Cover Image: Beau and Bett

Beau and Bett

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Member Reviews

In this sweet retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set in a contemporary a beautiful boy has to face the ugly on the inside girl as social status, family and relationships collide.

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This is a beauty and the beast retelling and I wanted to like it I really did but I didn’t I couldn’t get into it and it just fell flat

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We already know that I have never been able to resist a "Beauty and the Beast " retelling and this one was no exception. Set in contemporary America, our main protagonist, Beau LeFrancois meets the very spoiled rich girl, Bettina Diaz, coined by her schoolmates as "The Beast" while working on her father's ranch.

Positive Thoughts:

1. I like the gender reversal of the beauty versus beast roles.

2. Beau was a compelling protagonist and I was captured by his "voice"

3. Loved Beau's family backstory and his family was endearing in a quirky way.



Negative Thoughts:

1. Bettina's "beast like" reputation was very understated. The angle lacked "oomph" and I was actually of the mind that her Nana was a more captivating "beast."

2. Since we never see inside Bettina's thoughts, we only know what Beau knows. As the story progressed, I wavered in my opinion of whether this is a good or bad thing.

3. Bettina's family was awful.

4. Romance was extremely lacking. At first, I thought it was because there was another girl in Beau's life. Soon I began to feel that the Disney movie had a lot more passion than this story did.

5. By the 50% mark, I felt the plot slowed down and that the author seemed unsure of how she was going to make it work between the two characters.


Overall, I read Beau and Bett in a single sitting and I loved Kathryn Berla's "Beau" but I just wasn't buying the love story.


Publication Date 16/07/19
Goodreads Review 01/06/19

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What a cute story! I devoured this contemporary YA in one sitting and was left wanting it to be true.
Right away, it is easy to identify the 'villain' of the story. If you see Bett as bad. She was actually very likable and very blunt, hence why she was called the 'Beast'. Through the pages of this novel, she is woven into a person that makes you feel.
Beau was very different from most YA boys and I loved that. He was responsible *gasp* and did everything that he could to support his family. I loved him.
I would recommend for those wanting a quick read and love Kasie West. This would be the perfect book so be sure to snag a copy.

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Content: 3 Stars (language)

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

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Beau and Bett by Kathryn Berla is a cute young adult love story based on Beauty and the Beast.
Beau is the beauty and Bett is nick name Beast at school. I enjoyed the characters and the sweet story, but I found this book slow moving. I would have liked for the book to be more detailed.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

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This book was a let down because I've been waiting forever for a gender-swapped B&B retelling and this kind of fell flat for me. The book almost lost me in the first half because it dragged so much. The conversations between Beau and everyone were so stilted and it made it hard for me to care about him. It also didn't do much for the plot.

My biggest problem is that Beau (who is supposed to be Belle) was a huge jerk the entire book. for no real reason. Sure the kid his mother looks after told him that Bett was mean but Bett was nothing but nice to him after their first meeting so I don't understand why he kept being so rude to her. Maybe it was because he seemed really dense and very shallow the entire book.

Another issue I had was that Beau had more chemistry with Khalil, a side character, than either of the two girls Beau was supposed to be interested in. He was the main character but he was so superficial and two dimensional. Yikes.

The plot is interesting enough so if you don't mind slow paced, obvious romances then you might like this better than I did.

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I think I had too high expectations with this retelling. I was just bored and began skimming throughout the book. It was just okay.

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this book was just meh. I didn't like it but I also didn't hate it. It really just left me underwhelmed to be honest.

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A cute little contemporary retelling of the beauty and the beast. This was an easy and quick read, however I felt that sometimes the story lagged a bit and the plot went nowhere at times.

I did however really enjoy the portrayal of "the beast" Bettina, where she was obnoxious and had no filter and speaks her mind, and is really stubborn. I also loved that Beau was portrayed as the 'cute boy-next-door' kind of character.

Rating 3/5
(This review will be published onto my blog on the 9th of July)

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I realley enjoy Beauty and the Beast retellings so I was churious about this book. I liked the role reversal, but other than that this book fell flat. If you lile contemporary stories then I would recomend it but honestky I did not enjoy it.

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This left me.... underwhelmed...

I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but this wasn't it. I liked the fact that this retelling didn't rely on magic for the romance to happen (in fact there was no magic at all), but the rest of the story just fell a little flat to me.
I didn't connect to any of the characters and I didn't feel like the story progressed at all. Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me.

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3.5 stars
It took me a while to get into this book. At first, the characters felt flat and one dimensional. Everything seemed surface and Beau and Bett's actions were confusing and didn't make sense. Bett was hot and cold and awkward and Beau couldn't make up his mind how he felt. Around the halfway point, things started to come together and when we got the backstory of why people call Bett 'the beast', I saw her as a real person who had actual emotions. Beau got better over the story too, I'm glad he cared about Bett and treated her better. The side characters were blah, Beau's dad's accent was irritating and the whole side story of the wedding had almost no purpose. It did have cute moments, I liked Beau and Bett's banter and how they opened up to each other. It could use some fleshing out, overall an okay read.

