Severe sickness with allergies + a possible job change with ten billion forms to fill out = finishing up Indie April almost a month late. (But better late than never, right?) I hope you all will get these wonderful books I've reviewed over the 'month' and enjoy them as I have.
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| Cover retrieved from Goodreads page |
My Goodreads review can be found here.
My Amazon review will be added ASAP.
As usual, anything off topic will be in this color.
This retelling is interesting to me because it's different, yet the same. A lot of the main story beats are the same, but there are some differences in characters and settings that make this story unique. This has some elements of the Secret Garden that is a nice touch; this adds the uniqueness but also gives the reader something to enjoy while the main plot is getting started.
My favorite part about this story is the atmosphere. In a novella, it is somewhat difficult to get a good atmosphere that matches the setting and fits the actual story; sometimes, it leans more towards the setting and other times it is nearly forgotten for the story. Ms. Tero was able to give the reader an atmosphere that complemented both the setting and the story and I found it to be one of the best parts of this story.
If you see my Goodreads/Amazon reviews, you'll see that I rated it three stars. I did genuinely enjoy reading this, so why the lower rating? While reading, I found that the POV character, Belle, was not keeping my attention. I found that I wanted to know what the other secondary characters where thinking about what they were witnessing. By the end of the story, I really didn't care to read about what Belle was thinking and my interest only went up slightly when we got into the father's POV. I wanted to know what the secondary characters were thinking about the situation and how they felt about her coming back to repair the relationship with her father after all this time. Unfortunately for me, it was not something I got to know.
This isn't badly written. I did enjoy the story and I feel that Ms. Tero did a wonderful job with doing this retelling while adding elements to make it her own. I follow her on social media and plan on reading the rest of her stories. I don't know why this one didn't connect with me like I thought it would, but I still enjoyed the experience of reading this story and will recommend it to anyone who likes Beauty and the Beast.
If you see my Goodreads/Amazon reviews, you'll see that I rated it three stars. I did genuinely enjoy reading this, so why the lower rating? While reading, I found that the POV character, Belle, was not keeping my attention. I found that I wanted to know what the other secondary characters where thinking about what they were witnessing. By the end of the story, I really didn't care to read about what Belle was thinking and my interest only went up slightly when we got into the father's POV. I wanted to know what the secondary characters were thinking about the situation and how they felt about her coming back to repair the relationship with her father after all this time. Unfortunately for me, it was not something I got to know.
This isn't badly written. I did enjoy the story and I feel that Ms. Tero did a wonderful job with doing this retelling while adding elements to make it her own. I follow her on social media and plan on reading the rest of her stories. I don't know why this one didn't connect with me like I thought it would, but I still enjoyed the experience of reading this story and will recommend it to anyone who likes Beauty and the Beast.
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| Cover retrieved from Goodreads page |
My Goodreads review can be found here.
My Amazon review will be added ASAP.
As usual, anything off topic will be in this color.
Though the topic can be sensitive to many, this is a great, easy story that focuses on hope no matter the outcome. I normally don't read many contemporaries but because of the author and topic, I was interested.
The characters were wonderful, especially Fanny. She was adorable and had a personality other than 'old person here to teach MC a lesson.' Ellie's struggles, both professional and personal, were written in a way that was relatable and engaging, and not preachy or wanting you to do a specific thing under the guise of fiction. Fanny and Ellie together? Great scenes of comradery that are adorable.
I loved how the story was somewhat open-ended. There was no relationship and there was no grand actions about what she would do with her singleness. It was acceptance of what is now and hope that no matter what the end result is, God is still with you and He will give you what is best.
One minor thing I want to add: I finally got a prediction wrong. Kudos to Ms. Holman for (I now really hate this term. Thanks R. Johnson) subverting my expectations about what was going to happen while not taking any focus off of the main story.
I did find Ellie was more of a clunky, introspective talker in this one and it took me a little to get into it, but she does level out towards the end. Due to this being a novella, it's more prominent than it would be in any other setting. While this type of story/topic can give more freedom for this, the length of the novella is not as forgiving and makes it more obvious than it would in a different format.
This was a wonderful story and for my fellow single ladies, I think you'll enjoy this.
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Next time, I'll be reviewing The Reckoning by Marisa Noelle. See you then!
Thank you so much for the review!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the review!
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