WARNING: This book contains a graphic rape, attempted suicide, and abortion.

I’d like to think of myself as one that doesn’t get offended. That when the story calls for it I can deal with dark subject matter that comes out of the pages from an author hoping to add a twisted element to their story. These tropes work on occasion giving the story a deeper component that makes the story irresistible. I have encountered many stories of this kind and have enjoyed most, if not all of them if memory serves me right. I accept them for what they are and try to find their balance in the story being told.

What I cannot abide by though are these dark tropes thrown in without a care for what they can do if done with no forethought. It’s sad to say that Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen is just such a culprit. It is so disappointing to me because the premise of this book was fantastic. My hopes were high that I was in for a treat, as Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite stories and I wanted my first retelling experience of the story to be fantastic. This was not to be the case.


Our main protagonist is Lucie, who we later come to understand to be a gender-bender Lumiere. She is a servant in the Château Beaumont whose master is Jean-Loup Christian Henri LeNoir, Chevalier de Beaumont, the predestined Beast. We start the story with an insta-love of sorts as Lucie seems to fall madly in love with Jean-Loup at merely the sight of him. She suffers her work to just get a glimpse of him. Though these glimpses clearly reveal him to be a snobbish, narcissistic asshole, she is certain that he is truly a wonderful man (all he needs is a manic pixie dream girl to show him the way).


One night while Lucie is roaming the castle she stumbles upon an inebriated Jean-Loup who asks to be escorted back to his chambers using her candle to light the way. From there we engage in a two page long extremely graphic rape of Lucie a la Jean-Loup. Now I want to make this very clear. This scene came so far out of left field I felt shell shocked after reading it. Those of us who know and love the original story accept the fact that the Prince is a jerk-face, but to have him become a full on rapist is almost too much to handle. There is no redemption possible from that. None! And this story, this love story hinges on the fact that the Beast/Prince can redeem himself and become worthy of love. Your love story hard stops for me right here, but I continued to the end because I am a reader and a writer and I believe I can learn from others, even their mistakes.

Some questions are born from Lucie’s attack. One namely being, what if she births Jean-Loup’s child? The only way for her to cope she decides is to throw herself into the rushing river behind the Château Beaumont estate. There is no hesitation in her decision, this is the only option in her small mind. Truly, this girl is a dizzying character. When she gets to the bank of the river she doubts for a second, long enough for an old beggar woman to appear. This of course startles her and she falls into the rapids anyway, only to be saved by said beggar woman.

Lucie is distraught that she failed in her task and will now more than likely have to birth Jean-Loup’s bastard child. The old beggar woman, who goes by Sophie, tells her she can fix that. With no more than a wave of her hand (really all was missing was a puff of glitter) she says that it’s taken care of. What the Fuck! This old woman straight up aborted a fetus to prove to Lucie that she has power. I am all pro-choice, it’s a woman’s body, and all that, but my body physically shivered at this scene.


Once the baby is no longer a threat Lucie’s attitude quickly darkens. It is now we find what Lucie would truly love to do and that is to get revenge on Jean-Loup, because of course she does, the man fucking raped her! The old beggar woman is happy to oblige and sends Lucie on her way with a promise that Jean-Loup will get his just desserts.

This is where this story starts really including OG Beauty and the Beast into the mix. Jean-Loup disregards the old beggar woman who returns as a beauty and casts the enchantment on him and his Château. However, in this story all the servants flee except for Lucie who has such a lady boner for revenge that she insists to Sophie that she wants to stay and watch Jean-Loup as the Beast suffer. In response Sophie transforms Lucie into a silver candelabra whose flames never go out.

GOOD POINT: There are going to be few of these so relish it. I was intrigued at the idea of Lucie being the candelabra. It was the sort of twisty turny story I was initially hoping for. Of course this comes much after the horrible rape scene and so any happy thoughts I potentially could have had about it were vastly overshadowed by that.

