“He did not choose his curse. His appearance and his situation are not his fault…He’s not a monster. Not where it matters. Not in his heart.”
In a world where we have a thousand different variations of the same tried and true fairytales, I’m always impressed when I come upon something quite unique from anything I’ve read before. A Thieving Curse by Selina R. Gonzalez definitely caught me by surprise with its take on the Beauty & the Beast story! This was another book that I discovered via the bookstagram community, so if you aren’t plugged into the Instagram bookish community you’re missing out.
I have to say straight away that one of my favorite things about Princess Raelyn, this book’s iteration of Beauty, is her sassiness. Instead of a typical princess that always does and says the right thing, she struggles with being kind with her words and has to learn the hard way how harsh her words can be. As she is learning though, it does create some great opportunities for banter with Prince Alexander, our resident beast, including a recurring joke about him threatening to eat her…which made me laugh so hard I cried several times.
And Prince Alexander is just the most lovable marshmallow character that you’ll ever meet. He does have a temper that clashes with Raelyn which also causes him to lash out, and I thought Gonzalez made some excellent connections to his curse and creatively allowing for his personality quirks to tie into the curse itself. Without being spoilery, I don’t want to talk too much about the curse itself; but let’s just say I loved the interpretation that connected the “beast” idea to a dragon. Also…purring. (You’ll get that when you read the book, but that running joke brought me so much joy!)
Overall, I loved the story and the characters, the themes of forgiveness and found family, as well as the concept of learning to love both yourself and others for who they are. Definitely looking forward to the next installment in the series! Highly recommend for anyone looking for a clean fairytale romance or a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a fun new spin. Five out of five stars from me!!
Kathleen Bird 
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