Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fairy Tale
Content: Rape, Attempted Suicide, There could be more but I did not read the whole book.


They say Château Beaumont is cursed. But servant-girl Lucie can’t believe such foolishness about handsome Jean-Loup Christian Henri LeNoir, Chevalier de Beaumont, master of the estate. But when the chevalier's cruelty is revealed, Lucie vows to see him suffer. A wisewoman grants her wish, with a spell that transforms Jean-Loup into monstrous-looking Beast, reflecting the monster he is inside. But Beast is nothing like the chevalier. Jean-Loup would never patiently tend his roses; Jean-Loup would never attempt poetry; Jean-Loup would never express remorse for the wrong done to Lucie. Gradually, Lucie realizes that Beast is an entirely different creature from the handsome chevalier, with a heart more human than Jean-Loup’s ever was. 

*This review contains a few spoilers*
 
This is a different sort of version of Beauty and the Beast, and I was really into this book in the beginning, but then at around the 12% mark the prince who later is turned into the beast rapes Lucie. It was rather shocking and unexpected and I just couldn't see how he could ever be redeemed. How was Lucie supposed to later fall in love with this person? So I put the book aside and looked at some reviews that other people had posted. After reading quite a few of them I was able to understand how Lucie falls for the beast. This is a situation where the prince and the beast are two different people. The best comparison I can think of right now is when Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde. Only in this book the beast is the true form and the handsome prince is the monstrous imposter.

I did pick this up again and skim through it near the end, but I just didn't really care for this version of the story very much. I wasn't crazy about the idea that "Beauty" -Rose in this book- was not the person who ended up with the beast, and I wasn't crazy about the idea that a human woman ends up with a beast either.

Thanks to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for providing me with a copy of this book.