Let me be clear again. Jean-Loup, rapist, is turned into the Beast. He is the same person, just harrier. As much as the story will try, these are not two different people, there is no split personalities. They.Are.The.Same.Person! Lucie is doomed to be an immortal candelabra and we are to accept the fact that she is happy about this. To me, this is the most round about victim blaming crap I have ever witnessed. You don’t imprison the victim with their attacker just so she can savor revenge. That is such a super unhealthy message, but then again there isn’t much in this story that is healthy.

Time passes, we aren’t given a clear indication of how long, though as the story progresses I’d wager it’s only a few months if that. Lucie has been held up in a cupboard this entire time only to be found by the Beast who she notes immediately doesn’t appear to be the same. He seems to sense that there is magic in the candelabra and so takes it with him to have something to talk to. Eventually Lucie and the Beast find a way to communicate and it’s suggested that it’s by telepathy, though it’s never really truly confirmed. Through these conversations Lucie comes to the startling realization that Beast has no memory of being Jean-Loup. In fact, as she explains what happened to her he believes that she is talking about another person entirely. I told you it was going to pull this bullshit. Do not fall for it.

Due to these new circumstances Lucie feels it only right not to categorize Beast with the likes of Jean-Loup and in fact begins to view them as two separate beings. She begins to treasure her moments with Beast as he tends to his roses or writes poetry. Honestly if this book tried any harder for you to believe a rapist fuckboi could magically turn into a hipster love interest with zero character growth it would be a Tinder profile with the headline “But I’m a nice guy.”


Because here’s where this story falls flat. If the Beast has zero character growth, when “Belle” shows up what will be the point? If he forgets all that he has done, how does he learn from those mistakes? I feel like Jensen knew this deep in her soul. She knew that rape was irredeemable and therefore couldn’t go the traditional character growth route. She had to take the amnesia route, because that really is the only way for a small audience base to accept this travesty.

“Belle”, I mean Rose, does eventually show up. The fact that the author went with the name Rose is the least troubling thing about this character. She does not come off as likable – at all, though Jensen seems to think she does. She never warms to the Beast despite him being the perfect gentleman (I say this because she is completely oblivious to Jean-Loup’s past, so baring that in mind and the fact that the Beast is all great now, there is no reason for her to act the way she does). And it is heavily, I mean heavily implied that she is a gold digger. More so than ruining the character of Beast I am pissed at Jensen’s abomination of the character Belle. Where is the kind, gentle soul? The adventurous bookworm, where is she!?

After a lot of round about love triangle shenanigans Lucie comes clean to Beast about the fact that he is truly Jean-Loup and if Rose agrees to marry him he will turn back into that rapist. Not wanting that, which is possibly the only redeemable thing for his character, he decides to send Rose away. Though he tries, she demands to stay because it’s about her Father’s honor (and the fact she knows if she stays long enough she can be mistress of Château Beaumont).


Lucie then gets the great idea of making Rose’s father appear in the mirror in her room. Of course it finds him extremely sick to where Rose has no choice but to leave. Beast accepts this and also accepts that she will most likely not return. In the mean time he tries to find ways to break Lucie’s enchantment because now that Rose is gone his attention is all back on Lucie. When this doesn’t work Beast decides his only avenue is to kill himself, leaving Lucie alone in the Château. (How he thinks this will make things better for her I have no idea).

When Lucie discovers his plan she tries to stop him by summoning Rose telepathically which breaks her enchantment, because all she needed to do was open her heart. *Ugh* Rose finds the Beast in time and declares that she will marry him like that hadn’t been her grand plan all along. Beast immediately transforms back into Jean-Loup who surprise surprise has not learned jack shit and is still a rapist.

Lucie runs away to Sophie’s where she learns the truth about the curse of Château Beaumont. Beast is actually the rightful heir and Jean-Loup is the curse. It all comes down to his mother who so sickened by his beast form begs Sophie to make her son beautiful like his father and just like his father he is a monster of a tyrant. We also learn that Jean-Loup’s bloodline is essentially dry and he won’t be able to produce any children due to the evil that runs in the family. Basically negating that entire abortion scene in the beginning. WTF Sophie! Lucie becomes her apprentice, but on the day of the wedding she decides that enough is enough and she is going to bring back Beast.


