I had high hopes for what this story could be. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to those expectations.
I liked where this story was going when it started. Love Celeste as a character and her family situation got me involved in the storyline.
I think the shell of the storyline is there I do wish the story was longer for us to get a little more character development for the beast side of things
Great concept thou

This sweet sapphic retelling of the Beauty and the Beast was so lovely! The marriage of nineteenth century naturalist science and a hint of fairytale magic come together to make a gorgeous and engaging backdrop for Celeste's story. Some of my favorite parts include the characterizations of all of the main characters, including Etienne. I love any kind of multi-era historical fiction, so the weaving in of [REDACTED]'s journal was an absolute delight -- I would DIE for a prequel about those characters. The ending was sweet and perfect!

I’ve never been the biggest fan of retellings, holding the opinion that they must be very well done so as not to fall short. “The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist” by Ceinwen Langley is very well done. The story did not feel like it was riding the coattails of another. It felt brand new and like a breath of fresh air. Despite knowing the general direction the story would follow, I enjoyed every chapter and the uniqueness of the storyline.

This isn’t a cut and paste retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Celeste Rossan forges her own path. Celeste’s drive, independence, and heart carries this story and made me keep turning the page. She is the perfect protagonist and easily lovable. This is a plot driven novel with characters that character driven novel fans will enjoy.

If you’re a fan of historical fiction, sapphic novels, and friends-to-lovers, this is a perfect read for you.

A different retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Celeste was on interesting character. Strong, loyal, quirky and curious. She is not afraid to be herself even it if that means not fitting in.

4/5
A Retelling of beauty and the beast with a sapphic spin on it. I loved Celeste and the journey that it took her to become a naturalist in 1860’s France. I really enjoyed this story but I wish the plot moved a bit faster but other than that it was amazing!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Ceinwen Langley for providing me with an e-arc of this book. 4/5 stars. This was such a delight to read! It made me smile, laugh and anxious at some points. The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist follow Celeste and her dreams become a naturalist rather like Charles Darwin, however; her plans are quickly forgotten when her father loses all his money. As a distraction Celeste looks for the monster she has seen markings of in the forest.
I really liked all the characters in this book none of them were boring and all of them served a purpose. Celeste was a delightful narrator and the prose flowed very well.
This story made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. On the other hand, the pacing slowed down in the middle and sped up too quickly at the end hence why I did not give this book 5 stars. As far as Beauty and the Beast retellings go this is the best one I’ve read so far.

There is a delicious feeling of immersive joy that overtakes any reader when they begin a book and discover in its first sparkling few sentences that not only does it possess the promise of a wholly engaging story that will propel you to turn pages with a fevered anticipatory eagerness but that the author possesses more than enough talent to bring the story suitably alive.

Those kinds of books of rare but such a one is "The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist" by Ceinwen Langley, a novel that uses an old and much-loved tale as inspiration for a breathtakingly original story that will enthrall you, steal your heart and reassure you that you can forge your own way in the world, no matter your circumstances.

Set in 1867, "The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist" is a beautifully told piece of historical fiction that deftly blends in fantastical elements courtesy of a nod to "Beauty and the Beast" while resolutely unfurling a narrative very much of its own creation.

The protagonist of the novel is Celeste Rossan, a 17-year-old woman in the French port of La Baie Dorée who lives with her shipping entrepreneur father Nicolas and her younger sister Geneviève in comfortably middle class surroundings and who dreams of one day of defying social convention and becoming a naturalist, a field dominated, as is so much else in the nineteenth century, by men.

Celeste is under no illusions that getting into her chosen field will be fiendishly difficult, but such is her love of the natural world and so great her talent at observing and illustrating it that she believes she can surmount the considerable obstacles in her way.

While Geneviève, to whom Celeste is quite close, aspires to mix with the town’s rarefied elite including the Lajoie family which includes the girls’ handsome childhood friend and much in demand bachelor Étienne, Celeste is at her happiest dirty and scuffed out in the wood, sketching birds and beetles and glorying in the magnificent beauty around her.

