A Rose of Steel

Katherine Macdonald has done it again. She's reimagined Beauty and the Beast in a most delightful way.

I can relate to Asami. She's a quiet heroine - introverted, logical, inquisitive, and tenacious. All the qualities that make her a good scientist lead her to ask questions when her research isn't adding up. Her questions lead her into danger, and to Beau - Beaumont, a former soldier, left deformed by the experiments conducted on him and other soldiers. He's one of the few who lived. Those close to him know him as “Beast.” Asami walks away from her career to try to help Beau, to see if she can undo some of the damage that's been done to him.

The world building here is superb, as it is in all of Macdonald's books. It may not be anything like the world of Beauty and the Beast that we're familiar with, but that makes this retelling all the more enjoyable.

The character development is on point. Asami and Beau are not perfect people. They have flaws. But they are perfect for each other, even if their attraction doesn't come to fruition immediately. And the Dread Doctors are deliciously macabre. When I learned what they really were, I just about dropped my teeth. I didn't expect that!

Macdonald's treatment of Beau's deformities is sensitive and realistic. They clearly make Beau uncomfortable and make him think he's unworthy of affection. Asami doesn't gloss over them and pretend they don't exist; rather, she tells him that yes, she sees them, and that they aren't the things about him that matter most to her. He struggles to accept her love, to believe her when she says that his deformities are part of him but they don't make her want to pull away from him. I thought this was very well written.

You don't get the straight-up “happily ever after” ending here. But there are hints at a chance for happiness yet to come, and it sure sounds like there will be more stories to be told in the Mechanical Kingdoms. I am here for them. Every single one.

My thanks to Booksprout and the author for an advance review copy. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.