Beautiful Beast - Review

   

  This was a very interesting story!! I don't think that I have ever come across the lore of this story. I was looking forward to how things would progress between the characters in this book. I love a good why choose story, add in dragons and you better sign me up. Add in true/fated mates and you might as well just tape the story to my hands because that's where it is going to stay until I finish it! Unfortunately though, this one fell a little flat of what I was looking for in such a story. The love between the characters wasn't developed at all. Like, I'll read insta love stories but it has to make sense as to why they instantly fell in love. This one had more of an enemies to lovers vibe going on. Even though they were mates, they didn't really establish a relationship. There was no bond between them individually. I think the dragons had more of a bond than she had with either one of them. Maybe one of them had a better relationship with her but for them to be declaring love so soon..it just felt premature. I would have enjoyed more time with Katalena learning about the dragons and their home more and then them reluctantly getting to the spice and find out everything else. I would have been ok with the details being back loaded in this particular instance. There was so much junk in the middle that didn't really feel relevant that I got stuck and had to force myself to continue. I was interested in where things were going but the time it took to get there felt...like too much. The feeling of helpless and hopelessness starts to get very overwhelming by the end. One of the pointed out tropes was chosen one but I don't feel like Katalena was chosen for anything. She is supposed to have skills at fighting but never really seemed to prove it. Now after all of that, I will say that the lore is very good. I won't get deep into that but it was very interesting to see how everything is connected to each other and some important things were hidden away. This is really what made me want to push through. It's definitely worth a read because the things that bogged me down could be not as bad to someone else. I think this is a promising first book in what looks to be a duet. 

    The spice was ok in this book. Like idk, there was about 2 scenes...they were all group scenes. I think I really like the idea of the FMC having an individual relationship with the men in each why choose scenario. The only book that I read that rushed the smexy scenes between the characters but still found a way to make them have individual relationships with each other is Their Vampire Queen. I'm about to start my re-read of this series so I will be hitting you with some reviews. Over all I give the spice a 3 out of 5. It just didn't really do much for me. Overall I also gave this book a 3. I wanted more than I got with this one and that makes me a little sad. I will ALWAYS say go out and read a book yourself. Just because I didn't like it, doesn't mean that you won't like it. The world that this story inhabits is very interesting and I love the representation of the non binary person in this book. The author took the time to make sure that in every instance they were mentioned that the correct pronouns were used. And quite honestly they are one of my favorite characters in the story. I love the wise one trope in books and they fill that role very well. I would recommend this book to someone who likes why choose but likes dragons even more!