Beau thinks he's got a hot story when he gets a tip that rock star Gabriel Fletcher, who has been out of the limelight for a year, is hold up in a remote mansion. What he finds there seems inhuman.

As a parody of Beauty and the Beast, this book hits all the beats of the original fairy tale ok. But where this book misses the mark is the relationship between the two main characters. They jump from learning to tolerate one another right into boning and proclamations of love. I couldn't get to know them well enough to buy them as a couple so it falls flat when they get together. Maybe if it had more time to develop, it would have been more enjoyable. 2.7 out of 5.

An okay read but unfortunately not a favorite. I enjoyed the writing however and will definitely be checking out this author again in the future.

Beau's a reporter looking to make his mark in journalism, so when he's handed the story of the missing rockstar Gabriel, he jumps at the chance for an interview. Except, when he arrives where Gabriel is supposed to be hiding, what he finds instead might just end his life, let alone his career.

I'm of two minds about this story. On the one hand, it's a cute, fairy tale themed story about a beast and a lovely and open minded human that is forced to stay in the beast's home. I do think the story was a very interesting retelling of Beauty and the Beast. On the other hand, this story is classic Stockholm syndrome with the hero falling in love with his captor. I do admit the captor never mistreated Beau, but the growing love between them felt a little awkward at times.

The one real complaint I have about this story is the magic. Obviously there is a magical beast and some sort of spell that made him, but the details of how the magic works or the extent of magic in the world were never provided. It feels like an afterthought thrown in because there had to be some explanation for the existence of the beast. A little more detail would have greatly improved the overall world building in this story.

In typical...Beauty and the Beast fashion, this is a book about a man who is an all around ass. So, one one night stand gone wrong leaves him cursed. So, he falls off the face of the planet so to speak. A lone journalist gets a lead on where he is, and then, one basic kidnapping storyline later, the two are in love.

If i am being honest, this one was a hard sell for me. I did't care for it one way or the other. no loveland no hate, it was just an ok book.

I've never read anything from this author before, but I saw the description and thought what the hell. Why not try it. In the end it was a different take on fairytales. It was very sweet, quick read. It wasn't a wow but it was cute.

2 Stars!

The blurb pulled me in and the writing took me right out.

The book was too rushed.

The story was underdeveloped.

I didn't feel the connection between the characters.

There's really not much else to say about this one other than it failed to deliver the Beauty and Beast romance I was anticipating.

Happy reading dolls! xx

This modern day take on Beauty and the Beast .... the idea sucked me in from the start, pity as it was ending it felt rushed and left me lost which is a shame. I would have liked more answers and character connection.

I love picking up Beauty and the Beast themed books. It's probably my favorite theme ever. I found this one on NetGalley and decided to give it a go. With the B&B theme, stockholm syndrome, and add M/M to boot, I was intrigued.

The problem was this fell flat for me for several reasons. I did finish it so that's a plus, but it still had issues. The ending is rushed for my liking, the "answers" were not really answers to me, and no real supporting cast. Those were the leading reasons for my rating. I did have issues with the beastiality part of it. Most of the B&B books I read the Beast is a ruthless man, or grumpy, or someone with a lot of issues. I've never read one where he was ACTUALLY a beast. I think Beau liked that more than his human for of Gabriel. It just rubbed me the wrong way through the whole book.

I can see where some will possibly like this book, but for me it's a nope. Sorry.

If you can ignore the Stockholm Syndrome and the bestiality, the basis of the story is a fairly good one. Think of Beast as a modern day telling of Beauty and the Beast for the gay man. I wish I could say that the execution was good, but this reads like the product of a writing challenge, like NaNoWriMo where an author has one month to write a 50,000 word novel. The whole thing is rushed, rushed rushed. I wish Sullivan would have tapped the brakes and taken the time to really develop Beau and the overall story. Beast could have been intense and frightening and morphed into something beautiful. Instead, it feels like the skeleton outline of a much bigger story. Everything that happens is shallow and simplified. Beau accepts being held hostage too easily. His plan to win over the beast works too quickly. His departure is rapid and his decision to return is not well thought out. Beast could have been a really interesting, unique read, but, in the end, it was just lacking.

Two things that annoyed me so much, I have to point them out:

While being held captive in the second story bedroom not once does Beau try to escape through the window. Not once! He never even considers it. That would have been my first action when I heard the door lock slide into place. And I know it says “small” window, but still.

Even after Beau accepts that the beast truly is Gabriel, even after he witnesses very human emotions from the beast, he continues to refer to him as “the creature.” Even after they have sex, he thinks of Gabriel as “the creature.” Hence, the bestiality I mentioned. After that, I had a hard time believing that Beau loved Gabriel as a human being. He seemed to only love the beast that Gabriel had morphed into.

Beau est un journaliste musical. Son éditeur va l'envoyer sur les traces de Gabriel Fletcher, une rockstar qui n'a plus donné signes de vie du jour au lendemain depuis un an. Il aurait entendu une rumeur concernant un vieux manoir et Beau va s'empresser de s'y rendre pour y faire alors une surprenante découverte.

J'ai craqué pour la couverture de ce livre... ainsi que pour le synopsis très intriguant.
Rapidement, on se rend compte alors que c'est une sorte de réécriture de « La belle et la bête » car Gabriel est bel et bien présent dans ce manoir, même n'a plus vraiment une apparence humaine.

Je n'irai pas plus loin dans l'histoire car elle est assez courte. Les personnages sont assez sympathiques. L'histoire ressemble beaucoup à celle que l'on connaît mais j'avais vraiment envie de connaître le pourquoi du comment les deux personnages allaient se rapprocher.

