Book Review: The Beautiful Pretender (A Medieval Fairy Tale, #2) by Melanie Dickerson

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Buy: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository

Format: Kindle

Publishers: Thomas Nelson

Published: 17th May 2016

Pages: 320

Genre: YA, Historical Romance, Fairy Tale

Main Characters: Avelina, Lord Thornbeck
Date Read: 20th February - 6th March 2017

Rating Given:

Synopsis:

What happens when a margrave realizes he’s fallen in love with a servant?The Margrave of Thornbeck has to find a bride, fast. He invites ten noble-born ladies from around the country to be his guests at Thornbeck Castle for two weeks, a time to test these ladies and reveal their true character.
Avelina is only responsible for two things: making sure her deception goes undetected and avoiding being selected as the margrave’s bride. Since the latter seems unlikely, she concentrates on not getting caught. No one must know she is merely a maidservant, sent by the Earl of Plimmwald to stand in for his daughter, Dorothea.
Despite Avelina’s best attempts at diverting attention from herself, the margrave has taken notice. And try as she might, she can’t deny her own growing feelings. But something else is afoot in the castle. Something sinister that could have far worse—far deadlier—consequences. Will Avelina be able to stop the evil plot? And at what cost?

I received a review copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don't really like this cover and I don't really know why it just  doesn't sit right for me. I do like that you can tell the genre of the book just by looking at the cover.

With this book I was in two minds whether I enjoyed it or not especially in the beginning as it was so slow but then by the end I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next. I did find it rather predictable as I just knew where it was going to go so I would've liked it a bit more if something happened that I wasn't expecting. The relationship between the two main characters I liked in some parts as there was times when they where great together and brought out the best in each other but then on the other hand they also bought out the worse in each other. I did love the ending it was really sweet and had a little humour interweaved in there as well which I think was missing from most of the book.

Most of the characters took a while to warm towards but each of them had there strong points. I feel Avelina was the better character out of the two main characters as she was more likable from the beginning, she did lie a lot but I guess in the end I understood why she did that. Lord Thornbeck was hard to like in the beginning but once we got to see his softer side I found myself liking him. Magdalen was a really sweet character but I felt as though she was too good to be true no one can be that nice.

Overall, I was expecting a lot from this book after falling in love with one of Melanie Dickerson's novel's however this one fell a little flat.

Book Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

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Format: Hardback

Publishers: Delacorte Press

Published: 23rd July 2013

Pages: 391

Genre: YA, Historical Romance, Retelling

Main Characters: Isra, Gem
Date Read: 8th January - 6th February 2017

Rating Given:

Synopsis:

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...
In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.
Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.
As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

I have joined a challenge on Goodreads called Book Jar where I put in titles in a jar and read whichever book I pull out. When I pulled out this book I was pleased as I've had this sitting on my shelf for a while now, however I was a little disappointed when reading it as it wasn't as good as what I thought I would've.

I love this cover it's stunning and I especially love the colours that have been used although I feel like this particular cover wasn't in keeping with the story as it seems like a sci-fi novel but for me the book didn't feel that much of a sci-fi book.

This was a hard book to review as it was as if it was a tale of two halves as I couldn't get into pretty much most of the book but the last quarter of the book was gripping and I really enjoyed it. I think the reason why I couldn't get into most of this book was because it was so slow with hardly any action, I was pretty much bored throughout. With this being a Beauty and the Beast retelling I was expecting to fall in love with the characters and their romance, however I just couldn't warm to them or their romance until the very end. I really thought there would be more focus on the romance side of the story but it just seemed glossed over and then rushed once it got going. Towards the end when it really started to pick up was when there was more action going on with me on the edge of my seat. The ending was really sweet and in the end I found I was glad were things left off.

As I said above I wasn't overly keen on any of the characters but most of them had their moments when I liked them I just never had that 'I love these characters' moment.

Overall, I was expecting a lot more from this book than what I got but the end part of the story did improve things quite a bit but I just wish it was all as good as the ending.