Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Although I'm not so charmed by the original story, I do have a weird preference toward Beauty and the Beast retellings. This one takes place in Emberfall, a fantastical land that exists parallel to the world as we know it. In a twist of fate, Harper finds herself taken captive by a prince who is trying desperately to break the curse bestowed on him by an evil enchantress - either for himself or to save his kingdom.
I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I liked Harper as a female lead. I thought she was interesting, and she had values that weren't just forgotten about because of her attraction to a man. I also liked that BEGIN SPOILER she didn't end up falling in love with him. Too often I think these stories make the romance too strong too fast, and this slow buildup gives the series an opportunity to grow that romance slowly END SPOILER. I appreciated the dual perspectives, and I really liked how we got some of the monster's perspective. I am a big MCU fan, so I couldn't help comparing Harper, Rhen, and the Monster to Black Widow, Bruce Banner and the Hulk. I also got some Asgardian vibes in the beginning, with Rhen as Thor, Grey as Loki, and Lilith as Hela. But again, I'm just a huge fan of the MCU, so I am constantly looking for connections like these.
I think it's interesting that this is one Beauty and the Beast retelling where the romance isn't the main plot point. Most of the story revolves around the coming war, saving the kingdom, and fooling enemies of the throne using espionage and deceit. I struggle between whether to say this is a loose retelling or not. The curse and enchantress part of the storyline is very strong and drives most of the plot. But the banter/romance between Rhen and Harper is not near pronounced enough for this to be a true Beauty and the Beast retelling.
The critiques I have for this book are small but many. There are just a lot of little specific details that were incongruous or frustrating to me. For example, the whole thing with Harper wanting to meet with Lilith. Rhen and Grey literally both tell her multiple times, "hey that's a really bad idea and she's horrible and she won't cooperate with you and it'll end badly." But Harper ignores them and meets with Lilith anyway, and then she has the audacity to say, "I had no idea she would be like this." Like they hadn't just told her! I liked Harper as a character for the most part, and I hate it when there's just one thing a character does that makes you lose faith in their competence. The second detail that didn't sit well with me is how Rhen, Harper and Grey all swear that Rhen really does care about Emberfall when all evidence points to the contrary. Pretty much the whole time he doesn't extend any help to the people, claiming that there's no use and it won't help, so he just sits up in his super nice castle trying to get women to fall in love with him. He has no faith in his abilities to fend off the attacking armies, and with good reason, since he hasn't even tried to do anything for the defense of Emberfall in the past century. The last thing that was contradictory was how Grey, Rhen, and Harper all claim that Rhen is constantly 20 moves ahead of his opponents in anything he does, but then we don't really see that. He's maybe one move ahead sometimes. I can't help just think of Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows. There's a character who is always 20 steps ahead, and that's what I was expecting when Rhen was described that way and then it was just a let-down.
4 stars for an interesting, new take on Beauty and the Beast. It left off on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I can't say that by the time the second book is released I will still be invested enough in the story to read it.
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