Beast

by Tiffini Hunt

A little boy who lives in a castle spends his days reading, riding horses, and wandering around his family's estate. On his fifth birthday, the boy bids his parents good-bye as they head for a party; he has no idea that he will never see them again. With his parents deceased in a strange accident, the boy attempts to carry on with the help of his servants. But on the one-year anniversary of his parents' deaths, the little boy suddenly transforms into a beast, changing the course of the future forever. Two hundred years later, the Beast is still not used to his new existence; what's more, he is haunted by bizarre dreams of a beautiful lady. As the Beast attempts to determine whether the woman is real, an elderly man stumbles upon the castle during a storm. When he innocently takes a rose from a vase to give to his daughter, the Beast becomes enraged and shows himself, setting off a chain of events that puts the man amid the Beast's desperate quest for happiness. Beast presents a timeless fairy tale from a new perspective, telling of the beast's relentless search for the enchanting woman he dreams of as he begins to suffer the consequences of uncovering a deadly curse.

Genres: Beauty and The Beast, Fantasy, Ebooks, Romance

274 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2013

About the author

Tiffini Hunt graduated from Ohio Christian University and is attending Southern New Hampshire University majoring in creative writing with an emphasis in fiction. She enjoys entertaining others through cheerleading, music, acting, and writing. Tiffini loves spending time with her husband, Matthew, her family, and cuddling with her two kitties, Bently and Kalli.

Reviews

[Zoe Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited to receive this book after speaking to Tiffini over some time, I really wanted to read her work. I wasn't disappointed. It's a nicely written re-telling of 'Beauty and The Beast' but with a twist. It's written from the Beasts point of view, so knowing this I couldn't wait. The Beast was always portrayed to be this bad monster and if you've read or seen Beauty and The Beast you know that's not true, but there's nothing better then getting to go inside the head of the Beast and knowing what they thought! Beauty and The Beast has always been one of my favourites from a young girl, watching the movie and also the book. However, this book is a fairy-tale not packed full of action. The story builds up more and more, although the first 100 odd pages can become slow it pays off, it picks up and becomes a book you don't want to put down. Those ones are always the best, once you get to the point of getting more from the story you really connect. The writing isn't perfect, but no one's is and people have different styles, you can see a good improvement the further you get into the book and if anything, makes you connect more with it. It's like a journey! I personally cannot wait to see/read more of Tiffini's writing, I know they'll always be on my TBR pile! So, all in all I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who maybe wants to read something different and prepared to stick with it.

[Anasheh Satoorian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Tiffini Hunt for sending me an autographed copy of her book for review!

The last couple of years there has been an awakening with fairy-tale re-tellings. I have read a few of them and really enjoyed them and when Tiffini contacting me asking if I wanted to read and review her new book Beast, a Beauty and the Beast re-telling I was sold. I have never read the original story and my only exposure to Beauty and The Beast is the Disney cartoon. So I was eager to read this story told from the Beast's perspective.

First off let me start by saying that even though this book is classified as Young Adult, to me it read more like a middle grade. Reading this book made me replay the cartoon in my head and I had a fun time reminiscing about my child hood and watching my favorite Disney movies. However as a book the first 130ish pages were a little too slow paced without much occurring except for repetition of daily activities. The second half of the book improved once Maribelle was introduced to the story line. Not only did the plot pick up and become enjoyable, to be honest I also saw improvement in the overall writing as well . I ended up finishing this book in one sitting and even though I can't say that it was an action packed book with an original plot, I can say that I did end the book with a smile on my face and that is enough for me to give it a 3 star rating!

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

For complete disclosure, I went into this book expecting it to be a beast-version of Robin McKinley's Beauty (a book I cherish from childhood and still reread today). I discovered Hunt's 'Beast' through Goodreads First reads, and while I didn't win it, the synopsis was so similar to McKinley's work that I went ahead and bought it. When it arrived in the mail, one of the first things I did was look for an acknowledgements page and voila! Not only was McKinley was mentioned, but specifically her book 'Beauty'. So I totally expected this to be a companion, Beast's side of the story. I was disappointed. While rooms and descriptions, even some characters and events, were identical to McKinley's 'Beauty', glaring differences made it clear that this was not the same story. Beauty's name wasn't even 'Beauty.' What I was left with was a story tantalizingly close to a coveted change of perception from one of my favorite novels marred with constant nagging reminders that this was not the story I love.

Now, my bias aside, the story is pretty good. Unfortunately the reading level is pretty low and the narrative voice is forced and unnatural, but those could go hand-in-hand. I think it's a wonderful idea and I would have enjoyed it under different circumstances.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a poorly written fanfic based on Robin McKinley’s Beauty.

It was extremely difficult to read because it sounds like a five year old wrote it. It was so awful I didn’t bother to finish it. The diction is simple and childish, and the plot seems extremely contrived. Bizarre events are mentioned, recognized as odd, and then just accepted without question. And the grammar! So many exclamation marks on sentences that shouldn’t have them, and more semicolons than I’ve ever seen in one piece of writing before. The mood this writing inspired was reminiscent of times when I’ve re-read cringe-worthy stories I wrote in middle school. The overall quality of the writing is so poor - it really makes me appreciate good writing.

Here are some lines that particularly stood out to me:

“Days began to pass quickly; fewer and fewer people brought stuff by our castle to celebrate my parents’ life.” - stuff? Really?

“Each night, I had more of these vivid dreams, not only about the Rose house, but also about a lot of other things.” - these “other things” are never mentioned

“To my surprise, I was no longer a beast but a man! ‘Oh my goodness! I am a man again!’ I shouted to the heavens.” - just in case you thought the end would make the whole story worth it, it wasn’t.

[Testing123 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was basically mixed from the disney version and Mckinley's beauty with some changes
The language used was too childish and simple for the characters,
I think it made it lose the romance and the enchanted feel

[Sama Aziz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full rating later.

[Cindy Dietz · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this but the prose was childish. Grammatical mistakes made it difficult to follow any train of thought. Just not worth the time.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful retelling of Beauty and the Beast!