Book Review: Beauty and the Beast by Jenni James

ASIN: B008940W3Y
Published: June 4th, 2012
Publisher: StoneHouse Ink
Read from September 5th to 10th, 2015
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Beauty and the Beast is the first in a new series of fairy tales for young adult readers. Fans of Disney, fairy tales, and fantasy will love the Faerie Tale Collection by Jenni James. A prince by day and a wolf by night—
Prince Alexander has been turned into a werewolf and has one year to find someone to love the beast and break the spell, or he will be a wolf forever. He has nearly given up achieving the impossible, knowing no girl would ever fall in love with such a monster.
Just when he is about to abdicate the throne to his cousin, he meets Cecelia Hammerstein-Smythe, while a wolf, and begins to hope for the first time in months. Can he balance both worlds as a human and beast, gaining the love and trust of a girl who has every reason to despise him?
Cecelia detests the prince. She only knows Alexander as the arrogant monarch—the tyrant who has made her life miserable—though perhaps he's changed right before her eyes. He's not as full of himself as he once was. The prince is gentle now... but then again, so is the beast. 

Review:

I always enjoy seeing the different ways that authors adapt Beauty and the Beast. It's very interesting to me to see all the different ways it's done. This one was interesting in that the "Beast" was a wolf during the night but human during the day. I've read other retellings where he specifically turns into a wolf, but I think this was the first one I'd read where he's only transformed at night.

The story was hard to find believable a lot of the time. In some ways, that's pretty common in fairy tale retellings, but there are still ways for things to feel believable within the context of the story. I didn't always feel things were believable like that in this story. The relationships between the characters felt very rushed, and it was hard to believe that Cecelia and Alexander had actually fallen in love with each other.

Overall, I did enjoy the book a bit. It's a quick read, and I enjoy just about every Beauty and the Beast retelling in some way. There are better retellings out there, but if you really love Beauty and the Beast, you might be interested enough to check this one out.