Of Beast and Beauty

****

4 Stars/5

Hundreds of years ago, humans arrived on the planet, but their bodies was not able to cope with its atmosphere, so the planet changed some of them but before it could help them all, those unaffected where frightened calling the ones changed monstrous and hid in their domes. Now in the domed city of Yuan, the blind princess Isra has always known she will be sacrificed to help her people, but she wants to be known for more than just that. Gem has always hated the people living in Yuan, as his people are starving to death but when a mission to go into the domed city goes wrong he is taken prisoner. With Gem and Isra growing closer, they begin to question everything they have been brought up to believe, and have to choose between their duty to their people and the person they have been brought up thinking of as a beast.

Of Beast and Beauty is a good book which is hard to fit into one category as it has both fantasy and sci-fi elements. It is fast paced and I was hooked right away by the story, however, while there were some elements of Beauty and The Beast, if felt more inspired by it than an interpretation of it.

Isra has lived a very sheltered and protected life, and while she does stand up for herself at the end, during most of the book she is a doormat and is too passive. That being said she is kind and is open to new ideas while still being stubborn. Gem is a strong character who thinks he is weak, he will do anything to help his people while still doing what is right and is honest with his feelings. The secondary characters had a lot of depth such as Needle and I liked how we got to see what Bo was thinking as it made it easier to understand him.

One problem with this book is that the ending felt rushed and I would have liked to have more time spend on it. I would recommend Of Beast and Beauty to fans of Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi and Fireblood by Trisha Wolfe.