AUTHOR: Leife Shallcross
PUBLISHER: Berkley
PUBLISHING DATE: February 12, 2019
FROM GOODREADS: I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.
I am the Beast.
The day I was cursed to this wretched existence was the day I was saved—although it did not feel so at the time.
My redemption sprung from contemptible roots; I am not proud of what I did the day her father happened upon my crumbling, isolated chateau. But if loneliness breeds desperation then I was desperate indeed, and I did what I felt I must. My shameful behaviour was unjustly rewarded.
My Isabeau. She opened my eyes, my mind and my heart; she taught me how to be human again.
And now I might lose her forever.
MY THOUGHTS: The first thing that comes to mind with this book is that it is pretty darn wordy. It clocks in around 416 pages and while it isn't filled with information dumping, it is filled with description. This is sometimes annoying, but it actually fits the fairy tale style of "The Beast's Heart" pretty good. That's not to say it could have been a tad shorter in my opinion, but on the whole, I still enjoyed it.
"The Beast's Heart" is a retelling of one of my two favorite fairy tales, Beauty and the Beast. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Beast. I do find Belle somewhat annoying and some of that carried over to Isabeau, and there is one aspect of the Beast that drives me absolutely MAD in this version, but I still LOVE him. In this novel, we get the story from Beast's POV and it was absolutely wonderful to see what he experienced and learn about the curse and his following struggles through his own words. I also really enjoyed the side characters, Isabeau's family, who we see through a magical mirror that allows Beast to check in on them. Marie and Claude are quite interesting and have stories of their own.
I don't feel I really need to give you much on the plot because we all know how it ends right? Or at least I am assuming most people do or why are you considering this book? But I still feel if this is a tale you love, then you need to give Shallcross' version a chance. Just be prepared for a lengthy read but enjoy getting lost in the prose.
RATING: 4 PAWS (furry Beast paws at that).
BOOKER T's THOUGHTS: So what I want to know people is why did he need to be a man to be worthy of love and marriage? What's wrong with fur!!!!!
