castella_and_novellas's Reviews (480)

Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge

Lisa Jensen

2.0

adventurous challenging dark lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Summary:

Lucie is a servant for the master at the Chateau Beaumont, Jean-Loup. As good looking as he is, his personality is anything but. After finding out how much of a monster he really is, Lucie swore herself to revenge to make him suffer for the rest of his days. With some magic, Lucie helped to place a curse on him to become a true monstrosity. As a Beast however, he changes into the complete opposite of his human form. Caring, sensitive, kind. It seems as if the previous Jean-Loup has been completely decimated. The only problem is- a particular lone beauty comes into their lives, threatening the peace. Lucie must find a way to stop the fairytale and never let the curse reverse.

What I Liked:

Love the concept of the book. Reading from Lucie’s perspective was such an interesting twist to the beloved classic and certainly a fresh take. The characters felt pretty fleshed out and aligned more so with the original Beauty and the Beast story rather than the Disney version. There were a couple of twists in characters that I didn’t anticipate, so the surprise was fun to read about.
The Beast? An actual sweetheart. I liked watching his character change and learning more about him as the story progressed. He is honestly what gives it the stars this book has at all.
The second half of the book flowed smoothly for me, right up till the last few chapters. It certainly helped me get through the book.
Though I greatly disliked the surprise element of rape, I think the author shined light to what a rape survivor may feel like. Wasn’t an easy read, but I did appreciate the effort looking back. I’m sure other books express the dilemma much better, but for what it is worth- I did like how it was done to a degree.

What I Didn’t Like:

The pacing in this book is completely wack, especially towards the beginning. Everything happened too quick and I felt that there were scenes that could have been edited out to prevent this from happening.
There should have been trigger warnings in the book. I was certainly surprised at the very beginning of the book seeing how cruel Jean-Loup was to Lucie. Though I understood him to be the bad guy, I didn’t know how far they were going to take that. Should have been mentioned from the start because I was going to DNF the book then and there for that surprise.
Okay, I know this is supposed to be a romance…but by the end of the book I felt that Lucie and Beast could’ve left being friends and I would have liked it more. This is coming from someone who is a sucker for romance any time I can get my hands on it. I felt chemistry, but really only on a platonic level.. Maybe I just couldn’t let myself accept that a candle holder and the Beast were falling in love.

Cover Thoughts:

Oh I like this cover a lot. The overall bordering and font fit perfectly with the Beauty and Beast setting. I also like the idea of the Beast being in the center of the rose. I don’t really like how the leaves come out from the rose though. It doesn’t seem to match the drawing of the rose very well… maybe a more minimalist approach to the leaves would have been fine (or leaving them out altogether!). The title is what made me pick this book up at the library in the first place, so as someone prone to doing cover-buys, this sold it for me. I wished the story matched the expectations on the cover, oh well.

Content Warnings

Wetter

Harper Bliss

1.0

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

This novella was quick and forgettable, just like the sex scene. If you want a good sapphic short story, there is loadsss of better ones.

Tokyo Love Story: A Manga Memoir of One Woman's Journey in the World's Most Exciting City (Told in English and Japanese Text)

Julie Blanchin Fujita

2.0

adventurous informative lighthearted fast-paced

Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits

Reese Witherspoon

4.0

informative inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Strange Planet

Nathan W. Pyle

4.0

funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Her Deadly Secrets

Laura Griffin

4.0

mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Summary:

As a private investigator, Kira Vance plays a crucial and dangerous role in helping her client get solid information to help build their case. While helping her most valuable client, she is suddenly faced one fateful night with a brutal encounter that makes her the murderer’s next target. Kira’s client believes that for the case to succeed in bringing the perpetrator down, she needs to be protected while continuing her work. In comes Jeremy Owen, a hot security specialist working with one of the finest agencies, Wolfe Security. His job? Keep Kira safe at all costs. They might have their differences, but Kira and Jeremy must work together to find the killer.

What I Liked:

I completely devoured this book in one sitting. The thriller aspect of this book was hard to put down and I could feel how tense the situation was with Kira’s life on the line. The pacing was quite fast with action happening in each chapter.
Can we talk about the bodyguard trope?? I had nearly forgotten how much I adore this trope. I have never read it before in a book, but I have seen it in movies and in video games. This book made me remember how much I loved the over protectiveness of the bodyguard to their client. The way Jeremy cares about Kira in a way that is a little more intense than his normal bodyguard jobs? Swoooooon worthy < 3
While reading, I expected to see a bit of perspective from the two love interests, but I am glad I was also treated with portions of the police’s POV. It gave a fuller picture of the investigation and helped form the overall mystery. I was still looking forward to reading from Jeremy or Kira way more, but the police segments helped a lot.

What I Didn’t Like:

(flow) Though I did like reading from the perspectives of everyone, I can’t help but think that there were better ways to transition to each person. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by romance novels that either put the name of the character’s POV in the title chapter or have different fonts when we are with a new character. But honestly! It was a little jarring at some moments when we would switch back from Kira to Jeremy in the same conversation. It didn’t distract me from the immersion, but there was always a quick moment of realization that I wasn’t in the headspace of ___ anymore.
(kinda misleading) When I found this book at my bookstore, it was under the ‘romance’ section of the selection, so naturally I expected this to be a romance. It certainly was with a couple of slightly spicy scenes, but I felt like the impact was much more from the thrill of the murder. I also thought from skimming the back of this book that the main love interest was going to be with the lawyer- totallllly off my mark there. Originally I picked it up because I thought there was going to be a PI x Lawyer romance, but that pairing isn’t what I got. Looking back, there’s no way I would’ve wanted them to be together, but still. A little mislead (but to a potentially better story~).

Cover Thoughts:

Black and white cover with hot pink text? Hellll yeah, I think the color choices are great. I don’t particularly like covers with real people on them. Much less do I like covers with eyes that stare into my soul. However, I do think that it matches the vibe of the book well. It’s tense and a bit scary, which is practically how I felt most of this book. Although it’s not my cup of tea, it does pass the vibe check.

Overall I rate this book 4/5 stars 😀 Hope to read more from the author!