With her sights set on a forthcoming trip to Paris, her first, which will take in the exciting surrounds of the 1867 Exposition Universelle, Celeste is exuberantly confident, despite the social pressures bearing down on her to embody the ideal woman and get married to a wealthy man, that she can flout convention, drop the “amateur” from amateur naturalist and travel the world satisfying a passion she has nurtured since childhood.

Alas, in the cruel way that it has, life intervenes and her father loses all his wealth, putting the family into a far poorer situation and all but forcing her into a social Faustian pact of which she wants no part but which might be the only way to save her family.

It’s at this point that this lively and well-mannered book, which simmers with all kinds of vivacity and scorn of the established order even as it evokes it with an adroitly-written perfection (not always in a flattering fashion, it should be said), really takes off as Celeste escapes into the woods, an impulsive move that sees her caught inside a rundown chateau in which a large and hairy beast prowls, one she is convinced means to cause her great harm.

It’s at this point that you might realise it’s all starting to look a whole lot "Beauty and the Beast"-ish.

And to a richly-realised extent it does, but Langley is one of those authors who can take an established idea and very much make it her own, and she does it dazzlingly well with "The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist", going all out to tell a vibrant tale that surges with a hefty amount of heart, a profoundly refreshing queer sensibility and an empathy for those who don’t, or simply won’t, fit established societal molds.

At first, as you can well imagine, Celeste is frightened by the beast who roams the castle, banging doors and feasting on local wildlife with their remains left scattered in the giant bedroom the 8-foot-tall creature occupies as its own.

But as Celeste gets to know it (and the “it” doesn’t stay an “it” for long as she gets to know her strange host), initially as a focus of naturalist research but later as a interlocutor and a highly-intelligent friend, it becomes readily apparent that life is about to change profoundly for them in ways neither could have imagined.

The sheer delight of "The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist" comes from the fact that right from the start, Langley infuses the novel with a wondrous sense of rich and compelling humanity.

Celeste is a status quo-defying joy whose growth from nascent dissident to full-throttled upsetter of any and all apple carts especially those to do with sexual and gender roles, is a breathtakingly delight to behold.

You cannot help but fall in love with her intelligence, integrity, love of the natural world and care and concern for others, and as the driver of the fast-moving but always richly thoughtful and highly emotive nuanced narrative, she brings those laudable qualities to every scene in which appears which is of course almost all of them.

She is not just a protagonist; she is a force of life-changing nature, and while it takes her a little while to leave her reticence and caution behind her, once she does, and it is pushed along mightily by an emotionally alive final act, she quickly becomes one of those characters you will not forget quickly.

Alive with superlative writing, vivaciously fully-formed characters and a narrative that is propulsive and engaging and yet never less than thoughtfully affecting, "The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist" possesses an intoxicatingly immersive story which will stay with you long after you turn the final page, thanks largely to a protagonist who decides she is going to take on the world and win only to find that in fulfilling that lofty goal that she will change more than her own life in the process.

I read this book in one sitting.

Okay, that’s a lie. I started this book last night, fell asleep when I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, and then rolled over this morning and picked it up again immediately. I got halfway through the book before I placed a pre-order for the hardcover copy (releasing on September 1, 2021!). Every cup of tea I made to drink while I read The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist went cold, because I could not for the life of me stop reading for long enough to drink them.

Did Ceinwen Langley look into my brain and create a book specifically designed for me and everyone like me – namely, people with excellent taste? I think so. The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist is full to the brim of gutsy women who make bold choices, who go after their own happiness with both hands. It’s got monster women. It’s got smart women. It’s got… everything I could ever want.

If I had to classify this book, I would call it historical romance fiction with a dollop of fantasy. If you look at it askance, it’s a lesbian retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Which – I’m already on board with. Even if that was all you told me, I would be all over it like a rash. But this book is so much more than that.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist tells the story of Celeste, a young, wealthy French woman who dreams of attending science spectaculars and learning alongside the greatest minds of her generation. She’s a naturalist, she studies animals and insects and other things besides, and she has great dreams of travelling the world, learning everything there is to know. But her father is keeping a secret from her, and that secret is big enough to destroy all her hopes – until she is proposed to by the perfect man. Except she doesn’t love him. She doesn’t love any man.

