HallowReads Review: The Beast Within: A Tale of beauty’s Prince by Serena Valentino
I was really excited to see this book on the shelf of my local Library. I’m a huge fan of Beauty and the Beast, so the thought of reading the Beasts version of one of my favorite Disney love stories mad me giddy! Unfortunately I found little enjoyment in this book.
What confuses me most about this novel was the deviation in several areas from the source material. As the movie shows The Beast was a spoiled prince who showed no compassion for a tattered old woman who came to his door seeking shelter. However this novel shows us that it was actually a plot from a young witch, who was actually the young Prince’s fiancée. After revealing himself to be fickle a curse is placed on him. He must find true love before the last petal on the rose wilts.
From here on things get even more confusing. The three sisters of the young woman who cursed him, begin to torment the beast repeatedly torturing him with dark creatures in his maze and even darker taunts.
I kept waiting for the story to switch back to Belle and the Beast and instead we see more of the Princes spoiled behavior after the curse. He gets engaged again and then promptly gets disenchanted with her due to the influence of his friend *spoiler* Gaston.
I frankly couldn't see any good qualities in the prince as he begins to spiral more and more into Beast mode. There are some really shocking actions taken by the Prince and when we finally get to the interactions with Belle there was very little romance.
I was really disappointed with the novel overall though the idea was a great one.
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