The Beast and the Enchantress by Camille Peters Review

 As a lover of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale I was only too eager to read a retelling where the main character fills both roles of both Belle and the Enchantress. I had heard of the author Camille Peters and similar to the authors Lucy Tempest and Lichelle Slayter I decided to read one of their shorter books in a brand-new series A Villains Ever After. The series consists of twelve books each by a different author, where they make traditional villains the protagonists of their own adventure. So far, I have read only three of these books (The Beast and the Enchantress, The Sultan and the Storyteller, and The Sorcerer and the Swan Princess) and have enjoyed them all very much. This is the first book in the series, but it doesn’t matter what order you read them in.  

The book begins with enchantress in training Astrid's sister Rosemarie crushing hard on the prince Gladen despite him being engaged to a princess. When Astrid witnesses the supposedly arrogant prince telling Rosemary haughtily to leave him alone Astrid vows vengeance. Deciding to cast a curse on the prince to teach him a lesson Astrid steals a book of dark magic from her teacher Enchantress Ivy’s forbidden storage room and casts a curse on a rose. Ivy tries to warn Astrid that if she continues down this path no good will come from it, but Astrid ignores her thinking the prince deserves to be punished. Upon giving the prince the cursed rose the spell works making the prince ugly and giving him warts. However, Astrid soon discovers that the spell didn’t just affect the prince, but it also affected herself. Not only do warts cover parts of her body but most of her magic power has been locked away preventing her from using it! Ivy tells Astrid the best way to break the curse is to learn forgiveness. Astrid still believes what she did was right but upon meeting the prince several more times while disguising herself with the little magic she has left. Going by the name Dahila, she and the prince start to spend more time together and she finds herself doing what she never thought possible. She finds herself falling in love with him. But how would her sister feel about her feelings? More importantly how will the prince react when he learns the women, he cares for is the enchantress who cursed him in the first place. He is still angry with Enchantress Astrid and how can he ever forgive her? To find out these answers you must read the book to find out. 

This book is a very enjoyable book but do not expect any action in it. It is a low-key book that does have drama, but no heart pounding battles. What it has in place of it, however, is a beautiful love story that is worth your time reading. This book is less than 200 pages so it is a good somewhat quick read that can be enjoyed on a nice relaxing day. I should mention that the other two books in the series that I have read do have action in them, so I won’t say this series is low-key. I don’t know if this is Camille Peters writing style, but I would probably guess that is the case. I look forward to reading more of her books in her Kingdom Chronicles series as well as the other books in the Villains Ever After series. I rate this book four out of five stars. Until next time E.V.A.