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NEW AUDIOBOOK REVIEW FROM DANA

A Beauty So Cruel (Beauty & The Beast #1)

By Beena Khan

Narrated by Matt Weight

Genre: Dark Hostage, Mafia Romance, Erotic Thriller, Modern day Beauty & The Beast Billionaire Fairytale

Top 10 Bestseller in Fairytales and Top 50 in Gothic Romance and Vigilante Justice.

I am a huge fan of fairytale retellings, especially for Beauty & The Beast. This book did not disappoint! I think Beena Khan created a great mafia world. I really enjoyed the mafia twist to this retelling, and thought it made it unique. I thought Dahlia and Vlad’s relationship was unique and very passionate and thrilling. Vlad was a total contradiction. A mafia bad boy with a heart. Swoon! Gabriele was a great secondary character. I would love to see him get his own story. It wasn’t hard to become invested in this story. I am dying because of the big cliffhanger at the end and can’t wait for book 2! Thank you to the author and Audio Bookfly for gifting me this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This audiobook was not quite what I expected, in that the narration was poor. In the end, it’s why I am giving this book 4 stars instead of 5. The tone he used for Vlad was good. But pacing, lack of emotional connection, and mispronunciations ruined it for me. There were several times that he started a sentence over, as if those parts were not edited correctly. Which I understand is not the narrator’s fault, but it didn’t help with the already poor narration. I really hope a new narrator is chosen for the second book. A great narrator can make or break or book. For me, if I hadn’t received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review it would have been a DNF for me based on narration. I highly recommend reading this book versus the audiobook version.

Story: 5 Stars

Narration: 2 Stars

A Gothic Romance! A Beauty So Cruel is the first book of the series Beauty & The Beast. Loosely based on the fairytale. Recommended for fans of enemies to lovers, age gap, alpha males, strong heroines, the fairytale, Cora Reilly, Sophie Lark, and Willow Winters. It is not a standalone and part of a duet.