After her father's business fails Maedlynn is sold off as a servant to a Mr. Hawksley. To be fair Maedlynn knew this day would come eventually her father's money-making schemes have always failed so she is not as upset about this as she probably should be. However, she's also not stupid, when Mr. Hawksley's caravan is attacked by bandits and wolves, she takes advantage of the chaos and disappears into the woods. Certain that she will be caught again she is surprised and relieved when she comes across a grand estate, fearing the wolves and the men chasing her more than anything she could find in the home in front of her Maedlynn enters. At first, she doesn't think anyone is there, but she soon realizes there is something large and perhaps monsterous looming the shadows, she is far too tired to investigate though and immediately passes out the adrenline from her escape finally leaving her. In the morning, she awakes to the same shape in the shadows of the room she finds herself in and is surprised when she finds the man who occupies them rather polite. After he leaves, she is introduced to the servants of the estate Agatha and Searle, who inform her that not only is she allowed to stay at the estate as long as she likes, Lord Darren, has stated that she be treated as a valued guest. Intrigued by her benefactor she seeks him out only to discover that he is the monster in the shadows.
This is my new favorite retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This was absolutely an almost perfect modern fairy tale!
The first big change here is that Maedlynn's father is not the doddering and lovable Maurice from the Disney version, but a schemer who puts everything else in front of his daughter. While there doesn't seem to be anything malicious in this, it's just his nature, I think changing her father's personality makes it easier to see why Maedlynn is almost immediately accepting of Darren. She's had to come to terms with the fact that her father will never be a parent which is a tough pill to swallow at almost any age and thanks to my own experience with a father that is similar it does absolutely make it much easier to accept other people as they are when you have to accept your own parents as they are.
Maedlynn herself is a wonderful MC. She is interesting in that she consciously recognizes that she has never been loved in the way that her father should have and also recognizes that she may not know how to accept any sort of unconditional love. It isn't that she doesn't believe that she doesn't deserve it, as many characters like her are usually written, it is simply that she doesn't know what to do with it. As I said earlier, she is wonderfully accepting of people as well. There is a line where she is thinking about the type of person Mr. Hawksley is and she says he doesn't know how to be kind and I think that's telling of the type of person she is, she isn't judging him but stating a simple fact based on his character. That is actually more damning in terms of her opinion of him than any blatant remarks of him simply being a bad person.
Darren is also wonderful, but kind of what I expected. Don't get me wrong I absolutely adored him but with him being wreathed in shadow it's fairly obvious that his curse is more of his own making than anything. I think my only complaint with him is he is certainly never as mean as anyone including Agatha and Searle make him out to be. He is clearly beloved by all of his staff, there never seems to be any point where any of the staff including just the regular farmhands and maids seem to be genuinely afraid of his supposedly legendary temper. While I suppose this does add to the idea that this is self-inflicted, I can't see anyone, not just Maedlynn judging him as a monstrous beast. An emo beast maybe, but certainly not monstrous. That being said I like that he is kind throughout the book and I like that his "curse" isn't due to something horrendous he did but due to his interpretation of a traumatic event. He's not a spoiled prince but a man who reacted in the way many of us would have and then because he has a big heart the guilt of that reaction ate him up. It's so much more believable than some girl just magically making a brat into a hero.
Agatha and Searle are absolutely wonderful. Searle is my new favorite Butler only behind Sebastian and I guarantee someone is going to read this book and make a fanart of Sebastian with his butter knives and Searle with his sewing needles and I will buy it immediately.
I think my only small complaint would be Cousin Iris, with Hawksley I really didn't see her as a necessary to the story but she also is one of my pet peeve tropes; the beautiful yet evil villainess. I know since I watch and read a ton of Villainess Isekai that is probably surprising but the point of many of those is to redeem the beautiful, yet evil villainess, whereas Iris perpetuates the idea that being beautiful is a side effect of being evil, especially when placed beside the plain yet wholly good Maedlynn. That being said, her inclusion wasn't so grating that I didn't love the whole story I just thought that there could have been a different vehicle used to explain to Maedlynn Darren's tortured past. Like Darren himself.
The story itself progresses much like the Disney movie which I loved because it gave me a wonderful sense of not just nostalgia, but that Franklin was able to take a story that I already loved and enhance it. Although one thing I will say that I enjoyed about this more than the movie story is that the village that Maedlynn is absolutely not a fun place to live. In the movie and many other retellings of Beauty and the Beast the MC is always considered weird by her peers, where Franklin has taken that part completely out. Maedlynn is literally just trying to get by in a war-torn country with a father who is incredibly irresponsible, not some woman who is ostracized because she is beautiful and smart. It's such a simple change to the story but one I think that is necessary, heroines don't need to be beautiful or ostracized to be heroines and it's nice to see that.
Even with my one small complaint this is still hands down one of the best Beauty and the Beast retellings I have ever read. The Beast is just a normal person trying to deal with trauma and his feelings of guilt. The "beauty" is just a normal girl who like so many of us have to deal with the fallout of a family member's immaturity. It has Sebastian's Cousin Searle, which that part in itself is reason enough to read this. Like seriously, Searle should be one of the main reasons you read this.
As always thanks to Michelle Frankly for the eArc!
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