Girl, same.

So she escapes. She runs, straight into the den of a beast, unlike any she or anyone else has ever seen before. Do you see where I’m going with this?

This book is so well-written and the characters are so wonderfully fleshed-out that I truly felt like I was experiencing everything alongside them. I adore Celeste and admire her bold and brave choices. The conversation between her and the beast were a perfect dance – I would have read chapter upon chapter of their banter.

I will say this - the book starts slow. The main action of the story doesn't really start until halfway through the book. But, to me, that is not a negative. I got a solid introduction to Celeste and her family and friends, her past, and her story. She is, after all, the reason I wanted to keep reading. I think her tale will resonate with a lot of people who don't fit the way society wants them to fit.

There is so much heart in the pages of this book, and it’s definitely a story I will read again and again. The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist has wormed its way into my favourites shelf and I am absolutely beseeching you to give it a read. You will not be disappointed. Five glowing, shining stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feed the Writer Press for providing me with this ARC.

Give me a book set it Paris and I'm sold. This book really surprised me, I was intrigued by the synopsis and was amazed by the story. I completely fell in love with the setting and our main character, Celeste, is brave and inspirational. She doesn't let horrible events of her past get in her way and takes everything in her stride. Can't wait to read more from this author.

This book was an interesting combination of genres and storylines. We start in petit bourgeoisie France, the backwoods, where modern life and behaviours and manners have yet to reach.
Our heroine is a girl child fascinated with nature but in a rather gruesome Victorian manner with a collection of dead insects and more. But an excellent artistic ability.
Her friend from young childhood is a hunter who brings home and mounts his kills, but this does not only not bother her, but she also uses it as an opportunity to discover the animal's make-up, skeleton and musculature etc.
For family reasons she is forced into an engagement far too young.
Which is where this story diverges from a romance into z type of fairytale. In a very different way.
And with an underlying hint of why she was so reluctant to marry.
I did guess who one of the fairytale characters was but the ending was a complete surprise and unexpected.
So a story with a difference. Not humorous or light, but with some important things to say about the state of women in small minded towns in Victorian times. Well crafted and written.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist is a queer historical fantasy set in nineteenth century France. In the story, seventeen-year-old Celeste lives a privileged life in a small French village where she lives with her father and sister and tries to avoid the old best friend who has elicited confusing, tangled feelings in her. When her father’s shipping business collapses, she is no longer free to wander the forests, sketching the flora and fauna. She had hoped her sketches and studies would win her an apprenticeship with a naturalist at the Exposition Universelle she was supposed to attend in Paris. When life fell apart, she and her indulged sister must lug water, shop and cook their own food, and scrub their laundry instead. When Celeste learns that her father’s assurances are lies, she must face an unwelcome marriage proposal to secure her family’s safety and comfort. When she realizes that she cannot go through with the marriage, she flees and discovers her greatest natural find: an entirely new beast. As she learns about the beast, she must face her greatest dilemma — Should she publicize the beast as a means to become a famous naturalist, or protect the beast’s life and freedom?

This story is filled with detailed characters with full, round personalities. The settings are well drawn and full of vivid sensory elements. Similar in many ways to Beauty and the Beast, the plot shows the gentle process of a character falling in love with a beast despite its fearsome claws and jaws. When the beast is endangered, the heroine realizes her love and sacrifices to save the beast.

The story is engrossing from the first chapter, and readers will be drawn in by the very real problems and the very high stakes Celeste faces. Thematically, I celebrated the strength and resolve Celeste shows but was disappointed in her ability to leave behind her loving father, sister, and friend Angelique with no word on her destination, safety, or future. Strong, confident heroines should also show us their devotion and commitment to those who love them as they chart their new courses.

Readers who enjoy reimagined fairy tales, historical fantasies, and protagonists who recognize and celebrate their LGBTQ identities will enjoy this story.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist is a YA historical sapphic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It follows our main character, Celeste Rossan (an amateur naturalist), as she tries to track a mysterious beast in the woods.

