Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston

Poston continues her comic con serial of books based on her take on fairy-tale retellings. There has been Cinderella, Prince and the Pauper, but now she shines a light on her interpretation of Beauty and the Beast.

It is clear from the beginning who are the main characters in this book: Rosie and Vance. Vance, if you have already read the previous book, The Princess and the Fangirl, you would see his introduction to the Starfield fandom at ExcelsiCon. Introduced as being a bad guy and not very likeable, this seems like the perfect character in this world to become the Beast of this tale.

Rosie on the other hand, seems like the perfect Belle type person. Has a great love of books, lives with just her Dad, as her Mum has died, but just as loved. Struggling to live and having to take on work so that both of them can survive on two incomes instead of the one. But also having that one guy in the background, Garrett (yes, a play on the words of Gaston) who keeps asking her to go to homecoming, even though she tells him no, to no avail.

We also get to see previous characters from books a lot more than lets say the last. Such as Imogen and occasionally Darien and Elle. So, if you miss these characters and want to know a little bit of what is next in store for them, it's probably a good idea to read this book when you can.

One great thing however, is the doggo "screen time" that I never thought I needed but now gladly would have in every book that I read from now on. Sansa is one of the most sweet and inquisitive dogs and I really wish that there was more of her.

Although this seems to be a good entertaining read, I have some qualms with it however. First of all, why the short book? I know that there is a balance between what can be considered a long book with too much padding and a small book and having nothing at all, but really? You have to do the latter? I wouldn't be too surprised if this is the shortest book out of the series. Secondly, why did it have to be predicable? There were only very rare occasions where I was genuinely shocked. But the shock that it was, was a little cheap. So thanks for that. I also felt as though there were some questions that weren't answered. So that's going to annoy me for the next week or so. Let's hope I find a book in that time which distracts me from my annoyance in the meantime.

So, I thought long and hard what I was going to rate this book, but after much deliberation I have decided to give an awkward rating of 3 1/2 stars.

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