This was so fun! I love the gender-swapped take on Beauty and the Beast. It's a great retelling and I enjoyed these characters.

thank you to netgalley, rebellion | solaris and author jane linwood for this ARC of this book.
this book arrives march 15, 2025.
this wasn’t for me.
and i did invest time and even money to making sure i gave this book a fair shot. this book was given free for the review but i did buy the first to make sure i had all i needed.
this was a rough and unhelpful start as i really did not like book one. and my qualms with book one continue to book two. there’s so many story lines around and none of them engage me. the idea is up my alley but i cannot get into these.
unfortunately for me, i did not like these but am sure it will find its audience.

Thank you Jade Linwood, Rebellion and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in return for my honest review.

To keep it short, I DNFd it at 31%. I was confused a majority of the read. It felt like there were too many 3rd person povs to keep track of. I wanted to like because beauty and the beast is my favorite fairy tale. I was also still determined to read the book even after finding out it was book two and I hadn’t read book one. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t keep going.

This was a fun story. The amount of widespread fairy tale characters who were drawn into the story was delightful, and I enjoyed the way they were all reimagined - Rapunzel as a sorceress, Belle as faerie-touched, Goldilocks as a powerful but untrained witch - even Puss in Boots makes her cleverly -wrought appearance.
Prince Charming’s thread was my favorite of the colorful tapestry of the story. Watching his growth as the story progressed was a joy, and I definitely found myself rooting for the Flynn-Ryder-esque rogue. I was hooked all the way through to the end!

If you love a retelling of a fairy tale then this one is for you. A fun fast pace read with all the fairy tale tropes we all know and love.

Although I didn't know that there was a book one, I think as it is a retelling as a reader you are familiar with the characters so instantly makes you feel comfortable reading it.

It is an easy read and one to read if you need to escape reality for a little while.

This retelling had some great twists and turns and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a fairy tale. Thank you to NetGally and Jane Linwood for my advanced copy.

Ohhhh I did not like this at all. I like a good fairy tale retelling but it didn’t really seem like the author added anything super groundbreaking to the story. The writing seemed juvenile as well

I enjoyed this book way more than the first as the reader you knew what the heroes were working towards way more clearer.
This also helped to follow along the shifting of pov’s and stories as there were quite a lot going on.
I did also love Charming having somewhat of an redemption arc but still am bit annoyed the fact that his brother has been mentioned a lot since 1st book but we know almost nothing else about him and his story.
I do think it is a very fun fairytale twist and found it exciting to guess what fairytale a character is from whenever someone new was introduced to us

Dare I say I think I like this more than the original? This gender-bent take on Beauty and the Beast is the epitome of romance. It's been a long time since a book has truly felt romantic to me and this wonderful story gave me all the feels I was hoping for. I love that the author continued the story from book one while also adding a new plot line with new characters while still managing to thread the two together perfectly. I love all of the characters and I looked forward to reading each POV (which I think is rare with books that contain multiple POVs.) The original story of Beauty and the Beast has been transformed into something truly unique.

3.5 rounded up!

I enjoyed Beast but admittedly not as much as I enjoyed Charmed. I wasn't as invested in the princesses this time around, although I did like the subplot between Marie and Red Cap and would like to explore that more.

This book made me like Charming, which I didn't think would happen. I love the relationship between him and Beast and would have gladly read an entire novel with just the two of them.

I'm looking forward to the next book and I really hope Charming and Beast have a future

My initial reason for chosing this book is because it is a gender reversal retelling and our FMC is the Beast not the MMC. This entire series is the same with gender-reversed roles and I am here for it!

The humor in this book is the best part to be honest Jade was able to write a fairytale based book that has moments of making fun of said fairytales. If I had to describe this book it would be a captive dating game where the men get trapped with their potential lady, except the lady could rip them to shreds.

In this story, the Beast is a woman. Or, WAS a woman? She's faces a similar curse as we've seen before, though the details aren't clear to us or the inhabitants of her world. Her world also has variations of Prince Charming, Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretal, Merida, Snow White, Rapunzel, and more. There is humor and a sweet love story along with redemption, and it ends on a cliffhanger that has me impatient to read the next book!!

Thank you to Rebellion/Solaris and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I had read the first book in the series and enjoyed that so I was delighted to be able to read this one early too, Having a take on Beauty and the Beast is always fun and I was delighted that it was not solely focused there but did bring in the main characters of Charming. It also brought in more fairy tales like Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and Goldilocks. I was able to read this in a day as I had a long flight and it kept me engaged. I am curious if there will be more since there are some plot threads left hanging which could be explored in another book. I would give this 4 stars.

If you want a short read and like fairytale retellings this one is worth it. The writing is easy and enjoyable. I did want a little more from the story which is why I didn't rate it higher but I will continue to read from this author.

3.5⭐️


Lo disfruté, pero no me encantó.

Pensé que sería en retelling de la bella y la bestia y si bien si trata sobre esto, siento que al tener tantos personajes se pierde la esencia de esta historia y se vuelva una mezcla de varias cosas.



Gracias NetGalley por el ARC a cambio de una opinión honesta.

Well, this certainly was not what I was expecting.

