Beastly (Kendra Chronicles #1)

"Beastly" is a beautiful and amazing story of second chances, the importance of who you are within, and love. A retelling of Beauty and Beast, Kyle is a shallow teenager who rules his high school with a cruel and iron fist. After witnessing his cruelty, a witch named Kendra, curses him to look like a beast unless he can find someone to love, who loves him, and seal it with a kiss- with a deadline of 2 years. His mother is gone and his father is even more shallow, kicking him out of his house and making him into a recluse with only a maid and blind tutor for company. It's really a stunning and believable transformation that occurs for him throughout the book. It follows the Disney version pretty closely, but I loved every second of it. I can't wait to continue with this series!!

Yeay! I finished the book! I have to admit, I decided to read this book again because of all the hype for the new live-action of Beauty and the Beast. and after years of reading it again, I still love this book. and i fell in love with it all over again.

Beastly is actually one of the books that actually changed my life. It is because of this book why I gained a reading buddy. And after reading this, both my reading buddy and I started firing off books at one another. It was also this book that even one of our friends decided to read it too.

you probably might think i'm biased when reviewing this, but this book is just so good! i cannot help but love the characters, the story itself, and just the whole plot because this is still different from the fairy tale. it has it's own flavor and twists. I have to admit though, Adrian was becoming someone too good to be true, and there are parts where it was beginning to be really sappy. but then again, that's what happens when you fall in love.

this book will always have a place in my heart. and i will love this forever. I do owe Alex Flinn this story that I will love forever even though I will cringe at the mention of 'My Space' and 'IM'.

Alex Flinn really brought me back to childhood with Beastly. I really enjoyed her modernized version of my Disney favorite Beauty and the Beast. It was a very captivating retelling. There is nothing I love more than a romantic happily ever after.

Kyle Kingsbury had it all, the fame, the looks, and the fortune. The only thing missing, his lack of compassion. I was drawn to Kyle’s character. He was stuck in a world that drains us of sensitivities. We all grow up to mimic an environment we were raised in. Kyle was just too blind to notice that looks and money are not everything. Cruelty blackens a soul, and for Kyle, his cruelty and insensitivities lead to the desecration of his handsomely good looks. I was upset to see his reaction to his curse. He just took it as another situation to talk or buy your way out. Although, I was extremely excited to see him turn a 360, and in the end, I hoped for his success.

Lindy was a unknown for me. There was not much to learn about her which made it hard to relate to her character. She was also slightly childish in the book to me. I did sympathize with her character. I also had an addicted father in my life early on. If you have ever had an addict in your life, you know you do not ever really have much, shelter nor money wise. I was glad to see her attempts to rise above it all, though. Lindy also shared a love of books with me. This boosted her up ever so slightly on my likable character list. I just wish her character was more developed during the story.

If you have ever seen Beauty and the Beast, then you pretty much have a decent idea how this story goes. It does have its differentiations, though. This is a more modern and mature version. There is also a movie based on this book. I watched that movie also, and let me say, it was nothing like this book! I was extremely disappointed. This book, though, was pretty great.

There were a couple of things I liked about this book that stood out the most for me. The chat room messages throughout the book were extremely interesting. It was really fascinating watching the “fairy tale” creatures communicating. I was eager to read more about their struggles in their “transformations”. The second part that stood out to me was Will’s character. He was the savior that Kyle needed. It was refreshing to see so much ambition and determination in a character. He too suffered with an abnormality. The last thing that really stood out for me about this book was the symbolism of the roses in this story. To me, they symbolized Kyle’s growing as an individual. Although there are many sizes, shapes, colors, and types, a rose is still a rose.

This was an enjoyable read. I couldn't put it down. What a page turner. I've always loved Beauty and the Beast and must say this is my favourite retelling of the tale. Great characters. The only reason I didn't give it a five was because the ending got a little cheesy, but that's my only gripe. Everything else was brilliant.

In this modern retelling of the well-known fairy-tale called The Beauty and the Beast, Flinn takes use to New York City, in the present. The book itself is amazing. While reading the book, I was so concentrated on it; only thinking about when I could read it next.

I've seen the movie before the book *slaps herself because should have read the book first* and so the book was spoiled. At least, they were really different except for the 'I turn in a beast, fall in love, then happily ever after'.

Here's something I haven't yet talked about in my book reviews: the cover of the book. The cover when looked at closely, can sometimes tell the reader some little thing about the book; which is now the case. In the book, Kyle (Adrian) gives Linda a white rose (See cover) ; which saves him from being a beast until he dies.

The writing is fun, and dark; which seems to be my favorite combination.

Kyle (Adrian) and Linda seemed to me as an amazing combination for a couple.

Alex Flinn's writing got me wanting for more, and so Cloaked, another book of hers, is in my To-Read List (TRL).

I enjoyed this modern twist on the classic Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. I despised the hero at the beginning (he was truly a beast inside!), but really liked him by the end. And I liked the heroine very much. The prose is clean and flows well, the story set-up worked for me, and despite a few believability issues (such as the perfect girl for him being able to stay away from her home for so long w/o raising concerns etc), I remained interested the entire book. I didn't fall madly in love with this story, but I'm glad I read it, and I think it's worth the read.

I tried to like this book. Even after hating the movie, I tried to give this book a chance. However, none of the characters, with the mild exception of Lindy, were even remotely good people. Kyle/Adrian just got worse as the book wore on. By 2/3 of the way through, I absolutely hated him and was repulsed that Will and Magda went along with his plans. I do not recommend this book to anyone unless you like characters that you will hate. On another note, the writing style was easy to read and the author's voice flowed nicely. I might like a different of the author's books.

Reader reviewed by Arianna

This book was AMAZING!! It's a great twist on the classic fairy-tale version of Beauty and the Beast, and it has great plot and action. A modern day story based in NYC, a teenage boy becomes "beastly" after he stood-up a witch (which he didn't know) at the school dance. As the story goes, he lives in isolation due to the way he now looks, and must find a girl who is willing to love him despite the way he looks within 2 years. The main character goes through some serious attitude changes with the help of the few friends/mentors he has left, and of course the girl he begins to fall in love with... A must read if you love fairy tales! (ME! lol) The way the book is written within a modern setting is very well-done, and the story is interesting throughout the whole book, one that you never want to put down until it's finished. An EXCELLENT read, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Reader reviewed by meg

Its a curse to prove his true heart, a curse on a boy who never saw the true meaning of beauty. until now.

The story of beauty and the beast has been told million times over to many of us as children we watched an read as bell and the beast fell in love . But this my friends is new twist on a classic Beastly is the new generation of the classic story  fi you love a romantic eye consuming sotry then im am more then sure this book will consume you as it  did for me . Good for all teens everywhere read and fall in love with the new Beast.

Reader reviewed by Nikki (sng2098)

Beastly is a modern spin on Beauty and the Beast. 

I honestly read this book because I saw the previews for the movie that comes out next year. I have to say I really liked this book. It put a really good spin on an old fairytale.

Kyle is the main character and he is a general "mean" guy, he's really good looking, has money, his father is a anchor man, but he's very mean to other people. A witch turns him into a beast and tells him he has to find love in two years or he's doomed to stay like that forever.
This book was written very well and the ending was kind of surprising.