She essentially catches Jean-Loup about to sexually assault another servant girl and in that moment declares that she loves the Beast. I groaned so hard at this. God Damn It Lucie! You just declared your love for a fucking rapist, and not just any rapist, your rapist. This is so beyond a troubling message to put out there I don’t even know where to begin. Beast returns and Rose accepts it along with becoming Mistress of Château Beaumont. Meaning that Beast and Lucie have to run away, which they do and we get this shudder inducing epilogue talking about their great life in their cabin in the woods. The end.

I feel like I went into way more detail in this review than I have in the past, but this book is just so problematic on so many levels. It sickens me that a story I grew up with and still to this day cherish was twisted into this rape victim blaming garbage. I know that Jensen has another retelling under her belt and that one has more critical acclaim, but it’s hard to want to touch anything else of hers knowing what she did with this one.

As a reader don’t be shy to point out problems such as these and as a writer, learn from them so that they don’t happen again.

BAD POINT: I think I’ve said all I need to.

I LOVE retellings and I LOVE Beauty & the Beast...so i thought i would LOVE this book. Unfortunately, that was not the case with this book. Besides the subject matter (which was a bit startling)...i just didnt vibe with this retelling.

I'm always up for a retelling but rape triggers are not my forte when reading. I believe there should be a warning on these types of reads. She was so obsessed with this guy and he rapes her. I dont know, it wasnt my favorite of the year. However, I like how she took it and ran, she cursed him but it just didnt make sense to me all up in the end.

This book was not what I was expecting, but at the same time it was exactly what I wanted. Very heavily inspired by the original Villaneuve Beauty and the Beast story, this novel begins before that story and ends somewhat after it. A part of what kept me turning pages so avidly was seeing just how the author was going to resolve this or that plot point into the story that she was telling.

Lucie is a maid within the house of the great chevallier. When she first spies him, she feels as though his beauty is something that is worthy of her serving. However, when he takes advantage of her in the worst way, that admiration turns to self-hate and fear.

Only when Lucie begins to fear that a child may have been made from their coupling does that self-hate turn outwards. Lucie meets with a witch in the fields who says that she will take care of the cruelty of the chevalier.

That's around the time when the conventional Beauty and the Beast narrative starts up. I very much thought of Angela Carter's retellings of this story, but this is a full fleshed novel that offers Beast a happily ever after as himself rather than the handsome prince, and I don't think I've seen another novel quite like that.

Certainly an interesting take on the classic tale, and it did keep me pretty steadily intrigued. Overall, I liked Lucie and Beast, though as a couple they didn't make me feel anything. Lucie could be a bit too revenge-driven, like the revenge was the only thing driving her whole personality for a while. I thought the prose was pretty good, but there were a few phrases and scenes that were odd or just plain silly.

I liked the differences to the original fairytales as laid out in the story, but wished they would have been better explained, especially regarding the Curse and Jean-Loup/Beast. It was very sketchily explained, in a "don't delve too deep" kind of way.

It felt a fair bit longer than it had to, there was a lot of nothing/shoe-leather. Definitely needed some editing.

Overall, interesting and I'd check out more by this author, but I won't be coming back to this one.

Thank you, NetGalley and Candlewick Press, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well, this was... Hoo boy.

Let me back up. I'm a sucker for a Beauty and the Beast retelling. No matter how close or how far a retelling gets from the source material, I usually rate it an easy five stars because I am just that easy to please.

However, from its clunky prose to its yikes-worthy content, Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge was a book that was hard to swallow from the start. I almost DNF'd it with a one-star rating, and it's a rare occasion for me to not finish a book. In the end, I am glad I stuck with it, so I could get a full picture of what Lisa Jensen intended with her story, but I can still only award two stars, mostly out of pity, because I do not like what was accomplished with this retelling and how it reflects on the original.

Lucie is a maid working on Chevalier Jean-Loop's estate. Jean-Loop is a cruel, childish, selfish master who even seeks to ruin his own family for more riches. In case you can't guess, Jean-Loop is our Beast character. What you probably didn't guess is that very early on in the story, Jean-Loop rapes Lucie, to the point where she nearly commits suicide by drowning. A spoiler that may be, but I feel like a reader should be made aware of it before deciding to plunge into this, especially if that's something they have a low tolerance for.

