s other MMCs, but I actually enjoyed that he was more stoic and sterner.

This book did have some nice sibling relationships, between Sophie and Lily. I really enjoyed the small parts of the story where they were together. It was sweet and, again, I liked both their storylines of being their own people.

I really liked that the servants of the castle weren’t turned into objects. Small spoiler, but they essentially are moved to a different realm but are still able to interact with this realm. Basically, they’re invisible. I don’t know why, but that makes a lot more sense to me and it doesn’t feel as big as a punishment to the servants as turning into objects does. The book makes a lot more sense, but I had to share that I loved how this played out.

A Tale of Beauty and Beast is a comforting Beauty and the Beast retelling that follows Sophie as she tries to free the beastly Crown Prince of Palinar from a curse. With magic, a stoic MMC, a determined FMC, and a wonderful romance, this is the perfect cozy retelling!

Quotes:

“You were always a better person than me, Sophie. Not better, Lily. Just different.“

“If I truly believed that I had power over my own actions and choices, then my apologies and thanks couldn’t be conditional on his.”