Thank you so much Catherine Downen for sending me this ARC!

Spellbound Lies is YA Beauty and the Beast retelling with some Jekyll & Hyde vibes and it had so many unique twists I was hooked since the first chapter!

Jessamyn is a baker and she is over the moon when she gets chosen to be a caterer for an event at the castle. But when she loses her ring and returns to the castle in the middle of the night, the prince who finds her feels like a totally different person than the charming prince she met a few hours earlier. Unable to leave after stumbling upon a big secret, Jessamyn must help the prince break the curse if she ever wants to return to her family.

I really liked the idea of there being two totally different personalities of the prince, it felt like a really refreshing take on Beauty and the Beast and I enjoyed it a lot (and quickly had my favorite of the two!). I liked Jessamyn, she was a bit naive and not that interesting at the beginning but she grew a lot and I liked seeing her stand up for herself more and fight for what she wanted. I really enjoyed the romance, I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but it was slow burn and I couldn’t wait for their scenes together, they were so cute! And despite this book being a retelling, there were so many twists and I was surprised so many times because just when I thought I knew what was going to happen everything changed and I love that in books!

Spellbound Lies is a really great book and retelling, it is quite long but I read it in one sitting because I just had to know what happened next! Can’t wait for the sequel.

This was a bit difficult to get through as it was long and read like a middle grade novel, rather than a young adult one. While there were some unique aspects that I appreciated in the Beauty and the Beast retelling, such as incorporating a sort of Jekyll and Hyde aspect into the prince/beast character, I foud that instead of being a man "crafted from the darkest evils", he seemed to just have the temper of a tumultuous toddler,with Jessamyn not being much better. I wish I could say the tory sucked me in, but I struggled to get through it and remain interested.

I loved the concept of Jekyll and Hyde meets Beauty and the Beast, it worked really well together in this story. The plot worked really well in the story and I was invested in what was going on in this world. The characters worked in this world and I was glad I was able to read this.

"I nod, if only to make myself respond instead of being frozen from his proclamation to destroy my home and the people he’s killed. Instead, I let myself consider something he said earlier, “So, you are not real.” “Just a piece of magic trapped in the prince’s body.”