His Princess Warrior: Book Review: Befriending the Beast

Hey all! Hope you are having a wonderful day! Because this is the third book review post in a row, I just thought I'd let you know that this is still a devotional blog as well :) I have had a post on my heart for months, but God's still teaching me that lesson! :) For now, I wanted to give a shout out to my friend Amanda Tero who has just published another book. A Beauty & the Beast retelling with an intriguing twist: what if the Beast was Belle's father? I had the opportunity to beta-read this story and wanted to share!

About the Book

"Belle has returned unannounced to the castle to restore her relationship with the king, her father. Her hopes are dashed with the devastating message: "The king refuses to see you." Convinced that God has led her home, she is unwilling to return to Lord and Lady Kiralyn.

Time is running out for the decision that will change her life. When tragedy strikes, will she and her father be pulled further apart or knit together? Could she stay at the castle even if she will never see her father again?"

What I liked:

To be fair, I came at this story completely biased—Beauty & the Beast is one of my all time favorites, and I am a complete sucker for a good retelling. However, we all know how a bad retelling can leave behind a hollow feeling, as though you had hunger pains that were left unmet by what promised to be a good meal. This retelling? Left you completely stuffed, yet begging for more!! One of the reasons I am such a sucker for this tale-as-old-as-time is because of the romance—and this story had none, so I wasn’t sure how I’d react to it. The suspense completely drew me in! Romance, classic B&B tale or not—I needed to know how this worked out! How the story resolved! Whether or not these characters I was beginning to love ever got their happy ending and were able to stop suffering! And the angst. Oh. My heart broke over and over again for these characters—even the mean ones! This story was incredibly well written to where I felt Belle’s pain, her hesitation, her hope.

In addition to being able to experience along with the characters, Amanda’s brilliant writing was captured in two other ways that I really liked about this book! The imagery—there were so many nods to the original story, flawless yet so subtle; I literally got excited when I found them. I’m not sure whether Amanda included them on purpose or not, but the references to the roses several times had me geeked out. Lastly, the realistic yet powerful way Amanda was able to tie in Biblical themes via Belle’s faith and her struggle to trust God greatly impressed me more than once. It’s always annoying to get to a place in a story where you feel as though the author just threw in a Biblical reference, or simply just worked too hard to get one in there. When discussed in Befriending the Beast, these things felt much more natural. Also, more than impressing me, God used it to encourage and convict me, and I think that is one of the greatest things a story/author can do- and this story delivered, and delivered in the right way.

Another small, but legit thing I loved about this story was that Belle was strong in her faith, she had a mature walk with God… but she makes a totally “did I really just do that? I know better!!” mistake toward the end (that left me at the edge of my seat) but I appreciated that. Even the most mature of Christians make dumb mistakes once in a while, and I think we tend to forget that.

What I didn’t like:

……ummm...... nothing? lol No, but for real I loved this story. The only thing I wished was different was that I wish the ending was longer and gave more closure. I spent so much time wondering and stressing with the characters about whether or not things would be resolved that I wished the ending would just go on and on. What I didn't like was that the story had to end! ;) ;)

Purchase Link

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L2IDEUQ#nav-subnav

(order before October 8, 2016, to get it at the discounted price of $.99!)

About the Author

Amanda Tero is a homeschool graduate who desires to provide God-honoring, family-friendly reading material. She has enjoyed writing since before ten years old, but it has only been since 2013 that she began seriously pursuing writing again – starting with some short stories that she wrote for her sisters as a gift. Her mom encouraged her to try selling the stories she published, and since then, she has begun actively writing short stories, novellas, and novels. If something she has written draws an individual into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, it is worth it!

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5