When her gambling but brilliant father can't follow through on work he owns billionaire Lorcan Garbhan, Alainn Murphy ends up disguising herself as an AI robot to serve as Lorcan's own companion as he locks himself away in a tower from the rest of the world, with only robot servants as company. But as Alainn gets to know Lorcan, she realises she's not the monster she always believed him to be.

This is a slightly sci-fi esque retelling of Beauty and the Beast if it's not already obvious and think there are parts of this that worked really well. Lorcan's backstory with his germaphobic parents being the reason he doesn't leave his tower was interesting, though I do believe we could have had just that and not had him also reviled because of his scars. I would have liked Lorcan's germaphobia to have been resolved or at least some positive steps taken by the end of the book as it's clear he's been a victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

The romance in this was sweet but I would have liked more to have been developed between Alainn and Lorcan other than it just feeling like they fell for each other simply because it was just the two of them in the tower. I also wasn't §00% on Lorcan's relationship with Shelby - he dumped her fairly quickly for a robot, and that's just plain weird.

The world building was fairly poor in this book and I couldn't figure out how there were such superb AIs and a world of automatons yet the bus service was poor, and Alainn and her family were living on scraps (yes their dad was a gambler but Alainn and Colby were full grown adults). I would have liked to know more about the rest of the city and how robots helped run it and the lives of ordinary people -not just the downtrodden like the Murphy's or ultra rich like Lorcan.

The pacing in this book also felt a bit off. I did enjoy the first half of the book but then the second half was a bit clunky, and I think it was a bit too long and dragged out (we honestly didn't need any of the Rose court scenes, and I could have done without the surprise twin pregnancy reveal too).

I just. . .I couldn't. I know this is loosely based on a beauty and the beast re-telling but it just didn't work for me. The beginning had me scratching my head. The science addition was just not pulling me in. I wish I'd loved it but it felt long and I was never hooked on their story.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Retelling of Beauty and the Beat mixed with Sci-fi. I love stories that involve humanoids and this one delivered on that! I just didn't think the romance was developed enough to bring it more than 4-stars for me.

I received an ARC of Ensnared from Netgalley for free (like six years ago. Oops.) and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Ensnared was one of those books that got stuck on my Netgalley shelf years upon years ago, and I'm finally getting around to them. This is long overdue. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish it.

A sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast? Intriguing. Honestly, there aren't many retellings I've found that take place in the future instead of the past or a fantastical setting, so I'm always willing to try something new and different. And this was definitely new and different. Our main character ends up replacing a robot that her family was supposed to send to our "Beast" because the robot isn't finished yet. Now, this should make for an exciting love story as our "Beast" is under the assumption that our "Beauty" is a robot.

It was actually supremely uncomfortable.

I couldn't get behind this romance. There was so much that could have been done with the use of artificial intelligence and robots, and of course, the whole theme that makes Beauty and the Beast, which is that looks don't matter, it's what's on the inside that counts, blah blah blah. This could have been so interesting and new. I just ended up being extremely uncomfortable with how the story was progressing and made it around halfway through before I had to put it down.

The idea was exciting, and if it had been developed more instead of focusing on the uncomfortable romance, I think I would've been able to enjoy it.

Another take on the Beauty and the Beast, but this one I didn't enjoy. After all this time and so much effort into rewriting this classic, readers expect something that's even more different.

It was strange, the situation presented, the pretending, the excuses...

The idea is really cool, but the story and writing didn't live up to my expectations. Poor writing. Annoying characters. Weird pacing. Not a fan of this at all.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to finish this book, and cannot provide substantial feedback. I really liked what I have read, and hope to finish it when I have the chance!

This is book really interesting because of the Beauty and the Beast retelling with technology, Thus, I really love the connections in the books but I don't quite like the characters, but still good setting and all.

The concept of this sounded fantastic to me! A Beauty and the Beast retelling with technology, robots and sci-fi elements I LOVE. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. I liked the apocalyptic vibe and Rose's character, but I just didn't love it!

I was expecting this to be a more a retelling instead it was more romance. The one thing I really liked was how creative the premise is. There's artificial intelligence and robots and what not and as a huge fan of The Lunar Chronicles, I picked up this book expecting it to be something like that.