From its premise, I expected a romantic gender flipped retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Being my favourite fairytale, I was excited to dive into the book and read it from an angle I had not considered before.

However, I quickly understood that this was the second in the series. In order to give this book full justice, I did read the first book. However, this endeavour did not change the overall confusion and dissatisfaction in Beast.

The plot includes different aspects and characters of multiple fairytales, and I personally felt this took away from the beauty and the beast aspect and was jarring at times. It made the romance seem lackluster and underdeveloped.

However, there are some positive aspects like how the author consistently inject humour into dialogue and character interactions. And it must be considered that it is no easy feat to marry multiple characters and storylines into one book.

If I can sum it up - this feels a little bit like a written play or musical except in a novel. While it personally wasn't for me, I can see how this may be appealing to other readers.

Spice: 0/5
Plot and writing: 2/5
Overall: 2.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publishers for generously providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review

Being a giant fairytale fan, I love getting my hands on any and all and retellings!! And this was a joy to read! Loved it through and through.

I love nothing more than a good fairytale retelling and I thought that this one sounded even more interesting than they usually are! It’s basically a gender swap version of Beauty and the Beast, and yet it’s actually book 2 in a series? I don’t think you need to have read the first book, but things are a little confusing at the beginning getting to know all the characters and how they know each other.

There’s a bunch of different princesses (Snow White, Rapunzel etc) and they all know Prince Charming from their previous encounters with him where, from what I understood, he helped them when they were in danger/need, and yet somehow also conned them out of money/land/a happy ending?
I don’t really know because it was a bit confusing with the story jumping around everywhere and the multiple POVs, but it was still really fun and super fast paced to read!

If you’ve watched the film beauty and the beast you kinda already know what to expect, the plot follows the same direction with a few deviations and plot twists to keep things interesting. Like I said, it is a gender swap but with the beast being more like Belle and Charming being a little more like Gaston for some reason.
I think it was a really interesting take on such a classic book and worth a read!

Sinopsis en español:


El ex estafador Jean-Marc Charming Arundel, Príncipe Azul, para sus amigos, tiene una cita que mantener con un demonio. Viajando a través de un antiguo bosque embrujado por lobos y osos, huye de una tormenta repentina hacia una hermosa mansión. Allí, se encuentra como un invitado involuntario de una bestia temible: una noble transformada por una maldición de hadas, tan prisionera en la casa como él.

Charming y sus dos compañeros "invitados", Johannes y Wilhelm, deben asistir a la Bestia en entornos extrañamente románticos: leer libros junto al fuego, hacer un picnic en una colección de animales, una cena formal, por lo que son recompensados con misteriosos regalos de rosas rojas. ¿Pero con qué fin? ¿Y cuándo serán liberados? El reloj está corriendo, y más que solo su propia vida depende de ello...



Reseña:

Un libro entretenido, chistoso continua continúa con las aventuras del príncipe Encantador, ahora se enfrenta a un tipo concurso, en combinación al cuento de la bella y la bestia.



Gracias NetGalley por el ARC.

*The Beast* offers a gender-swap take on Beauty and the Beast and a nod to other fairytales. However, don’t go in expecting an exact gender-swap. The charming bits of Beauty are not as noticeable in Prince Charming who is described as "a cad, a traitor, a conman”. Beast reminds me more of Belle since she’s a reader, and is sensitive and caring.

This is a very short book with a light, casual writing style. *Beast* had a great premise and great characters, but the wealth of side plots made it hard to truly connect to the characters.
A cute, fun read for fairytale lovers, though it may leave you wanting more.

Thank you to Rebellion and to NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review!

Beast is a solid continuation of the Charming series, with a central plot that gives this sequel a distinct feeling compared to its predecessor. I don’t think it was as well polished as book 1, and felt a bit clunky and rushed in comparison; it's still well worth reading if you enjoyed the first book, as a lot of the hallmarks of what made Charming great are still there.

This sequel sees Prince Charming get ensnared in a hidden mansion in the woods, where the mistress of the house has been cursed and turned into a beast. What follows is an entertaining spoof of The Bachelor, where Charming is competing against other captive suitors for the Lady of the House’s favour (whilst they all look for escape opportunities in the background). Jade Linwood shows off her skills at differentiating characters once more, creating three distinct ‘competitors’ whose personalities keep the plot fresh and interesting throughout. I can’t help but feel that, despite the fun premise, Charming as a character doesn’t get the opportunity to shine at all in this narrative. He has far less opportunity to be the cunning, sneaky piece of work we see in the first book, which is a shame as that was a real highlight of the first book for me.

For the book’s short runtime, I felt that too many characters were shoehorned into the plot. The inclusion of new fairy-tale characters into the plot was well done, and I really enjoyed seeing how different fairy tales could be drawn into the world of Charming. The problem for me was how many characters were also carried over from the first book, when perhaps leaving some of them on the side-lines for book 2 might have helped the story feel more focused. The book is over in a flash with a very quick resolution, and with the number of characters present in the final chapters I felt completely overwhelmed keeping everyone in check. What I really wish for would be a longer book 3 that gives room for all these good characters to have their storylines developed, without them treading on each other’s toes!