Falling for the Beast by Victorine E. Lieske

Title: Falling for the Beast
Author: Victorine E. Lieske
Genre: Retelling, Romance, Fairy Tale
Publication: March 10, 2017

Source: NetGalley

My Rating: 4/5

Aribelle is backed into the position of cleaning house for the horrible Mr. Thaddeus Walker. Not only is he rude, he's dangerously secretive, going out at night and coming home with injuries which seem to heal mysteriously fast. She should be keeping her distance, not trying to break down his barriers. But the more she uncovers, the more attracted she becomes until the cost of exposing his secrets fades behind the risk of losing her heart.

Thaddeus knows he should have sent the girl away instead of allowing her into his home. Now she’s asking questions he can’t answer. And the more time they spend together, the more he wishes he could pull her close and kiss her. But he can’t afford to do that. Beautiful Aribelle could never love a beast.

Falling for the Beast is a sweet romance.

** I received a free copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **

You'd really think that I've seen it all, being the Beauty and the Beast addict that I am, reading all retellings I can find and what not, but this story is actually pretty original. This beast is different and he actually has some very interesting powers and an unusual way of dealing with his guilt.

The plot does change considerably and, even though you do expect the happy ending, where the beast turns into a "normal" guy and lives with the girl happily ever after, the way the story develops is a little bit different.

This beast is actually a human man, with a body covered with scars, and secrets that he doesn't want to share. But when Aribelle starts working for him, he begins to open up and we start to see this other side of him.

We also have the jerk who wants to get the girl and slay the beast, and oh boy is he annoying. Thank God we don't get to see him much.

And I was glad that Thadeus and Aribelle spent so much time together, we don't get that many pages where they're apart. But I was surprised to see how fast everything happened, I thought they were going a bit too fast, they were already hugging very soon in the story (yeah, ok, maybe hugging is not that much big of a deal), but hey, she was working for the guy. A hug can be a huge deal. It was the beginning of something here.

I also loved how this is a very realistic story, but still has a bit of fantasy and magic in it. It was very well done :)


How do you feel about retellings?

Thank you for reading! ♥