Week 8 Review: Of Beast and Beauty

From Goodreads:
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.

My Review:
Oh man, this book was such a great read! This is a bit of a Beauty and the Beast retelling, set in a a futuristic sci fi city, with genetic mutations seen as monstrous, was so entertaining! I really enjoyed getting to know Isra and Gem, and to see how their love might change the world!

Both Isra and Gem have had hard lives. She's been raised as a sacrifice, and she lost her eyesight. Gem is Monstrous, and it's hard to have enough basic supplies of survival. And they were so great together, I loved watching them fall in love despite themselves! 

The whole thing with the curse (and the Pure Heart and the Dark Heart) was so interesting to read. I felt so sad that things got to that point, but then again, there was the out of a Smooth Skin and a Monstrous falling in love, so things weren't hopeless, just really difficult! 

Watching these two struggle for better lives for their people was so fantastic, and oh, I loved that ending! It was so satisfying, after all that they went through, to have things end that way, with that hope for a better future! 

This was a fantastic read, and I can't wait to read more by Stacey Jay! 

Author: Stacey Jay
Read: February 22nd, 2021
Source: Own
Reason Why: Loved her previous books, and it's a 2021 Retelling Reading Challenge Book, Physical Book to Read in 2021 and a SAC 2021 Book!
Publisher: Delcorte Press
Published: July 23rd 2013

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars