Hi ForeverBookers, how are you all doing today? OMG, I LOVED Ensnared! It's a Beauty And The Beast retelling that's set slightly in the future. I didn't love every page but certainly most of it was just how I wanted the story to be!
I read a Advanced Reader Copy of Ensnared. It hasn't gone through it's final editorial stages yet. Ensnared releases on 18th December 2017 (my birthday)!
NOTE: Ensnared is an ADULT retelling of Beauty And The Beast, as there's swearing and sexual themes too!
The main character of Ensnared, Alainn is a ski instructor. In a few scenes we see her on the slopes.
Ensnared is told from 3rd person perspective. It would have been nice, I think to have had it first person from Alainn's perspective, as she's the main "Belle" character but at the same time it was good to see things from an omniscient POV, to judge and try to work out what was going on.
Spoilers Below...
The only real difference, storywise with Beauty And The Beast is that there's no Gaston character wanting to marry Belle. The evil character is something else entirely...
Ensnared tells the story of Alainn, a young girl who's father works with machinery. Her brother also does this, as well as a robot called Rose 76GF. Alainn doesn't work with the machinery. It all goes over her head a little.
Rose 76GF is meant to start working for a guy called Lorccan Garbhan soon. She doesn't want to though so she sends Alainn instead. Alainn looks just like Rose 76GF, as she was her model so no one apart from family/friends can tell them apart. This is where the Beauty And The Beast plot lines come not the story. Although, the Beast character, Lorccan is never evil or bitter, he has scars running down his face from his past, and ultimately there's a romance that develops between Alainn and Lorccan. Those two things are basically how we know Lorccan is the beast in this story.
The evil characters are the Rose robots as they rule and sabotage, where they see fit. For example, when Alainn and Lorccan do fall in love the Rosebots do what they can to stop they're love as they want Lorccan forever alone, so he can concentrate on just them.
I don't want to write anything else that happens or that could happen in Ensnared because I enjoyed finding out for myself. It's a story of finding oneself, not listening to others who tell you not to do something and ultimately following your own heart.
While this isn't the final version of Ensnared, it flows really well. I suppose some additions might be made to the overall story or some things might be taken away, as it's still got months until it's release.
I REALLY want a sequel that follows the characters after the events of Ensnared. We do get a peak of what could be happening in the future, although the author has not confirmed if there will be a #2 or not, as of yet.
What I liked about Ensnared:
The writing - there was a quality to the writing style that just made me want to keep reading.
The romance - This was perfectly done, I think. We get Alainn and Lorccan first of all disliking one another, and then slowly falling in love.
I liked how there weren't many characters to focus on. We get maybe 8 characters throughout Ensnared. Most of these are just in a few scenes. Ultimately the story really focuses on Alainn and Lorccan.
Instead of the talking furniture, like in the movie, Alainn sees monkeys doing the work. They can't speak, although they can write. She befriends one of them, Blue. Blue becomes necessary towards the end of the story. I LOVE the sidekicks from Beauty And The Beast so this was different but I enjoyed the different take none the less.
What I didn't like about Ensnared:
Some of the technological talk went over my head. I skipped this and kept on with the Beauty And The Beast storyline, that I know and love and I still understood the story.
It also would have been nice to have had the library scene from Beauty And The Beast between Alainn and Lorccan, or it's equivalent.
We get quite a large chunk of the story without our Beast character. I would have preferred if this had been smaller.
I'm giving Ensnared 4.5 stars because of the points made above. It was a great Beauty And The Beast retelling. I gave the writing the most credit as that's what we look for in good books - good writing! Also the romance, I gave credit for as well.
I can't wait until this is released and I can buy myself a final edited copy.
I look forward to choosing my next read soon so stand by for that! :D.
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