Beauty’s name has always been laughable. She’s most certainly not beautiful, nor anything else you’d associate with such a name. Instead she likes to read and collect strange objects that are interesting to her. The worst thing, though, is that her older sister is indeed lovely and it seems to make the burden of her name all that much heavier.
Prince Riley hates dancing, sports, and being out with the public too much. Despite being second in line to the throne after his impressive older brother, he’s still expected to do these things – though he dreads it every time. Instead, he spends as much time as possible staring at the stars and working on alchemy to figure out the secret to eternal life, one worm at a time.
When odd circumstances force Beauty into the outside world on a expedition of sorts and Riley finds himself on the wrong end of an enchantment that makes him… well, a whole lot hairier, the question arises as to if Beauty and Riley will meet.
Can they save each other before it’s too late?
Hmm. This series frustrates me a bit. I wasn’t fan of the Twice Upon a Time retelling of Rapunzel, but I was surprised at how much more I liked the retelling of Sleeping Beauty. That made me hopeful for this take on Beauty and the Beast, since this particular fairy-tale tends to be one of my favorites.
Hmm.
Unfortunately, I was unexpectedly bored! The plot seemed empty and lacked any trace of magic for an inordinate amount of time. None of the characters stood out to me as dynamic, funny, or charming in any way. The length of time that nothing of real substance occurs is stunning to me – it got me concerned that by the time any romance or magic might kick in it would be lackluster.
And sadly, that was exactly my opinion. Since, after giving it a good one hundred pages to grab me, I was still completely unattached and had nothing compelling, fun, or intriguing to invest in, I began to skim Twice Upon a Time: Beauty and the Beast. I hate doing that, but I also feel that with as many books as I read, I don’t have enough time to force myself to read something that I have no urge to.
This is, of course, my personal opinion and I know for a FACT that there will be reader’s out there that will disagree with me – and I’m glad! I want every book to get a little bit of love!! Regrettably, my experience of the book was one of disappointment as a favorite fairy-tale was made bland and detached …
But do give it a try yourself and find out your own opinion!
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