Author: Jenni James
Publication: June 4th, 2012
Series: Faerie Tale Collection #1
Source: Inter-library loan
Read: February 1st- February 2nd 2014
Summary (from Goodreads):
A prince by day and a wolf by night—
Prince Alexander has been turned into a werewolf and has one year to find someone to love the beast and break the spell, or he will be a wolf forever. He has nearly given up achieving the impossible, knowing no girl would ever fall in love with such a monster.
Just when he is about to abdicate the throne to his cousin, he meets Cecelia Hammerstein-Smythe, while a wolf, and begins to hope for the first time in months. Can he balance both worlds as a human and beast, gaining the love and trust of a girl who has every reason to despise him?
Cecelia detests the prince. She only knows Alexander as the arrogant monarch—the tyrant who has made her life miserable—though perhaps he's changed right before her eyes. He's not as full of himself as he once was. The prince is gentle now... but then again, so is the beast.
Prince Alexander has been turned into a werewolf and has one year to find someone to love the beast and break the spell, or he will be a wolf forever. He has nearly given up achieving the impossible, knowing no girl would ever fall in love with such a monster.
Just when he is about to abdicate the throne to his cousin, he meets Cecelia Hammerstein-Smythe, while a wolf, and begins to hope for the first time in months. Can he balance both worlds as a human and beast, gaining the love and trust of a girl who has every reason to despise him?
Cecelia detests the prince. She only knows Alexander as the arrogant monarch—the tyrant who has made her life miserable—though perhaps he's changed right before her eyes. He's not as full of himself as he once was. The prince is gentle now... but then again, so is the beast.
My Thoughts:
I really debated whether to review this book or not. I decided to because I do plan to read the rest of the series, but otherwise I probably would not have reviewed this book. Beauty and the Beast by Jenni James was a book I was just kind of meh about. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.
In fact I read Beauty and the Beast in the time period of two days. By all counts it would seem like a page turner, but it is actually just a really easy read. What I look for in fairy tale retellings is complex characters, and that the author adds something new to the original story. I don't feel like Jenni James completed either of these tasks. She changed the story sure. Our Belle (Cecelia) was never trapped by the beast and our beast (Alexander) was only a beast at night (reminds me a bit of Shrek). Besides those two details I don't feel like Jenni James added much to the story.
The characters seemed pretty dull to me. It might of been that she was writing in third person which I don't always prefer, but I don't feel like she spent enough time focusing on Cecelia and Alexander's personalities.
Although I did enjoy this book I was not overly thrilled by it. I do plan to continue the series to see how the other fairy tales play out.
Rachael
I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. I've heard some mixed things about this series, so I've been wary of it. I love depth in my stories, and it sounds like it is certainly lacking here. Still, at least it was a fast read!
ReplyDeleteI'm still moving on and reading the second book. It is in for me at the library.
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