It's like Jean-Loop is the prince and Gaston combined into one character, and pushed to an extreme. Don't get me wrong: rape happens to women and it's always horrific, but I hate that it was used here at all. Especially after Lucie started to view herself as useless, filthy, and unfit to live after the fact.

Mère Sophie, our enchantress character, saves Lucie and eventually curses Jean-Loop into his beastly form. Lucie decides to stay, wanting to watch Jean-Loop suffer until her vengeance is satisfied, so she is transformed into an enchanted candlestick. Shortly after that, Beast seems to forget everything about being Jean-Loop and what he did to Lucie, and the more traditional Beauty and the Beast tale begins.

This was about where I almost deleted this book off my ebook library. The rape scene was gross enough, but I'm of the strong opinion that if you're going to do dark stuff like that, you need to commit to it 110 percent. You can't just turn back and give the committer of the crime memory loss and paint him as being suddenly sweet and gentle because how disgusting is that?

The truth is, Jensen made Beast and Jean-Loop two different characters with two different consciousnesses entirely. That was almost worse, because why even have rape in the first place? There are plenty of terrible things Jean-Loop could've done to make Lucie hate him without adding rape to the equation, so I am not giving Jensen a pass on this one. This was nothing short of disappointing. I couldn't even like the twist that Beast was the real person and that Jean-Loop was the real curse that needed to be broken all along. It turned Jean-Loop from being a horrible villain to a ridiculous one, and it didn't do any favors for Beast, either; I found him to be terribly boring, and his child-like naiveté was so grating.

Not even Rose, the Beauty character, could save this book. In fact, I hated how self-serving, conniving, and fake-sweet she was. Normally, I love female characters like that--the more Slytherin, the better--but it rang so wrong in this story.

I suppose the reason for the two-star rating is for a few redeemable reasons. I enjoyed Mère Sophie's character as well as how Lucie as a candlestick was designed to illuminate Jean-Loop's crimes and misery. However, it got extremely old how she couldn't move on her own or speak, until she figured out how to do the latter via mental connection. I swear at least 80 percent of this book was description, and that made for an incredibly boring time because the setting stayed largely the same. I suppose some part of me does respect what Jensen tried to do to put a new spin on this tale as old as time, but far too much of it angered, disgusted, bored, or disappointed me.

And, if I'm being really honest, I am pretty dissatisfied with the "Beast stays a Beast and somehow that's a reward for the female character's hardships" ending. Liz Braswell's own Beauty and the Beast retelling did that, and it just didn't do it for me. Which is weird, because normally I'm into the monster thing. Maybe it's the complete break from tradition that I don't like.

I think that this book might have a higher general rating if more people had finished it and seen what the author did with it as a whole, but Jensen gambled way too much on people getting through the rape scene and the hint of romance between rapist and victim that turned a lot of people off; she waited way too long in her narrative to reveal what was actually going on, something that doesn't work when you have the typical romantic hero do something that extreme to a potential female love interest. Either the reveal needed to happen sooner, making this a much different story, or the rape scene should've been nixed for something else.

Of course, this is easy to declare in hindsight as a reader. I've heard Jensen's Captain Hook retelling is much better and more digestible. I'm willing to give her a second chance, but I will do so with a fair amount of trepidation.

I enjoyed the retelling aspect of this story beauty and the beast is my favorite and the atmosphere of the writing was very nice I could picture the scenery in my mind but I had a hard time connecting to the characters the writing style was a little different then I’m use to it ended up taking me a long time to finish.

I have to agree with most other reviewers on this book. I started it a while ago but stopped after a certain scene (rape of the MC) and decided to wait on the reviews to see if I would want to continue. I need those scenes done a certain way or else I just become repulsed and queasy about a book.

Like most bibliophiles the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorites and I am always eager to snatch up the latest retelling, but unfortunately even after trying to get past that early scene, I couldn't find myself finishing or enjoying this book,

DNF.

