Beauty and the Beast: An Adult Fairytale Romance (Once Upon a Spell Book 1)

I haven't read any fantasy in a long while, and this was certainly a treat! Who wouldn't want to live in a beautiful castle that supplies for your every need? I loved the growing friendship between Ana and Beast and so much more that would be spoilers. Hope you enjoy this fun, quick read as much as I did!

This was such a cute story. Well written, and a great plot, The ending was a lovely happily ever after. Not quite what I expected but I’m happy with it and when I need a break from my usual reads I’ll be happy to read another one of Vivienne’s books.

Wow, this was an amazing retelling of a beloved fairytale. It was retold with such wonderful imagination and imagery. I highly recommend this book to lovers of Beauty and the Beast.

I absolutely adored this book. It was a far different story than what I was expecting and a pleasant surprise.Loosely based on the fairy tale by the same name, our hero/beast is a dragon-shifter prince (Alastair) who was had a curse put on him to remain in dragon form for 13 years. During that time, he is to find his princess and have her willingly fall in love with him. If he fails, he will die.Anastasia is the princess of a neighboring kingdom and is to be married to a handsome prince of yet another kingdom. That didn't end like she'd thought it would and she found herself abandoned by her parents and pretty much on the run.There is a whole lot going on in this fantasy genre story. There's magic, dragons, wars, kings, queens, princes, and princesses. But the best parts were the vivid, connected dreams of Anastasia and Alastair and feeling love bloom between Anastasia and her beast.I laughed and was perilously close to tears at one part. The story is a roller coaster of emotion with great characters, a lot of action, and a very happy ending.I bought this book on a whim and will probably get the next book in the series. I can't believe how much I liked this.

From Lala's Book ReviewsActual rating is 2.75 starsFirst, I think that this book is mislabeled because content wise, I think it’s one of those books where it’s blurred between YA and NA. Based on the content (romance and language) there’s nothing that screamed that it is an “adult” book to me; I mean, yes they had some bedroom scenes that went into detail and the characters cussed, but it wasn’t anything more than you’d in some popular books.I also skipped through most of the beginning of the book and skimmed the epilogue, so interpret however you want. The beginning of the book just didn’t hold my attention, so I started to turn to the part where Ana had sacrificed herself to go with the dragon aka the Beast aka Prince Alistair in place of her father (who’s also the king) to keep from marrying her awful betrothed who only wanted to use her body and have her being a submissive wife.Thirteen years prior to the book, Prince Alistair had gone on a rampage destroying towns, so a powerful witch had cursed him for acting like a monster, and telling him that he had thirteen years to have a woman love him in his dragon form or he would be forever a dragon living alone.The part of the book that I read (cough, cough the middle) I really enjoyed it because it’s a different spin on the Beauty and the Beast that many people think of. In dragon form, Alistair is able to talk with Ana and has these humanist expressions and features despite being this huge reptile (are dragon considered reptiles?).For the most part, I’d say that Ana is content staying in a pretty much abandoned castle with the maid and the dragon Alistair who she knows as the Beast because it’s part of the curse that Alistair can’t tell her his name/history and all that jazz. She spends the day exploring the castle and trying to make the most of it by befriending a dragon who could easily eat her as a snack. The friendship gets off on a rocky start, but soon the both start to look forward to these meetings. And at night, see dreams of Prince Alistair in his human form at a party on his land.Alistair and Ana’s dreams are connected and dragon Alistair knows that these feelings are growing for the both of them, but he doesn’t know if it’s love and knows that Ana hasn’t put the pieces of the puzzle together.As the weeks to his leading up to the thirteen year anniversary, dragon Alistair realizes that he many have Ana’s love in the way that is needed to break the curse and just enjoys his time building a friendship.All in all, I’d reread the middle book in a heartbeat because it really is a fresh take on one of my favorite retellings.

Absolutely love this story…well written…a great twist on an old fairy tale! Worth reading again. Will be on the lookout for more stories from this author

I absolutely loved this book. I loved the diffrent aspects they added to the book to make it diffrent but they kept the great aspects of beauty and the beast. It was fun and action packed with sweet romance it was the perfect book

Okay I may be at fault for nor enjoying this book. I thinks it's just not my kind of book, I do enjoy romance just not this kind of romance novel. It seemed to me that everythibg resolved way to easily .... again I don't know...

So beautiful I cried❤️So richly described, a beautiful tale!Worth your time and money to get and read!!Author well done!!

Loved the book,

Eine tolle, sexy Beauty and the Beast Geschichte!Ich hab mich sehr auf diese Story gefreut, denn ich liebe Beauty and the Beast und auch die Neuinterpretationen. Und da hier das Beast ein Drache ist, hat mich umso mehr gefesselt.Die Story ist super klar, und ich war von der ersten Seite an gefesselt. Ich musste unbedingt herausfinden, wie der Fluch gebrochen wird, ob es ein HEA gibt, aber wie die beiden sich ineinander verlieben. Das ist für mich immer der schönste Teil an diesen Geschichten.Die Interpretation der Autorin fand ich mega gelungen, und hab ich so in der Art und Weise noch nicht gelesen. Außerdem war es sehr sexy und heiß, wenn auch nicht übertrieben und in einem sehr guten Ausmaß! Die Geschichte der beiden Protas war schön zu lesen und macht Lust auf mehr! Besonders gut gefallen hat mir auch, dass wir beide Sichtweisen zu lesen bekommen, somit hat man einfach immer einen tollen Einblick in die Gedankenwelt beider Protas, und versteht beide Seiten besser :)Ich freu mich auf jeden Fall auch die nächste Geschichte und wie sie denn zusammenhängen.