A Tale of Beauty and Beast

Beyond the Four Kingdoms series, Book 2

By: Melanie Cellier

Narrated by: Esther Wane

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Princess Sophia has helped her twin sister Lily save the duchy of Marin. But now Sophie faces an even greater threat when she sets out to free the cursed kingdom of Palinar from its beastly prince.

Alone, and with danger on every side, Sophie must navigate a magical castle and its even more mysterious master to discover the secret to breaking the curse. Except the more time she spends with Prince Dominic, the more she starts to question who exactly she's supposed to be saving.

With time running out for the trapped inhabitants, and the reappearance of an old enemy, Sophie may have to choose between saving the kingdom and following her heart. In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Beauty will have to use all of her strength and intelligence if she is to outwit her enemies, break a curse, and find true love.

©2017 Melanie Cellier (P)2018 Tantor

The tweaks in the storyline were interesting.

The different personalities and how they interacted was quite interesting. Developing the thought processes of the characters, including the flaws as well as their strengths.

Exceptional story and enjoyable audiobook

Fantastic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Love the storyline and stayed up much later than I should have. I liked everything about the audio except for the way the reader performed the Beast's voice. He sounded like a grumpy old woman. I would have preferred a simple normal voice for him. Otherwise the reader sounded great and spoke the words as I would have read them.

Loved it, could use more detail

I love this series. My only complaint is that the description of the characters' faces was not very detailed. I would have liked more detail, especially in the sappy moments.

Classic Fairy-Tale Fun

I was so excited to snatch up this audiobook after finishing the first book in the series, A Dance of Silver and Shadow. And A Tale of Beauty and Beast was another enjoyable listen overall! I like Sophie's character and the unique personalities of the secondary characters she encounters on her quest. I confess the story didn't feel quite as original as the first book; it has a lot of the classic elements of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and doesn't change it up as much as I might like, especially with the enchanted castle setting. And while I love how the narrator portrays most of the characters (her voice is generally quite pleasant to listen to, and she has some great accents!), I don't think her portrayal of Prince Dominic's deep voice worked for me. It felt a bit...much. However, I'm still a fan of this author and narrator, and I'd love to see more books in this series or the previous one turned into audiobooks! (Also, the ending of this story was definitely exciting, and I was happy with the conclusion!)

very different, but just as good

lovely book, kept me guessing, all the elements are here and they are wonderful.

AMAZING STORY!!!!

This story has so many twists and turns that aren't expected!!! Love when they take a story we know and love, twist it enough to change some pieces!!! The way the plot moves is very flowy! There wasn't any spot that was dull!!!!

Very entertaining

I really enjoyed this tale. The story of Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorites. The narration as clear and always audible although I did not like the approximated male voices. Sorry not appealing at all. Beautiful story. Thank you.

Enjoyable Story

I didn't like this one quite as much as the first one, but it is still a fun story and a great Beauty and the Beast retelling. The narrator does just as good a job on this one as the first one, and I really hope that this author someday turns more of her books into audiobooks! I, at least, would buy all of them!

A TRUE TALE OF BEAUTY AND BEAST

A TALE OF BEAUTY AND BEAST BOOK 2

A TALE OF ,BEAUTY AND BEAST CONTINUES WHERE A DANCE OF SILVER SHADOW. LEFT OFF. PRINCESS SOPHIE LEFT WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE AND WENT TO MEET PRINCE DOMINIC OF PALINAR. SOPHIE IS SAD HURT AND ANGRY OVER THE FACT THAT SHE HAS TEMPORARILY LOSS THE CONNECTION WITH HER TWIN PRINCESS LILY. DOMINIC IS REALLY A BEAST TOWARDS SOPHIE. NOT JUST IN APPEARANCE BUT HIS ACTIONS AND TEMPER TOWARDS REALLY IS LIKE THAT OF A BEAST. THE SNOWBALL SCENE WAS REALLY FUN AND OF COURSE DOMINIC ASKS SOPHIE TO MARRY HIM IN THE MORNING EVERY EVENING AT DINNER. BUT OTHER THREATS ARE COMING TO PALINAR AND SOPHIE AND DOMINIC ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DECIDE WHERE THEIR HEART TRULY LYE, AND HOW FAR ARE THEY WILLING TO GO TO SAVE PALINAR AND SOPHIE HER BEAST.

Wonderful retelling of Beauty and the Beast!

(4.5 stars) A wonderful retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Quite unique whilst still following the basic storyline.

Fine as a stand-alone, but probably more ideal if you read the book preceding it.

Narrator is excellent! She does the most marvelous job of including humor in her voice. I really liked all of the voices except, ironically, the Beast’s. That said, I can see why she voiced him the way she did...

* poor, ** ok, ***good, **** very good, *****something special