Nice retelling of Beaty and the Beast, with a twis.

Here we go my ‘caught’ journal entry at last, sorry it was delayed! Picked up at the Edinburgh BookSwap - BookCrossing MeetUp, Thursday 2 Nov in Jeremiah's Taproom on Elm Row. Just my thing, many thanks PurplePostIt!

Book burble: ENTER A WORLD OF SECRETS AND SACRIFICE

It’s pointless. Hopeless. Even if she weren’t afraid of me, we’ll always be enemies at the core . . .

In the city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra is raised to be a human sacrifice. Her death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert, a mutant beast named Gem fights to save his people, known as the Monstrous, from starvation.
Neither dreams that, together, they can return balance to their worlds.
When Gem is captured for trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, he becomes a prisoner of the city. Isra enlists his help, and soon begins to care for him – and to question everything she has been brought up to believe . . .

She’s a queen; I’m her prisoner. I am her monster and she is mine . . .

OF BEAST AND BEAUTY by STACEY JAY (2013) | ISBN: 9780385743211 | Publisher: Random House, Teens

An interesting premise, the privileged and beautiful Princess is in fact disfigured and a prisoner both physically; locked in a tower and mentally; locked into her role by what’s been presented all her life as ‘the truth’ and subsequently she is a hostage to sacrifice. While the Monstrous Gem turns out to be most certainly in his thinking not nearly as monstrous as many of the individuals who have prided themselves on the protection and care they have lavished on the Princess. These individuals have been sure they were doing the best thing for their city but as the foundations of her belief system are shaken the princess begins to question everything.

While this was good it was a rather fractured tale and not as good as I would have liked I had worried that it might be too ‘sweet’ on the romance front but actually found it to be well-written and exciting with interesting characters. Sure its audience is a young adult one and it could be considered overly dramatic in places but keen as I am on the genre I enjoyed the promise of this.
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Thrilled to have another BookCrossing reader lined up for this I am equally relieved to have finally got my scribbles written up so this can head into the post today!

TUE 16 JAN 2018 – few days delay and parcel now posted.

Thanks a lot rainbow3! This arrived safely together with 2 other surprise books and some lovely bookmarks. Finding your parcel on my doorstep cheered me up after a busy day at work.
I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings, so I'm looking forward to read this. :)