Review: The Beauty of Being a Beast by Jennifer Estep

Title: The Beauty of Being a Beast

Author: Jennifer Estep

Genre: Adult, fantasy, fairy tale retelling

Publication date: February 9th 2021

Published by: Jennifer Estep

Source: Purchased ebook

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Synopsis: Some curses aren’t meant to be broken...

Lady Griselle Mottern is cursed. On her sixteenth birthday, an evil wizard transformed Griselle into a wolflike beast because of a past misdeed by one of her ancestors. Now, with her twenty-first birthday approaching, Griselle has only a few days left to make a boy fall in love with her, or the curse will become permanent, and she will forever be a beast.

But breaking the curse isn’t Griselle’s only problem. An evil is lurking in the forest, one that is creeping closer and closer to her castle. Griselle will have to summon all her beastly strength to defeat this evil, even if it means dooming herself forever . . .

Note: This 7,000-word short story originally appeared in the Von Flusshexen und Meerjungfrauen German-language anthology in 2020.

My rating: ★★★★★

When I first found out Jennifer had written a fairy tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I was ridiculously excited! I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially because I didn’t even read the synopsis before I read the novella 😅 But there was no need—I knew I was going to love it anyway 😉 But wow, I was not expecting all the interesting twists! It was SO GOOD!

We have Lady Griselle who was turned into a Beast on her 16th birthday. Her 21st birthday is coming up and that means time is running out for her to find true love to break the curse. First of all, I love that it was gender swapped. Second, the way the curse was born was... Yikes 😬 It was something else. But I really loved this take on it!

So, Griselle’s grandmother faked being in love with a wizard, all just so she could get his castle. Oh, and then she kicked him out! WTF! Griselle’s grandmother definitely deserved the curse the wizard put on her cause that was a real dick move, but her descendants definitely don’t deserve to be punished as well 😞

And I really loved Griselle as well. At the beginning I was like, uh oh. This might be problematic, what with Griselle kidnapping boys and trying to get them to fall in love with her. But no! She isn’t like that at all, and I was so happy about it! She lets them go without forcing them into anything. This might have been just a novella, but you could really see that she was a very caring person.

Besides the curse, there’s also a group of bandits closing in on the village ready to wreak havoc that Griselle is worried about. The way she protects the villagers was so touching to me—she is selfless and I loved that about her. I also loved that she didn’t care what other people thought of her, given her physical appearance. And just the fact that she is comfortable in her own skin (fur? Lol)... Good for you Griselle! She actually doesn’t hate being a Beast because that forces others to see past her physical appearance and get to know the real her. And if they don’t want to do that, well then screw them. Lol.

There was one point where the wizard came to Griselle to, IDK, taunt her, and she’s like, nah. I’m over it. Lol. She was done with his stupid curse and he was flabbergasted. His reaction was SO good 😂 And then during the fight with Nigella, the Big Bad Bandit, she jumped off the bridge with her in order to defeat her and save the village.. and then suddenly she’s human 😲 And you know why the curse was broken? Because she did find love—herself. She loved herself just the way she was and the curse was broken 😭 This was incredible! Oh and the fact that she will be able to switch back and forth between her human and Beast form was really cool! I mean, they ARE both her.

So yeah, while I absolutely loved the twist with the self-love, I was totally shipping her and her friend Drury, who works in the castle. I was hoping something would happen there... It didn’t but that’s okay. I’d like to think that something WILL happen between them now that the curse is broken. That would be nice 😊

Anyway, this was incredible! I loved every second of it! The twist regarding breaking the curse was great! And even though it was only a novella, it had good characters and a bit of action. And the fact that you can read it in like 30 minutes doesn’t hurt either 😉 But yeah, I highly recommend this unique take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. It was fantastic!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