Beauty and the Space Beast (Star-Crossed Tales #2)
by J. M. Page
Rating: 3 stars
Blurb:
Beauty
Mara Duport has always dreamed of home, a place where she belongs. She knows that she has one, but ever since she was a kid, her dad’s been keeping the secret of her origin locked away, refusing to give her any information.Dad’s been keeping more than one secret. He’s in debt — a lot of debt — and the ruthless pirates he borrowed the money from are coming to collect.
The pirate captain is renowned the galaxy over for his brutishness and cruelty — but when Mara sees his stoic face, her heart races, her mouth goes dry… and she offers herself as payment.
Space Beast
Torak of Basniel has a fierce, uncaring, ruthless reputation to live up to. So when a beautiful, innocent woman offers herself up to him on a platter, Torak doesn’t think twice. What does he care about stealing away this man’s precious daughter?But Torak gets a more than he’s bargained for. Mara’s more than just innocent — she’s also intelligent, skilled, beautiful — and she can see right through him, past the thorny exterior, down to the heart he thought died long ago.
Being vulnerable was never part of the plan. Love was never part of the plan.
Torak knows he’s an irredeemable monster, but with Mara he feels different. He sees the opportunity to be more than what’s always been expected.
Mara knows that there’s something beautiful and redeemable inside Torak, and she won’t leave him until he finds it.
Not until she can tame the beast.
Beauty and the Space Beast is 50,000 words of exciting, page-turning, romance with strong themes of self-discovery and adventure. This book contains NO harsh language, explicit violence, or graphic romance scenes. It is an adult romance, but is suitable for older YAs as well. I hope you enjoy!
My Review:
I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it
Beauty and the Space Beast was a fun read and I would definitely recommend it to people looking for a fun sci-fi fairytale retelling. I did a have a lot of small issues with things that happened, I won’t go into too much details, but it reduced my enjoyment of the book a bit. I think that some topics could’ve used a bit more depth, some things happened a bit fast and some topics could’ve used a bit more expanding. Like the topic about Mara her homeworld, it was an interesting plot line, but I felt by the end it got solved a bit too easily almost, although I did think the twist surrounding that was interesting.
I felt like the fairytale retelling aspect was a bit more subtle than in the first book, but that could also be because I am less familiar with the Beauty and the Beast story. Although there were a few times where it felt the characters acted a certain way because they had to fit the pattern of the story instead of it really feeling natural, but that might be just me. The sci-fi setting gave a bit of a different feel to the story than than the original story and it wasn’t as easy to figure out who in this book was which character from the original story.
This book follows Torak and Mara. Torak is a Basniel alien and the the beast part refers not to his appearance, but more to the reputation the sons of Basniel have. They are brutal and evil. Torak acts that was as well, because why act differently if everyone expects him to act in such a way anyway. But even with his reputation of being mean and evil I thought he didn’t really act all that evil in this book. That’s probably to make him more likeable, but I would’ve liked to see a bit more of his ruthless side before, so that his change would’ve felt like a bigger deal. I thought he acted pretty nice most of the book and even at the start of the book when he takes Mara as payment, he’s just collecting debt. He doubts himself and if he’s worthy of love and such, but at the same time he has this super loyal crew around him that already should’ve proved that part. But he doesn’t have enough hope to be different and actually try until he meets Mara.
Mara always wanted to travel and see more of the galaxy, but her old father needs her so she never strays far from home. She knows her father keeps some secrets from her, which bothers her. Then when Torak comes collect a debt her father own him, she volunteers to serve on his ship as payment, which gives her the chance to finally follow her dreams or exploring. I liked seeing how the characters change throughout the story and found out new things about themselves. Their romance developed quite fast, but I still liked how the author took some time to see them getting to know each other. There are some sweet scenes between them when they get to know each other. I didn’t much care for the conflict and miscommunication, but I guess it made sense they had to work through a few things.
I would’ve liked to see a bit more of the world building as it’s pretty light on the sci-fi aspect, world building and descriptions. The focus is more on the story it’s telling than on making the world come alive. Which is okay, but I would’ve liked to get to know a bit more about the galaxy. Or who was an alien and what type, what they looked like, what the different cultures were like or even what Mara looked like besides her hair color. Half of the time I even forgot some of these were aliens. A few of the sci-fi details felt a bit off to me, that’s not to say it’s not realistic as I don’t have too much knowledge about that either and who knows what space travel really will be like, but it didn’t fit the image I had from other sci-fi books and tv series. Just few parts that seemed slightly unrealistic or off to me.
To summarize: This is a fun story and I enjoyed reading it. It’s pretty story focused and gave a new twist on the Beauty and the Beats fairytale. It is a fairly short read and I did think some parts lacked a bit of depth because of that or topics that could’ve been expanded upon a bit more. The retelling parts felt a bit more subtle in this book, but that also could be due to me being less familiar with the Beauty and the Beast story. I did like the romance even though it developed a bit quickly, there were some sweet scenes between them and I did like that the author took a bit of time to show them getting to know each other. The book is pretty light on the sci-fi and I would’ve liked to see the world come alive a bit. A few sci-fi details felt a bit off or unrealistic to me. Overall this was an enjoyable story, despite the many small issues I had with it and I am looking forward to the next book!