Let me start by saying that the writing is stunning. Seriously some of the best writing I've seen in a while. This is undoubtedly a very original retelling and the character dynamics are *chef's kiss*.

My biggest problem with this book is that Celeste and the Beast didn't meet until 47% in. There was a big focus on Celeste's life as an amateur naturalist - which is fine and I enjoyed reading about it - but I did expect them to meet sooner. As a result, the first half wasn't as interesting to me as the second half.

I love historical fiction, and reading about life back then - as well as how gender roles and sexuality were viewed at the time - was immensely interesting to me. I adored reading about Bridgette and Eloise in particular.

The sapphic romance was lovely, I just wish we had spent more time with them.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

Celeste Rossan wants nothing more than to visit Paris and go to Exponential Universelle, a gathering of revolutionary scientists and knowledgeable men. She believes that she can carve a name for herself in a world were a woman can barely make a dent, and the fact that her father has lost all his fortune isn't one to deter her.

Now, this is absolutely a feel good book. If it wasn't sapphic, I'd probably not like it as much, the 4 stars are just for the Bridgette and Elouise and the sweet soft person that Celeste is.
But not only sweet and soft, Celeste works harder than the devil, she's ambitious, determined and will not any one stop her from achieving what she wants to.

And oh, does she want to work under an experienced Naturalist and learn the ways of the profession from him. The fact that being a woman has already made her an outcast in the profession of her choice is not one that bothers her right now.

Just like beauty and the beast, the fairytale this book is based on, Celeste runs away from her own version of Gaston and reaches her beast, who under all that viciousness and fur, is a kinder being.

The relation ship between Celeste and the beast, is one that I adore. Actually, I love all the characters in this book but most, except few, were one dimensional and only existed to play a small part which annoyed me. I wanted every character to have a role that made sense not conveniently show up to make Celeste's story further. But I can see how that would've been difficult to write in a first person pov.

My problem is that there was nothing original in this, yea sure a few things were changed but deep down it was beauty and the beast with a self insert. I kept waiting for something better to happen, something unique but felt disappointed.

Overall, this was very enjoyable and a fun read and I think everyone who loves the original fairytale will enjoy it! I look forward to reading the sequel and succeeding books and believe that Ceinwen Langley is going to become a big name in the writing industry just like Celeste who will surely become a big name as a Naturalist.

Also my pet peeve is historical inaccuracies, so the fact that Celeste used 'miles' to measure distance in 1867 France didn't sit right with me.

Sapphic Beauty and the Beast. That is the main plot point of this book. I greatly enjoyed the main character, Celeste, and her journey to become a Naturalist in 1860s France. Even though it was a fairytale retelling, there was enough new elements and new spins to keep the plot interesting along with even a few plot twists I was not expecting. My only criticism was that it started slightly slower than I normally enjoy in books, but I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good fairytale!

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary opinion.

The first half took me a while to get through, I’ll not lie. I think I was so focused on the beauty and beast comparison that I couldn’t focus on other things. But after reading the book and analyzing it in its entirety, this was such a refreshing take on the Beauty and Beast trope! It takes the basic aspect and then changes everything else so none of the secondary characters fit into any of the characters you know. I loved the family dynamic between Celeste and her family, but also Bridgette and Guillaume. I was a little bit worried that the romance was going to be Insta-love because we were introduced to the love interest half-way into the story, but it actually progressed in a super realistic way and it was adorable! I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience and I would recommend this to anyone.

Celeste Rossan doesn’t want a life of marriage and kids. She wants to make a name for herself. She wants to explore and see the world. I like how her character is written. She’s a girl who struggles in her time period to be able to be taken seriously. Yet she will do anything to be listened to. She’s an aspiring naturalist. This story focuses on her survival instincts after seeking refuge in a seemingly abandoned chateau after finding a way to escape her current life. Along with the focus on a strange beast that she first learns of before the chateau and then later has several encounters with at the chateau. Celeste discovers the story behind the chateau and those who once lived within it. She’s a science girl who learns that not everything has a scientific explanation. How some things are just what they are. The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist is a wonderfully written sapphic retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist (quite the mouthful title) was a tad disappointing, but not entirely uninteresting.

