I think it’s time to admit I’m not going to finish this one. I’m at about 45% and I don’t see myself finishing. This is a DNF unfortunately.
The thing is, I love retellings. They’re some of my favorite genres to read! But they can also be such a hit and miss. And if there’s one retelling I’m always skeptical to start it’s always a contemporary non-fantastical retelling of Beauty and the Beast. And why is that? Because in these retellings, the beast usually turns out to be just a misunderstood semi-bully??? And it’s missing the whole ACTUAL beastly part to it’s personality. So usually the reason why that person is so “beastly” is not because they were wronged by a curse and turned into a raging beast- but because they have some kind of traumatic past. Which can be good... but it needs to be incorporated into the story well.
Anyway, I’m always a bit hesitant to pick a contemporary retelling of it.
And when I saw the initial rating this one had on Goodreads I was even more scared. But I wanted to believe I would be the exception. I wanted to like it. But alas, I didn’t.
So what made me DNF? Well, lack of interest in continuing as a first. But also, I didn’t care for any of the characters. I thought they were boring. The male MC, which I think was names Beau(?), was boring. His circumstances were I guess relatable? But honestly he seemed to be a bit judgmental and annoying. Also, I don’t get how he was the “beauty” part of the retelling if he was an unpopular guy that was probably (can’t remember to save my life) not the prettiest to say the least...
As for the MC girl... all I remember from her was that she was not so horrible??? Like, all she seemed to be is a spoiled rich girl, but horrible and beastly? Nope. Not at least until the part I read. And Beau seemed to judge her pretty harshly.
The romance. Well, I didn’t read the whole book obviously- but by the part I reached, there wasn’t romance just yet. BUT, Beau was already thinking of Bett. And I don’t get how he went from 0 to 100 so quickly? Like, he disliked her from the beginning for her attitude, but then he finds himself thinking of her when he’s not around her so quickly. It felt rushed and forced and I didn’t get that jump.
Honestly, I picked up this book because I was interested in the concept of a gender bent retelling of BATB... but I didn’t end up liking it unfortunately.

I love Beauty and the Beast very much. So when I saw a modern day retelling of my favorite Disney I know I'd to read it and I did. But the twist is Bett is the Beast here. It's a sweet story with good amount of romance. It's an okay read for me. The story could've been made better. The cover is simple and beautiful.
It's the perfect time to read a contemporary book. Go for it.

I love a good beauty and the beast retelling and I’m always pleasantly surprised when the girl is considered the beast. I really like Beau throughout the story and definitely grew to like Bett. I did feel like the end was a little rushed but over all enjoyed this one!

I received an ARC of Beau and Bett from Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.

I love retellings of classic literature and fairytales, but this one missed the mark completely. This book was a DNF for me. I tried to stick it out, but Bett "the Beast" was a whiny, egotistical, brat. There was no redemption of Bett's character as we typically see in Beauty and the Beast retellings. The only positive of this book was a female was the Beast in this story. Typically I love those retellings where the author swaps the main characters' genders, but this one did not hit the mark.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the early copy.

I could not connect with the writing style/plot and decided to put it down. Thanks for the chance to review it.

3.5 stars
An entertaining book with an important message underneath. The story itself was nothing spectacular, but I think the message that it carried is very important. Namely, not just judging people by how they act, because there usually is a reason for why they act in a specific way. The characters were fun to read about, so was the plot. But as I already said, it was nothing spectacular. The story was told solely from Beau's perspective, but I think the story would've gotten more depth if it was also told from Bett's perspective.

The blurb said it's a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. I half expecting it to be cheesy and predictable. I did get surprised once, but that's really it. It's a cute plot and the characters are cute.

A cute retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast with a little twist and gender role reversal in this novel! It was a quick read that I finished in one sitting!

I could see the potential twist that Bett is the beast and Beau is the Male version of Belle was interesting but the chractures lacked emotion Beau chractire was the only one that went on the journey. Its told from Beau perspective but could of been told from both.did not warm to Betts chracture at all. Such a shame as it sounded great but just lacked that magic found it problematic as well. Thanks to Netgally and the Author for letting me read and review in exchange for a honest review.

I didn't not enjoy this book. I really thought i would enjoy it because it's a Beauty and the beast retelling but I just didn't enjoy the writing.

This story was cute. It's a retelling of the Beuty and the Beast but in this modern time. I love the writing and the flow of the story. We have our two main characters, Beau who is working on the farm to pay off a debt and the daughter who lives on the farm name Bett. The romance is slow and good character development between the two characters. Reading the character development between the two was perfect and didn't feel rushed. I thought the ending of the story was perfect in every way! Thank you to the author for this amazing story!

I want to thank Netgalley for allowing me to read this eArc, all my opinions and reviews belong to me and are no way influenced by anyone.


