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Author: Donnelly, Jennifer

Reading age: from c 13 years

Published on 9 May 2024 by Scholastic in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 336 pages
198 x 128 x 21 | 248g

 

From New York Times bestselling, Carnegie-award-winning

author Jennifer Donnelly comes a revolutionary, gender-swapped

retelling of Beauty and the Beast that will forever change how you

think about beauty, power, and what it really means to follow

your heart.“Absolutely enthralling

storytelling…the romantic chemistry and witty banter of the

lead characters is most enjoyable” – Joy Court, LoveReading

(Book of the Month)

What makes a girl ‘beastly?’ Is it having too much ambition? Being

too proud? Taking up too much space? Or is it just wanting

something, anything, too badly?

That’s the problem Arabella faces when she makes her debut in

society. Her parents want her to be sweet and compliant so she can

marry well, but try as she might, Arabella can’t extinguish the

fire burning inside her – the source of her deepest wishes, her

wildest dreams.

When an attempt to suppress her emotions tragically backfires,

a mysterious figure punishes Arabella with a curse, dooming her

and everyone she cares about, trapping them in the castle. As the

years pass, Arabella abandons hope. The curse is her fault – after

all, there’s nothing more ‘beastly’ than a girl who expresses

her anger – and the only way to break it is to find

a boy who loves her for her true self: a cruel task for a girl

who’s been told she’s impossible to love.

When a handsome thief named Beau makes his way into the castle,

the captive servants are thrilled, convinced he is the one to break

the curse. But Beau – spooked by the castle’s strange and forbidding

ladies-in-waiting, and by the malevolent presence that stalks

its corridors at night – only wants to escape. He learned long

ago that love is only an illusion. If Beau and Arabella have

any hope of breaking the curse, they must learn to trust their wounded

hearts, and realize that the cruelest prisons of all

are the ones we build for ourselves.

A stunningly told, gender-swapped retelling of Beauty and

the Beast

Authored by the brilliant, New York Times bestselling,

Carnegie-award-winning author, Jennifer Donnelly

A story that will change how you view beauty, power and your

own emotions