For a retailing, it was nice to see added representation and the erasure of certain aspects that could've irked those that know the original story (Gaston's mere existence, for example, and the so-called Stockholm syndrome). In that aspect, the story has an almost "lighter" feeling to it. while still exploring the various challenges queer people and also women of the era had to face.

It was more heavily focused on Celeste's journey to become a Naturalist than I expected, which resulted in exhausting descriptions in some scenes. The fact that she truly only met the beast halfway through the book also vexed me - sure, I wasn't promised a love story from the start, but when you're aware of the original, and when you've read about 10 chapters of a young woman suffering, struggling to find her right place in the world, long sentences hardly feel interesting, only tiring.

By far my favourite part of the book was Celeste exploring the Beast's past life. I found it more thrilling, almost enchanting - it was set in the Versailles! which I'm aware wasn't the cleanest place, but it surely was portrayed as such - and even wished that we could've had the book telling that story instead of the retelling. Instead, we travelled through journal entries and conversations.

Everything else I did not specific mention was simply nice. There was no extensive list of characters, and although I found the pacing quite slow most of the time, the dialogue and the little details are still worth a mention.

4.5/5 stars! This is easily the best Sapphic retelling of Beauty and the Beast that I have come across, which is high praise considering the other two (In The Vanisher's Palace and Thorn) are also excellent. Every character was sympathetic, motivations were clear, relationships were strong and sweet, and despite the implausibility of the curse at the center of the B&B tale (as noted by several of the characters), it was treated very well.

I only didn't give this five stars because I was conflicted about the "realism" aspects which made it a more "modern" story, but also a deeply sad one. For instance:
(view spoiler)

As a minor point, I find that Sapphic books can sometimes have very one-dimensional male characters, but I felt like this book did a fantastic job of having well-rounded, sweet male characters. Etienne is an especially shining example.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC for an honest review!

If I told you there was a sapphic historical fiction retelling of beauty and the beast, would you take it?

Of course you would. And you certainly wouldn't be disappointed. This book is excellent for fans of sapphic retellings, A Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, and Gail Carriger.

Lately there has been a craze for fairy retellings and I have been gobbling them all up when I come across them. This book was no different. The Beauty and the Beast story has been one of my most, if not favorite, Western fairy tales, and I have read various adaptations of this timeless classic. I will say the pros of this book first for me.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book was set in late 1800s France and the theme of a naturalist was exciting, to say the least, especially with the concept of a young woman trying to be one during that time period. Darwin's ideas certainly brought much excitement to people, scientists or not, and for a woman to be interested in such a thing at the time was definitely unheard of. It was great fun to see how Celeste observed and interacted with the world around her in a much different fashion than her friends or family through a curious scientific eye. I think I would have loved to have been her friend, much like her friend Angie who also supported her discoveries and scientific mind (and their love pastries and adventure stories!). I think we would have all gotten along just fine. And the beast too, was a curious creature. I was surprised at how much more animalistic this beast was compared to others I've read about. Sure, she could read and hold intellectual conversations but she was just as any other wild creature, in a sense. I would have also enjoyed her company. Admittedly, I was completely surprised by the character of Etienne by the end, but I am glad at how thing rather turned out overall for all major parties involved.

I think my only problem with this book was the minor thing of all the French in it. It's a cultural gap with me only knowing English, but it took me some time to figure out how I wanted to pronounce a lot of the words in the book. A guide of some sort would've been nice. The ending also felt a bit rushed. I feel some further closure for all characters involved would've been nice. I would have liked to have seen how Celeste's family and friends had ended up, though like the lover of the beast, I suppose they had to remain in the past and everyone had to go on to the future. Although only the author can say, I hope that everyone in the story found at least a bit of happiness in the end, whatever it may be. Also, the snippets shared here and there about Clement Orleans were fun to read, and I know I would've subscribed to read about his adventures and perhaps share them with my own Angie as well. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends who also enjoy fairy tale retellings as much as I do. It was a fun read, unique in its ideas, and I am glad I came across it when I did.