I read Jensen's Alias Hook a few years back, and that was a way better read for me. We've established from that and Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge that this author knows how to turn her favorite stories into completely different books.

In Beast, the heroine Lucie is turned into a candle--I appreciated the unique perspective, but that's the only positive thing I can say about this one. For one, I was incredibly bored. Since the narrator is, well, an inanimate object, there were times when she (it?) literally just sat on a cupboard, doing nothing. Fucking exciting, right?

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The writing didn't make anything more bearable, either. The dialogue was so cheesy, and if I see someone call the heroine "girl," one more time, I'm going to turn them into candlesticks! That's right, beware!

That's pretty much it for this one. I'm surprised I managed to push myself to read the entire thing. The ending was really predictable, too, so I'm not sure if I can say the read was worth it.

This was a good book. I enjoyed the characters and the storyline. I would recommend it to my friends.

This a retelling as a famous story, a tale as old as time! Sorry couldn’t resist! It follows the character Lucie as she gets a job at the chateau as a maid, and from the day she sees the handsome Chevalier her fate is sealed. This is a great reinterpretation of a classic story, and I really enjoyed it.
Highly recommended! Be my guest and take the time to read this book!

I adore retellings books a lot, but this one just didn’t cut out for me. I stopped reading because not only did it justify rape scene. It also was a very long and dull read. The characters had no basis of a strong connection or love other than supposed curse? I gotta say, I much enjoy the disney version of The Beauty and The Beast not the original one.

This is the absolute worst Beauty and the Beast retelling ever. And yes, I actually took the time to finish to the end. It took me weeks and weeks to slough through this, but I did it, to be able to honestly say that this retelling is garbage.

First, as everyone else goes on about, there is a significant rape scene, and OMG, you're going to sully Belle and the Beast's love story by turning HIM into a Gaston-like character and have him rape a servant? Right away, massive turn off.

About 75% of the book, it seemed like Jean Loup had conveniently forgotten what the hell he did while human, and now under his amnesia he's a sweet guy, which is a very confusing and angry way to read this book because I felt like the evil perpetrator was not getting any kind of punishment for his misdeeds, letting all his cares fall away to amnesia. When the explanation was given, it was too little too late for me.

I just genuinely love and adore the classic Beauty and the Beast tale, and this was an extreme take that did not have any of the magic of the original.

Beast: A Tale of love and revenge
I really did not like this book at all. There was not type of connection with the characters and that rape scene really disturbed me. I really did not understand why there was literally a whole page of the rape scene. Also I do not agree with the character falling in love with the rapist. This was just a terrible read for me.

DNF

After going into this without looking at other reviews, I was caught off guard by the rape scene early on. I didn’t continue after that.

This was an awful retelling of a wonderful story.
I didn’t like the ending as it just seemed a little too perfect, too neat and tidy for my liking and that’s before I even get started on the fact that one of the main characters was a rapist.
The middle of the book became slow and as the plot became odder and odder I found myself feeling bored and uninterested.

At first this intrigued me because the synopsis sounded SO GOOD. Then I started reading and within the first few pages I quickly realized this tale IS old as time and I was not enjoying it anymore. Definitely felt like something was missing. Not sure if it was the writing or the story line, or both, but I couldn't get into this. DNF at 12%. Mostly because that nasty rape scene really threw me off. I'll pass on this retelling.

Allons-y!

Side note about this story before I begin my review: there is a dark scene near the beginning portraying rape. I did not know this before I picked up this book and it completely surprised me.

Erm. I am not entirely sure where to begin this review. I suppose let me start by saying I absolutely love Beauty and the Beast retellings. When I saw this on NetGalley, I absolutely had to take a chance on it. I was so surprised when I was approved for an advanced copy. Though I have heard about NetGalley through friends before, I had never signed up until a couple months ago. Anyway, I really wanted to love this book, but sadly it fell short for so many reasons.