You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon
I used to love the story of Hansel and Gretel – and I’d love to see the story retold from the ‘witches’ viewpoint…
sjhigbee recently posted…While the Morning Stars Sing
Oh that sure would be interesting! I don’t think I’ve seen a retelling from that before.
I’m sorry this one left you a bit wanting, Lola. I do love Beauty & the Beast and I typically enjoy retellings of it. But I understand you’re wanting more from certain elements as well as feeling like certain things wrapped up too easily. That’s something that bothers me quite often in books, especially if it’s something relatively pivotal to a character. To have it simply brushed aside is irritating. At least you liked the story overall. I might have to check it out. 🙂
Bookworm Brandee recently posted…Books & Crafts #8 ~ #BookBlogger #CraftCircle
It was a fun read, but those things just bothered me a bit. If you love beauty and the beats and retellings of it, you might enjoy this one. Even with the issues I had, I still enjoyed reading this one.
Disappointing that the alien world and the background of the characters was not explored more. I love the Beauty and the Beast fairytale and fairytale retellings in general, but I agree that there are some where the story is sacrificed when the author tries too hard to make the connections to the fairytale. The part about him being better than he thought he was is a softer version of the original beast character since that Beast was cursed by a witch because he was a cruel, self-absorbed guy. I like to see that aspect of change come out in the story, too.
Nice review!
Sophia Rose recently posted…#HolidayDelight in your Mailbox! Joanna Wylde! #Giveaway
I would’ve loved to see the sci-fi world and the aliens come a bit more alive. I kinda liked that here the retelling was a bit more lose than in the first book, although I would’ve liked to see him be a bit more really cruel at first. The change would’ve felt bigger if that was the case.
Lola recently posted…Lola’s Kitchen: Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars Recipe
I like the idea of sci-fi fairytale retellings, but I also understand the issues you had. Great review!
Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight recently posted…Tag Post: Twelve Days of Christmas Book Tag
I am enjoying this series, but just like with the first book I had a few issues with this one as well.
Lola recently posted…Review: Beauty and the Space Beast by J.M. Page
I love the title of the book! It sounds like it had a few flaws, but still managed to be enjoyable. Great review Lola, thank you for sharing 🙂 I’m definitely going to look into this series!
Wattle recently posted…Aussie YA Bloggers: Secret Santa Blog Hop 2016
I hope you give this series a try, it’s been a lot of fun to read even with the issues I had.
I love Beauty and the Beast. Sci-fi space aliens are not the type I would typically go for, but you never know unless you try right? Thanks for sharing your review. ~Aleen
Lampshade Reader recently posted…Review: Up the Seine Without A Paddle by Eliza Watson
I quite enjoy sci-fi romances, so I’ve been picking them up more lately.
Beauty and the Space Beast? Wow, this sounds really exciting! But too bad you didn’t enjoy it that much 🙁
Vanessa recently posted…Book Review – A Coronation of Kings by Samuel Stokes
I did enjoy it mostly even though I had some issues with it, it was still a funr ead.
Lola recently posted…Coyer Winter 2016-2017: Sign-up Post
The title sounds really interesting. I’m a lil sad to see that the book was trying to fit into a certain mold instead of allowing the characters to grow and be true to their personalities. Plus, I hate it when an author seems stuck or like they forgot about a keypoint until the end and try to wrap things up quickly. I will have to check out the first book in this series. I don’t know why but I’ve been in the mood for an alien romance for some reason.
Kristin (Book Sniffers Anonymous) recently posted…Review: Rules of Contact by Jaci Burton
I do like the retelling part was a bit more lose here, but I do feel it’s still trying to fit the mold a bit. Not sure if that’s the book or more my issue with retelling in general. i would still recommend this series though as both books were fun to read.
Oh and if you’re looking for a good alien/ scifi romance book I would recommend Pirate Bound and Pirate Nemesis by Carysa Locke. I love that series so far, one of my favorite sci-fi reads this year. Or SJ Pajonas her Nogiku series.
I generally don’t like retellings only because the ones I’ve read are meh with a few exceptions. But props to the author for her creativity and the twist to an otherwise familiar story.
Braine recently posted…Suped Up: Away From The Dark by Aleatha Romig
Retellings aren’t my favorite genre either, it just doesn’t appeal as much to me for some reason. I did like the author gave an original twist to the story.
Lola recently posted…Coyer Winter 2016-2017: Sign-up Post
I am not fussed about what story retelling I read, because I like to see what authors do with these familiar tales. Right now I’m reading Indexing by Seanan Mcguire and it’s so awesome. She seamlessly combines so many stories into one book through the guise of an agency desisgned to keep these stories in check… and I love it. LOVE>
verushka recently posted…The Long Way Down: Book Review
I pick up very little retellings, it’s not a genre I read often. But this series is pretty fun so far.
Oh I’m an absolute sucker for beauty and the beast inspired reads. I. Am. In! lol
anna @ herding cats & burning soup recently posted…Quote-tastic/Review– Wolf Unleashed (SWAT #5) by Paige Tyler
I don’t read a lot of retellings, but the first book was a sci-fi little mermaid retelling which got my attention and was why I picked up the series
Beauty and the Space Beast was a fun read and I would definitely recommend it to people looking for a fun sci-fi fairytale retelling