Ce fut une lecture sympathique. J'ai seulement été déçue de la tournure des événements dans le dernier quart du livre environ. Je ne rentrerai pas dans les détails mais une certaine scène surréaliste n'était vraiment pas nécessaire.
Ensuite, il est dommage que ce livre soit aussi court, j'aurais aimé avoir plus de détails sur la vie de Gabriel, comment il est arrivé dans ce manoir, etc. Et puis a fin était beaucoup trop rapide et précipitée pour la rendre plus ou moins crédible...

I read the sample of this and it certainly had me interested enough to request it....


A modern day take on Beauty and the Beast ?....kind of.


The story immediately sucked me in and there are definitely possitives and,sadly,negatives.


Beau is a music journalist looking for that big story. He's tired of just interviewing rock stars...he wants something more so when his Editor finds the story that will be the story of his life he doesn't hesitate.

Gabriel was at the top of his game.Hugely successful,in demand,desired by everyone but suddenly he disappeared .....and no one knows what's happened to him in a year...

When Beau finds Gabriel he isn't the person he was expecting at all...


I kind of loved this and was a bit indifferent,if that makes sense.The first half had me captivated enough to race through it until I got answers....unfortunately the answers weren't delivered well and while the outcome was a strong HFN, the last quarter was rushed and a bit unbelievable.

Book – Beast
Author – Jaime Sullivan
Star rating - ★★★★☆
No. of Pages – 113
Cover – Atmospheric
POV – 3rd person, one character (with the exception of the Prologue)
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – LGBT, Fairytale Retelling, Contemporary, Magic, Bisexual
Content Warning – kidnapping, isolation, hostage situation, beastality (if you squint)


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


I'll admit, when I requested the book, the blur had me intrigued, but then I made the mistake of checking the ratings on GR and my heart plummeted. They weren't good. But, I've never let other people's opinions sway me and I'm so thrilled, because GR was wrong. This book is great!

This is an original take on the Beauty and the Beast story, but staying faithful to the main themes and concepts of the original.

The Beast of this story is a rock star, Gabriel, who in the Prologue gets his first and only POV, where we see him being an arrogant, unlikeable pig, who sleeps with women and treats them like trash. One girl refuses to accept that and warns him that he'll be sorry. Well, he sure will. She's the one who curses him. By Chapter 1, Gabriel has been in hiding for a year, with fans, management and the police all searching for him until his management promise that he's safe, but that he isn't coming out of hiding for a while.

All that made sense once Beau is given the assignment to find Gabriel. Not just to find him, but having been given an address from an anonymous source, the implication is that Beau – a writer for Rolling Stones magazine – will have the biggest story of his life on his hands, exposing Gabriel's whereabouts and the reason that he went into hiding.

This is where the Beauty and the Beast aspect comes into place. Beau gets a little more than he bargained for when he finds Gabriel, but it all makes a surprising amount of sense. There are no magical caretakers in the house, the house hasn't been magically changed in any way. Gabriel is the only one who is different, and he's all alone. In the time Beau spends as Gabriel's unwilling guest – literally locked up in a spare bedroom so that he can't go out and report what he's found – he does the sensible thing: he tries to humanise himself, to his captor. It's Oprah 101 that when in a hostage or kidnap situation, you humanise yourself, letting your captor know that you're a human being, with a heart and feelings, with a family, and a life. That's exactly what Beau does and it's brilliant, because that's what any other ordinary person would do, after sulking and fighting against the inevitable for a few days. But, humanising himself quickly becomes a tentative friendship, then more.

I didn't love the characters. It's not a negative, because I loved the story, but I will admit that the characters would never be my best buddies. Gabriel was an arrogant sod, only ever interested in himself, his band, his fame, and his money. Even as a beast, he wasn't much nicer, all wrapped up in woe-is-me, until Beau starts to remind him that he's a human being, too. Beau, as well, has the arrogance of a hot-shot reporter, even if it's not the style of reporting he wanted to do. He's still arrogant enough to think that he can befriend Gabriel and gain his trust all to secure his escape without ever really accepting that Gabriel is a person too. It takes him a long time to realise Gabriel isn't just a monster, because he's so wrapped up in the world he knows and closed-minded.

Saying that, they worked really well together. They were equals in personality and their careers. The chemistry was, thankfully, slow to build. It wasn't insta-love or some feigned emotion that Beau used to get free, which would have been awful. Instead, Beau didn't even realise the emotions creeping into their interactions or how tentative their friendship was and that it was building into something more. I loved that it took them both by surprise. It actually took a comfortable 40% for Beau to see Gabriel as a human being with feelings, trapped inside a monsters body.

Yes, there were editing issues. Throughout, actually. Missing words, punctuation issues, and one or two sentences that didn't quite flow properly. But, considering this is an ARC, I didn't let them weight too heavily on my rating.

I did have a slight problem with the whole “undo the curse” part of the story. It felt a little too close to beastality for my liking. I also wasn't a huge fan of the way the sex scenes (even the kissing scenes) were written. That's a personal thing, but I did find both things offputting in a way that knocked me out of the story and out of the moment. I was also surprised by the ending. It felt a little too neatly wrapped in a bow, for my liking. I wanted to see the witch learn a lesson, to understand what she'd done and face the consequences of that, but I also felt that it wrapped up a little too quickly and easily. I was looking for something more, I just don't know what.

Overall, I ended the story with a smile and that's great. I liked the writing, the plotting and the way the story unfolded, it was just the end and the sex/beasty parts that I had a problem with. But, I'd read more by the author in the future.