What is the main gist about this Beauty and the Beast retelling? There were some interesting twists here and there, what with seeing the story before the Prince being turned into Beast. And, the story is told through the eyes of a young servant girl, Lucie, who works at the castle. I mean, that’s pretty cool, right? We get to see the Prince as Lucie sees him; a beautiful and charming prince. Sort of. If you know any version of the story, you’ll know the Prince is quite cruel. And this isn’t any different in Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge. Jean-Loup is the biggest jerk in the world. I cannot explain how much I hated him. He was the absolute worst.

The story follows Lucie from when she first joins the castle’s staff through the Prince’s transformation into Beast and all that comes after (I don’t want to spoil this, but it does get interesting). Lucie is the sweetest, but she goes through so much pain and heartache during the story. She goes from sweet maiden to hardened and revenge-seeking barely a quarter of the way through the book. And boy, does she deserve to be as angry as she was. Lucie comes across a witch on the outskirts of the castle groups which begins the downfall of Jean-Loup.

As I mentioned above, Jean-Loup is the most significant pick and the last of the Beaumont lineage. He’s everything you could want to hate in a character. That is honestly all I can say about it. I just hate him. Hmph.

Beast is the opposite of Jean-Loup. He was a sweetheart, and I could not help but root for poor Beast. He loves all that Jean-Loup hated. Beast tends to the rose garden on the castle grounds, and at that moment, I knew he was a good guy. He wanted to help Lucie break the spell. Did I mention that Lucie was caught in the mess with the spell that changed Jean-Loup into Beast? Oops, well, now you know! But I won’t spoil what happened to her.

My favorite part about the book was the uniqueness of the story. I have not read a Beauty and the Beast retelling like this. I liked seeing the story through someone other than Belle’s eyes (who is named Rose in this version). Lucie had a lot of hate in her, and her progression from innocent to hopeless, from hateful to desperate to help was nice to see. And I loved the mystery behind Beast.

Sadly, for the parts that killed me. There were so many run-on sentences. They went on and on, and it drove me insane. I think that a lot of them could be broken up or just cut down. It made many of the chapters long-winded and draining. I was not sure if I would be able to finish the book because it felt exhausting to read. To me, there was too much filler, and I thought some things could have been cut out to get the story to progress a little quicker. Having said that, the story did finally pick up almost halfway through. I was SO excited then. (I just realized that the story might have been slow because there were pages upon pages without dialogue). And I was glad that I stuck around to continue reading it. Things got worse, then better, then worse again, but I finally felt the story moving somewhere. Before I forget, Jean-Loup’s name was constantly missing the hyphen in his name. There were at least a couple times where his name was on the page more than once and it either had the hyphen or it didn’t. Something missed in final edits, I’m sure!

And that is where I will leave you! If you want to know more, please check out the story. :)

Many thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!


Cheers,
Natalia x

-- I received a free e-review copy of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. --

This is a really interesting and unique reimagining of Beauty and the Beast - you think you know how the story goes, but it ends up turning into a very different direction. The characters are multi-faceted and morally gray to a certain extent, which makes for a more interesting read.
However, I still ended up feeling pretty meh about the story, as it didn't manage to pull me in enough. I would still recommend this book to people who love romance and fairy tales, even though I don't see it as a 'must-read'.

Lucie becomes a servant at Chateau Beaumont, and at first, it seems like a dream. The dream quickly becomes a nightmare, however, when the lord of the house, Jean-Loup, notices her.

After a brutal assault, Lucie visits a witch. She is determined that Jean-Loup suffer as she has--and nothing seems more perfect for a vain man to have his outsides look like his insides. The witch turns him into a hideous beast. It seems that Lucie is destined to quietly watch his suffering, however, as the witch also turns her into a silver candlestick--impervious to harm, but also silent.

Then, one night a man happens upon the nearly abandoned chateau, and steals a rose. To repay his theft, the Beast demands that the ailing man send his daughter, Rose, to keep him company.

Rose changes Lucie's now gentle Beast in ways she could never have anticipated.

This book takes an interesting approach to the Beauty and the Beast tale, and leaves us wondering which version of the prince was the curse. The book has the feel of a fairytale, but it's definitely not the same one we've all read or watched before.