Book Review: The Beast Within by Serena Valentino

Just before Christmas I read Fairest of All, the back story of The Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs written by Serena Valentino. I wrote a little review on this blog regarding my thoughts about the story, and as anyone who read it may have noticed, I was less than enthused about it. Having said that I still wanted to give the author a second chance and decided to order this story along with Once Upon A Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell. I purchased both books for a super reasonable price, I believe they were each less than €8 including delivery which was brilliant. As a side note I really think amazon is a great place to find book deals, particularly if you don't mind the books being second hand.

All that being said, you would think I would have learned my lesson and not bothered reading The Beast Within, but it was a short book and the plot did intrigue me. Also I had recently read As Old As Time by Liz Braswell which I found to be a wonderful experience so I wanted to compare the backstory of another writer to that one. The plot begins with the Beast in his Prince days, before he ever encountered the enchantress and became a Beast. There are aspects to the beginning of this story, such as his relationship with Gaston that are original but also somehow don't fully work. The book goes on to give an explanation as to why the Prince was transformed into the Beast and this involves a story of a previous romance and.....the absolute worst aspect of Valentino's tale. This is the three "witch sisters" who she uses rather unimaginatively as the exposition in both this book and similarly in Fairest of All. They for me are the worst part of it and the least enjoyable to read about. The plot continues into the Prince's slow and painful decline into the Beast as well as the castle's descent into being enchanted too. The character of the Prince I have to say is absolutely horrendous. He is made to be a sexist, elitist and just vile person by the author throughout. This makes it very difficult for us as the reader to ever believe he could change as a person as dramatically as he does. The final part of the book is pretty much just the original story with those three witch sisters placed conveniently and rather irritatingly throughout the final chapters.

All in all this book was about a 2.5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed parts of it, in particular the very beginning chapter which appeared promising and the attempt at real originality. That being said, there was just far too much mention of those three sisters and another love interest plot that I found slightly tedious to read about. Serena's writing style can also be very repetitive and when you compare it with that of Liz Braswell's you can see the lack of real writing experience and creativity. However, I would recommend this book if you are interested in seeing a back story to the Beast and some of the other characters in the plot, I would say if you were only going to pick one of those books to read, I would definitely suggest Liz Braswell's As Old As Time out of the two. I will most likely read Valentino's final book "Poor Unfortunate Soul", mainly because I have read that it's the best in her series and also because I am intrigued to see what kind of story she came up with for Ursula. I hope this review was helpful for anyone interested in The Beast Within and maybe they'll give it a shot and see how they feel about it. So go get a dreamy far off look and your nose stuck in a book

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As Old As Time Review: http://sineadsowndisneyland.blogspot.ie/2017/03/review-of-as-old-as-time-twisted-tale.html

Review of As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell

Ever since reading Fairest of All by Serena Valentino, I had longed to read a similar type of book but that was better written and with a more interesting story So, thankfully, I came across Liz Braswell's Twisted Tale Disney series on amazon. The premise of the books looked very interesting and they seemed to be more aimed for teenagers on up (even though I'm 26 that didn't stop me!) I immediately decided to purchase the third book in the series first as it's the one with the premise I was most interested in. That book is As Old As time, which as you can probably guess is about the Beast and Belle, and of course, with a little twist in the tale. The book cost me €8.00 including delivery which was excellent! Not only because it would be very difficult to find in a book shop near me, but also because even if I did, it would probably cost between €15-20.00! The cover of the book is paperback, and I really do like the design and font used for the title. There is a hardback one available which has an amazing cover so if anybody is getting this as a collector's item, I would highly recommend splashing out and hunting for that one. The condition of the book was brand new and it even came with a little paperback book mark. It is a good long read at about 485 pages, however the text is medium sized as are most young adult books so it doesn't take too long to get through.

Now, onto the book itself. The premise of the story as it states on the front cover is "What if Belle's mother cursed the Beast?". When I first saw that it really intrigued me. The story itself begins on the night that the Enchantress (now whom we know as Belle's mother) places the curse on the Beast and all the people in his castle. We are then taken back to when Belle's father Maurice met the enchantress and how they came to fall in love and give birth to their daughter. We also get to see how Belle's mother came to curse the young prince and all of the lovable objects in his castle. This part of the book, part one, is probably my least favourite of the entire story. Ironically, the aspect that I found so intriguing in the premise, i.e. Belle's mother being the enchantress, was actually not all that interesting to read about. That is, her back story is just a bit too long and wishy washy for me.

The second part of the book which I would consider to have a sort of mystery vibe to it was my favourite and the most enjoyable to read. I won't give too much away but mainly it focuses on the Beast and Belle and how they came to get to know each other. It is also the section in which what I consider to be the real twist occurs. As a side note, I read this book out loud to my boyfriend as he played a video game and he found this to be the best section of the story also, so there's second opinion for you! I really was fond of how Belle's character was portrayed in this also. She was given a bit more of a realistic personality while still having the same sweetness and likability as she had in the animated classic. The Beast is also given a more multidimensional personality. The lovely way in which he behaves in the ballroom scene of the film and his sweetness is brought out more as well as the darker more beastly sides to his curse.

The third section of this book is also quite good but I have to say, not at all suitable for younger kids to read. There are elements of torture, violence, mental health issues etc... very heavy stuff for anybody younger than at least 15 to be ready in my opinion. I did appreciate the way they took the story and the ending that is what given, although I do really wish the author would have tightened it up just a touch as it did feel, as the beginning did, a little drawn out.

Ultimately this was an extremely enjoyable read for me as a Disney fan and actually I have to say as a lover of Mystery/Thriller novels. As I previously said there are some elements of violence and slightly adult oriented subject matters so I wouldn't exactly be rushing to purchase this for a child as a gift or anything but maybe that's just my age showing and I'm being a bit too Mrs. Potts like about it! There are two other books in this series, one is about Sleeping Beauty and the other Aladdin. I actually cannot wait to settle down with a cup of tea and get stuck into those two soon, because as Walt said, "There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on treasure island".