BreakRaven

Wow, I didn't expect to actually finish this book in two days . . . I just kind of picked it up as a side-project for when I need a break from Elend and his all-encompassing "perfection". The cover is gorgeous, I love fairy tales, (the Beast is one of the few characters that Disney didn't manage to completely ruin with rainbows and buttercups and cotton balls), and I've read Robin McKinley's stuff before and enjoyed it, so I thought, hey, why not?

But seriously, this book is a perfect retellling of Beauty and the Beast. It really stays with the original fairy tale, except for a few things that were edited just so they'd make more sense in a novel-length retelling.

I don't know what else to say about it other than that - McKinley's writing style really shines when it's arranged in a fairy tale setting, and I loved both Beauty and the Beast by the end - they were cliché, of course, but but it's a fairy tale: if they weren't at least a little cliché, they wouldn't fit in with the story and I'd have been upset about that. 

This book is short and sweet and lovely. If you enjoy old-fashioned fairy tales, I'm ninety-nine percent certain you'll enjoy it - and if you don't, then I recommend it anyway, because it really is a beautiful little book and I, opinionated as I am, absolutely love it.