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This novel was read as due to the English Syllabus there is a fairytales section and I was hoping to find a novel that was not the retelling of Cinderella. This was loosely based on Beauty and the Beast but was more of a young teen's romance novel. I could see this made into a teen movie.

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I found this book had far to many layers for a true story to really form. I didn't see how it could relate to Beauty and the Beast and it really didn't make much sense in some areas. The Khalil storyline wasn't needed nor was the Maisie storyline. I think this story would've been much better if it was streamlined and not having all these other stories running throughout it.
The story while enjoyable just wasn't for me and I struggled to get into it.

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Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read my first ARC read! This was very worth it and I do not regret reading it at all! I’m glad that this book is being published soon and you all should try to read it.

I requested for the ARC of Beau and Bett on NetGalley after I saw the “a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast” on the cover. I was expecting something like Beauty and the Beast; however, the book didn’t live up to its name. I was very surprised when I started reading about half the book since that was where the romance part started. Although the book wasn’t quite a modern retelling of B&B, it was a great read.

I usually don’t read YA romance except for John Green’s books. Beau and Bett definitely went to the top of my list! The relationship between Beau and Bettina was very sweet.

At the start of this book, I wasn’t immediately hooked. However, there was something going on that started quite late in the book. The pacing is great and all the descriptions and settings were vividly written.

Read the review on my blog: https://knottypapers.home.blog/2019/05/21/beau-and-bett-arc-review/

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This was an easy light read but it wasn’t my favourite retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast. The wording was odd, there wasn’t enough humour and the storyline was pretty random. Beaux didn’t seem like a strong enough character. Overall it’s a nice book with a happy ending.

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"'I didn't need to hide, because a person could be a safe place too. I was in a safe place when I was with you.'"

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Amberjack Publishing. Trigger warnings: sexual harassment/assault, bullying, victim blaming, snakes, illness, injury, hospitals.

When Beau LeFrancois's mother is in a minor car accident with Bettina Diaz, nicknamed 'The Beast' at her school, Beau agrees to work weekends at the Diaz Ranch to repay the debt. His family can't afford any legal entanglements since his father's accident put him out of work, and they're still struggling to make ends meet. Beau is determined to keep his head down and do his time in spite of Bett's infamous temper, but the more they get to know each other, the more he realizes that people aren't always what they're made out to be.

This is marketed as a contemporary Beauty & The Beast retelling, and you can see the resemblance if you squint your eyes and tilt your head a little. It hardly needs the comparison though, and for the most part, it's a quick, fluffy contemporary romance. The writing is unremarkable and the beginning a little slow to take off, but the characters, particularly Bett, have a surprising amount of depth once we're able to see past the surface. It's also an articulate comment on the consequences of victim-blaming and the #metoo movement, which was probably my favorite aspect of the book.

Beau is a little lackluster as a narrator. He's nicer and more responsible than the average teenage boy, in part because he's had to be, but he would have been more believable with a flaw or two. However, I like seeing a male character who knows how to politely back off when a girl doesn’t show interest in him, without being offended or holding it against her. He doesn’t have any sense of entitlement to the girls he likes, which is (sadly) a refreshing change. I also like the attention Berla pays to families in poverty, particularly those who have suffered accidents or illness, and Beau's family dynamics are really sweet.

Bett is really the star of the novel, and it's always nice to see a POC heroine. She's a spoiled brat, but she isn't as vicious as she's made out to be; she's just very literal and says what she thinks, which are not ways to make friends in high school. She's also terribly lonely, and it's probably this aspect that defines most of her character and her actions. Their banter and their romance are fun and mostly light-hearted, and in spite of the issues it touches on, it's a pleasure to read. Recommended for fans of contemporary YA romance, particularly those who like something a little off the beaten path.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

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I love avocados are at the heart of this story! It was very sweet, creative Beauty and the Beast gender swap story. I thought the characters were fine, but not to exciting. The romance was minimal, but it was a quick, enjoyable read. There was one twist I didn't see coming which was nice, but overall it was fairly predictable.

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Beau and Bett is an easy, breezy read. It's a story of connection between two teens from different worlds who discover that maybe they aren't so different after all. I enjoyed the story, for the most part. The only real complaint I would have is there isn't anything new to the story. This is a tale as old as time - there's my one Beauty and the Beast reference for ya! I felt like the conflict towards the end sort of came out of left field and was really unnecessary. It felt like a way to prolong the story for another chapter.

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***DNF***

The premise of this book sounded very intriguing—a modern day Beauty & the Beast role-reversal. What’s not to like?

However, almost immediately the characters cuss frequently, and frankly, it was very unnecessary, and really ruined reading what might have been a unique, fun read.

Unfortunately, the amount of profanity was too much for me, and I will be marking this one a DNF.

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