Beauty and Beastly by Melanie Karsak Review

Beauty and Beastly by Melanie Karsak is a great Beauty and the Beast retelling. When I first started it I stayed up a good part of the night to finish it. Thankfully its not very long read (around 200 pages) so it won't take long to get through. The book is classified as a steampunk fantasy and this time around the beast character (and his servants) are automations. 

The story begins with Isabelle a tinker living in a steampunk version of Europe set in the Victorian era. She is still recovering from the heartbreak and unfortunately having to deal with the unwanted attentions of Gerard LeBoeuf. Her father and her are going on a trip to Scotland where they are to show off their tinkered creations at a wedding. However things do not go as planned when the ship their on capsizes and Isabelle and her father get separated while trying abandon ship. Isabelle washes up on a mysterious island where she comes across a castle in the middle of a storm. There she finds not only her father but a household of automations who all respond to their lord. The lord is rude to them and wants them to get off the island at once. However the only aircraft that can take them home can hold one person only. Knowing her father is only one who knows how to fly the old aircraft Isabelle tells her him to leave the island, get back to civilization, and return for her. Although wary of the automaton who calls himself a lord her father knows she's right and promptly leaves promising to come back. As Isabelle spends more time with the automatons she begins to grow to care for the Lord who calls himself Rhys. But how can she be feeling such emotions for a machine. Rhys and his servants are hiding something and Isabelle is determined to find out the true. Will Isabelle solve the mystery of the palace with its all too human like automatons. Read the book to find out!

Isabelle is a very likable protagonist. She is kind, clever, very good at tinkering, and loves to read books. However despite her being good at tinkering there isn't much of a difference from her compared to Disney's Belle. But I have to admit I honestly didn't mind. She may not have a deep backstory but she has her own problems to deal with. It was interesting to see a Belle character who is getting over a broken heart. The man Dr. Murray was the main love interest in the previous book Ice and Embers which makes me very interested in reading more books in the series. Isabelle is a very enjoyable character to read about and her determination to save Rhys from his fate really warmed my heart.

Rhys was the perfect love interest for Isabelle. While he is kind of mean in the beginning I never really found him truly beastly. He starts out bitter in the beginning but turns out to be quite charming and both Isabelle and I warmed up to him easily. His backstory could have used some improvement but didn't detract from the story too much.

Overall, Beauty and Beastly is a beautiful story that while doesn't take many liberties from its source material is still a very enjoyable read. Fans of Beauty and the Beast and fairy tales in general will love this book. I rate this book five out out of five stars.