Other than that I was quite disappointed and stopped at about 70% because I couldn't go on. The characters weren't fleshed out and the romance felt rushed. Clear explanations weren't given about Lorccan's nightmares and we never find out WHY the MC's father got into trouble in the first place. After 70% I skimmed to the end and the ending was just as disappointed. It was all wrapped up in a bow WITHOUT the necessary explanations.

I have always thoroughly enjoyed retellings of Beauty and the Beast and this book exceeded my expectations. I found it to be such a fresh take on the story and binge read this book in one sitting. I really enjoyed Alain's character from the moment she was introduced and I liked reading about the dynamic between Lor and Alain. Overall, I would recommend this book to anybody who is a fan of futuristic retellings.

Did not finish
I liked the premise as I love retellings but the writing needs some serious work. There was barely any flow to it. I was also hoping some more twists on the main characters' archetypes. The scifi setting could have been cool but did not get far enough to appreciate it properly because I just couldn't deal with the writing, or frankly make myself care about the characters. It was a miss for me, sadly.

This is a sexy little romp and I love the idea of a Beauty and the Beast retelling for an older audience, considering most retellings lately are YA focused. I like that NA is getting some fun content in that department.

I absolutely love Renditions of Beauty and the Beast in the synopsis on this book did not disappoint. I think netgalley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

A retelling of Beauty and the Beast set into a future that the line between humanity and AI is blurred. It was imaginative but fell short a bit in the character development. I would have liked more connections and backstory to fill in the blanks.

This was an enjoyable read. I read through it quickly because it was a new adult. It kept me entertained till the very end.

I love Beauty and the Beast retellings. However this one was just okay. The romance was the best part of the story. I liked the characters but didn't feel like I knew them as well as I would have liked. I wish a little more time had been devoted to them getting to know each other. It was the artificial intelligence part of the story that I didn't like. There was not a clear explanation of what AI could do. Without understanding what AI was capable of, it made their motives even more confusing. By the end too many subplots were added that weren't necessary.

I'm a traditionalist when it comes to Beauty and the Beast, so I didn't try to compare this book to the original story. This is a near future tale where AI has become more common. A wealthy, emotionally stunted, albeit romantic man unknowingly ends up with a human assistant, the daughter of the machine's inventor, rather than the AI he has ordered. The daughter decides to help her father by pretending to be this man's live in AI machine to give the inventor time to perfect his creation and satisfy the buyer's requirements.

After watching Ex Machina, I can visualize how a human could replace AI, and vice versa and thought the premise was unique. Alainn's character was interesting and kept the story going. Didn't care for the sex, flipped past it. Romance isn't sex, after all. It was an ok read, but not something I'd share with friends.

Ensnared is set close enough to present time that there isn't the need for a lot of technical world building, which ends up being both good and bad, but it most definitely is the future. Robots do many and varied tasks: from every day menial things, to complex calculations.

With all these aspects to the story, Ensnared ended up doing better in some areas than others.

The romance between Alainn and Lorccan was sweet and nicely realized. It felt a little slow to build and then suddenly quite rushed, which was a bit of an odd transition for me. I liked that Alainn wasn't there as a prisoner at Lor's direction, which added a much better line of consent than the original has. There's less Stockholm Syndrome, because he's not her captor, and more bonding and care between two damaged people. I enjoyed this aspect quite a lot.

It was in the world-building and the plot that let me down. The world-building was sparse. There wasn't a lot required - which was nice - but when you start describing a world in which AI is normal, I need to understand how we got there. When there are still junk, polluting cars, but AI capable of sustaining themselves and overwriting their programming, it's too simplistic.

The robots themselves have evolved and there's no real elucidation as to how this could have even happened. While I don't want to read pages and pages of technical information, there was too much of a gap between plausibly realistic and what was happening here. I needed that link. It doesn't take a lot either, just a little bit of history on how we got to the point where we could make realistic, human-passing, robots that are able to make themselves indestructible. Especially while the rest of technology hasn't followed. Yes, there are holographic screens, but cell phones are still the norm, junk cars that belch fossil fuels are used, and the city seems normal, except robots are doing all the work - which makes me wonder what humans are doing to make a living.

The plot, too, got a little convoluted. Which is part of why the world-building fails.

It's interesting to read a futuristic retelling of a fairy tale, as you don't see that very often. This was a quick read, without much world-building, but the character development was solid and the tale itself held up well.