e-Audio, 11:51:32
Narrated by: Shimali De Silva
Release Date: May 24, 2022
Published by: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read from: June 2-6, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Anxiety Attacks, Biphobia
For Readers Interested In Romance, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult, Gender-Bent Re-tellingHeated competition leads to even hotter romance in this YA summer rom-com for fans of Sandhya Menon, Emma Lord, and Wibbroka.
Seventeen-year-old, high-achieving Kavya Joshi has always been told she’s a little too ambitious, a little too mouthy, and overall just a little too much. In one word: besharam.
So, when her nemesis, Ian Jun, witnesses Kavya’s very public breakup with her loser boyfriend on the last day of junior year, she decides to lay low and spend the summer doing what she loves best–working part time playing princess roles for childrens’ birthday parties. But her plan is shot when she’s cast as Ariel instead of her beloved Belle, and learns that Ian will be her Prince Eric for the summer. [Cue the combative banter.]
Exhausted by Kavya and Ian’s years-long feud, their friends hatch a plan to end their rivalry by convincing them to participate in a series of challenges throughout the summer. Kavya is only too eager to finally be declared the winner. But as the competition heats up, so too does the romantic tension, until it escalates from a simmer to a full-on burn.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Hi my name is Nikki and I am addicted to Beauty and the Beast retellings. Of any kind. And I’m so serious. I’ll give any of them a try. And because of that, when I saw that Lillie Vale was writing a gender-bent one, I knew I needed to get it into my hands. So as soon as I could get my hands on it, I immediately started reading it.
Let me start this review by saying I didn’t have any idea about the audio problem until after I finished it. Had I known, I would have read the e-book or the physical book. But with that said, it took the performance down for me. Knowing that things aren’t exactly like Vale wanted them and knowing that it was because no one listened to her? I can’t support that. So I won’t be saying anything more about the performance. It’s enough to know that she, the author, wasn’t happy. As for the rest of the representation in the book, I have no affiliation with the racial/ethnic representation in this book, so I won’t speak on it. However, I know that all experiences are not the same. I did feel that the mental health (anxiety) was accurate tho. Anxiety/Panic attacks will freeze you in place and nothing matters a lot of the time. And it wasn’t a long drawn out scene, so it didn’t cause me to spiral or anything after that. In fact, I understood where he was coming from. I can definitely understand not wanting to have to do something like what Ian had to do in that situation.
As for the book, I LOVED it. I loved the Beauty and the Beast parallels, like the “Beast” like behavior and the library/reading. It was a really cool, modern way to tell one of my favorite stories. I do wish there were more B&TB instances, but alas… On the other side of the re-telling, the romance in this one was super cute. I loved seeing them figure things out and finally get to each other. And man, it was so cute watching (reading?) the love interest try to tell her without telling her that they liked her. It was so cute. And their feud and their little tasks they did with their friends was cute as well. It all felt incredibly realistic also.
The characters were also a large (and great) part of this story. Although I did get annoyed with her sister and mother sometimes. They were always worried about what someone else would think. Although I get it, it’s from their culture, but that didn’t stop me from being happy that Kavya was her own person and how she didn’t take any crap from anyone. It made me respect her so much more. And even though I did like her, I did feel like at some times she was doing too much lol Like always having to win or always having to be right? Like even Ian was like “Didn’t know I was supposed to be competing.” (Yes I know that was the point of the book, but I also would never tell her I thought she was doing too much and it would have nothing to do with her culture. I would say that about anyone that acted that way.)
I will never turn down a Beauty and the Best re-telling. No matter what it looks like. And the fact that this one was gender-bent, made me even happier. Although I wish there was a bit more of the story in there, it didn’t stop me from enjoying the things that Vale did add.
Overall, I give this
