I am so torn about this book. On one hand I enjoyed the premise and even the characters. On the other hand the preaching was as subtle as a 2x4 to the head. There were definitely parts that took me completely out of the story and I felt as if I had to grit my teeth and power through. It was unnecessary and ultimately contributed nothing to the story. The story itself was a classic beauty and the beast tale, which I enjoyed. The setting and the world were unique enough that my interest in finding out what happened next got me through the aforementioned rough spots. I also had issues with the love scenes. They were not what I was expecting from this seasoned author and I felt as if she got suddenly squeamish about including details but knew she had to include the love scenes anyway. It read very conflicted for me and I was left feeling very cold by them. I'm not sure I can really recommend this book to anyone because of my issues with it. But there were still some parts of it I enjoyed very much. Ugh. So torn. Ultimately I could only give this 2 stars.
