Will the princess save the beast?
For Princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart. But much to Jaya’s annoyance, Grey’s brooding demeanor and lupine blue eyes have drawn her in. There’s simply no way she and her sworn enemy could find their fairy-tale ending…right?
His Lordship Grey Emerson is a misanthrope. Thanks to an ancient curse by a Rao matriarch, Grey knows he’s doomed once he turns eighteen. Sequestered away in the mountains at St. Rosetta’s International Academy, he’s lived an isolated existence—until Jaya Rao bursts into his life, but he can't shake the feeling that she’s hiding something. Something that might just have to do with the rose-shaped ruby pendant around her neck…
As the stars conspire to keep them apart, Jaya and Grey grapple with questions of love, loyalty, and whether it’s possible to write your own happy ending.
The first of this year's 25 Reads of December from RivetedLit, I thought a Beauty and the Beast style romance sounded cute. While I'm not new to reinterpretations of fairytales/literature classics, B&tB wasn't one I'd picked up yet, plus I'm always excited for a good transformation and/or redemption story. And since time is kinda crunched with these book-a-day offers, I decided to get the audiobook from my library to read along with, so I'll include my Audiobook Addendum section at the end as well.
Before we get too much further into the review, I'm going to make the assumption that you are familiar with Beauty and the Beast's general story and ending. (The Disney version is actually preferred here.) If you're not, consider this a spoiler warning because I don't know that I'm capable of analyzing the interpretation without touching on all aspects of the story, especially the ending. I will, however, do my best to keep unique aspects of the story, the subplots and secondary characters' arcs spoiler-free. So with that said, let's dive in, shall we?
