Book Review — Monster Among The Roses: A Beauty and the Beast Story by Linda Kage

“Do you know how to get to the rose garden?”
“No, you can’t go there. A monster lives there.”

FAIRYTALE FANS, THIS IS FOR YOU!! As a huge Beauty and the Beast fan, I was drawn to this book from the moment I heard about it. It’s a modern twist on the beloved fairytale, however this version is very different because it is the opposite story! In this one the “beast” is the heroine and the “beauty” who falls in love with her is the hero!

Shaw Hollander is desperate.
Broke, unemployed, and determined to help his ailing mother, he falls on the good graces of a wealthy benefactor who is willing to give Shaw a job at his mansion in order to pay off his mother’s debts. Suddenly finding himself surrounded by lavish riches, he has no idea what his duties truly entail until he’s sent to the rose garden and meets the tragically mutilated Isobel.

C’mon, aren’t you just a little intrigued?? 😀

This book was funny, romantic, endearing, and exciting! I could feel the bones of the age old fairytale in the foundation of this story, but this book was a genuinely unique and refreshing twist unlikely any of the others I’d previously seen. It takes place in a modern world with no magic and is about a lost man determined to help a fiery scarred woman rejoin the world and the unlikely friendship between them that grew into a passionate love story.

The heroine had been badly scarred in a house fire years ago. While half her face retained it’s natural beauty, the other half was completely disfigured. After her recovery though, everyone outside her family treated her like a monster so she retreated away to her father’s estate and buried her life in books and roses. She’d been isolated from the world for so long that she’d almost forgotten what it was like to enjoy someone’s company and have them enjoy hers so it completely threw her off her guard when this strange, kind-hearted, beautiful man suddenly showed up in her life and didn’t care in the least bit about her scars and only seemed interested in getting to know the real her.

“I wish I could give you twice the amount of pleasure for every second of pain you’ve ever suffered.”

I loved how strong, stubborn, and fiery Isobel was. Her sharp wit and snappy comebacks kept me smiling through many scenes. And I swooned hard over how sweet and just genuinely good a man Shaw was. He was certainly a worthy fairytale hero. And I mean, come on, let’s be honest here. Fairytale or no, how could anyone not swoon over a guy who literally dedicates himself to building you your dream library with his bare hands.

This wasn’t a completely perfect book to me — a few parts of the story were slow, some of the language was a little odd here and there but it didn’t really bother me, and despite the fact that they did become friends first, the instalove was still pretty insta, and I did wish for an epilogue — but I still really enjoyed reading it. I’ve read several other books by this author and her writing is strong and flows very smoothly, the characters here were endearing and constantly made me smile, the story was a refreshing twist on a longtime favorite, there was a angst towards the end, and the romance was swoony and delightful. Plus it was just really fun to read a new version of this fairytale!

People didn’t generally let others see their vulnerable parts until they felt safe. You never knew if someone else would be disgusted, or think less of you, or if they’d use your weakness as leverage to hurt you. It was purely human nature and self-preservation to vet a person first before letting them prove to you that you could trust them enough to see if they’d continue to like you in spite of, or even better, because of your flaws.

So it must suck that the most vulnerable part of Isobel was right out in the open, on display for everyone to see… Which only made me more determined to gain her favor. One day, she’d look me straight in the eye without ever worrying about hiding anything. That was my goal.

This is the first standalone in a series of interconnected standalones. It is a complete story. The next one I believe will be a Cinderella twist which I’m also intrigued by and will check out when its released.

While this isn’t exactly a holy-shit-drop-everything-to-read-it type of recommendation, it is definitely a book I’d recommend to anyone looking for something a little different. I’d consider it a bit of a ‘palate cleanser’ if you will. It was a very entertaining and well-written story and I would happily put it on my favorites list!

Rating: 4 stars! Contemporary Adult Romance, can standalone.

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Series of standalones.