Another modern retelling; this one is obviously Beauty and The Beast inspired. I think the author did a good when it came to writing this. I was pleasantly surprised that the roles were reversed and that the main protagonist was male. While the “beast” was a girl. So going into this book I was already really impressed. I don’t know why I have a thing for books that do that but here we are.



Now let’s talk about Beau who’s our male character.
I think that my favorite thing out of this whole book was beau and his amazing family. I feel like I’ve never read about such a great family before. They were so funny and delightful I actually found myself looking forward to the parts were his family was around. Because they seriously had me laughing. Beau was kind and so likeable that I couldn’t believe it.


Enters Bett who is our “beast” and let me tell you. I know she was supposed to be our female character. I disliked her so much. I’ve never been a sucker for females who get off on being spoiled and nasty to others just because they come from a well off family. We are all humans and we should treat each other with kindness. Her family was definitely as annoying as her and that was the worst.


I often found myself wondering why these two were ever paired up, I liked the other girl beau was interested in more than the mail character. And I honestly found myself rooting for the other girl so that should tell you a lot.
I don’t think beau and bett had any chemistry and I felt most of it was forced.

While the plot had me; the story was definitely not it for me.

This was such a cute retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. I loved the character's development in this book and how the story played out. This was fantastic and I loved it!

I enjoyed this book a fair amount. I liked the straightforward writing style, and I enjoyed Beau as a narrator. I also enjoyed Bettina as a character, and appreciated how she didn't end up as just another manic pixie dream girl. I thought the plot was sweet, and I enjoyed the side characters. However, I didn't see the connection to Beauty and the Beast, really, and I also felt uncomfortable with the constant references to "spirit animals" from a non-Native American narrator. Overall though I liked the book.

Beau and Bett was a modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. Or at least, it is marketed as such. Personally, I found the links between the the book and the fairytale quite a reach, which is sad because the gender swap - Beau being the Beauty and Bett being the Beast - was appealing. It wasn’t very clear why Bett was considered a beast, appart from the fact that she wasn’t very nice.

Unfortunately, for me, this book did not deliver.

On the plus side, this book is a quick read. It’s not very long and you go through it rather fast. That being said, while it’s a quick read, I found that the story it self dragged itself along. The main characters, Beau and Bett are so boring. Though, Bett was a bit more of an interesting character, I found them both lacklustre and not developed enough. They were both quite superficial. Beau, for me, was so bland, idiotic and boring, that I found myself skipping through the pages. While it’s an easy read, the story was so slow at times. The dialogue between the characters was pointless and did not add anything to the plot. Talking about the plot, the problem of this books seems to be that it has no plot.

The love story between Beau and Bett wasn’t very believable, many because for about half of the story, Beau is in love with another girl. It seem, at times, that the author didn’t know either where she was going with their story.

I was approved for this book but unfortunately, it got archived from the site before I could read it! I would've loved to have read this book! I hope to read more from this author and publisher in the future...

Thank you so much to Amberjack Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for my review.

I’m all for fairytale retellings especially Beauty and the Beast ones as that’s my favorite Disney movie of all time. This was not my favorite retelling I’ve read but it was still pretty dang good.

Set in modern-day America, Beau meets the very spoiled Bett while working on her father’s ranch after his mom wrecks Bett’s super expensive SUV. Beau starts paying off his mom’s debt working weekends at the farm and also starts to learn more about why Bett is the way she is and why she’s called the “beast”.

First off I love that the roles in this story were reversed and the beast was a female character. This was the first retelling I’ve read that had the gender roles reversed and it was so different but in a great way. Another great thing about this contemporary was that the first person male protagonist, I don’t read many books told almost entirely from a male character and I really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed the slow romance in this book too. It wasn’t the over the top cheesy crud that honestly I slog through, Beau actually found a friend in Bett and starts to look forward to seeing her every weekend and talking to her.

This was a pretty quick fun read and I’m adding it to one of the better retellings of Beauty and the Beast that I’ve read.

I adored the title and the fact that it was a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast (with gender reversal)
However, the story itself fell flat. I didn't feel any emotions from Bettina or Beau. I wasn't invested in the story and at some points, I was a little bored with the story.

The characters didn't jump out at me. Bett and Beau didn't mess for me. :(

This was a really quick read for me. The book moved in a very fast pace. I have to say that I like the characters and their back story. I wouldn't say that any of them is perfect, but I like it that way. It's a bit all over the place here and there but overall, it was an enjoyable experience.

I was looking forward to this read as I love retellings of classic fairytales/books.

Sadly the reversed role of Beau and Bett didn’t really bring out the Beast or the Beauty in this book.
Beau seems to be smitten but hesitant and Bett “The Beast” is kind of spoiled and doesn’t understand social cues very well.
It took me a while to get into this book and I did finish it, but I was putting the book down a lot for a later read and wasn’t really enjoying it.

I received this ebook copy from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.