This story starts with a deceptively simple premise: an ugly girl asks a fairy to make her beautiful. Immediately, nearly every man who sees her wants to rape her, while most women want to disfigure or murder her. (Themes of sexual assault run heavily though this book). Beauty, as she is then called, is swept up by a local knight and falls in love with him. But the fairy, Mab, who gave Beauty the blessing/curse turns out to have an agenda- stirring up chaos in the mortal realm. Mab urges Beauty to aim higher than a local knight- why not the king of the land himself? Beauty meets him, and falls in love with him as well. The king is already married, to the ambitious and possibly treasonous sister of the Boar King, his rival. Beauty's king also has a sister who is much, much smarter than himself. The King's sister manipulates her brother into divorcing his first wife and marrying Beauty instead. From there things become increasingly tangled and political, as many different players strive for power over the people and the very future of the land itself. Gorgeously drawn, striking from start to finish.