I liked this one a lot, but not as much as her first re-telling. Rose Daughter was almost too layered and complicated. Perhaps this was because I was reading the eBook, though. I think I'll come back to this one later and see if re-reading it makes it better. However, it still enveloped me in a rich, fantastical, fairy-tale world that I was reluctant to leave. The writing and descriptions were lush and beautiful, evoking emotion well throughout. Very well-written, just slightly confusing in parts. Still recommended, though.

I liked the story but I didn't enjoy it. I felt it spent too much time in repetition and never getting to the point or connecting the dots.
I was just plain frustrated for the last hundred pages.

Every re-teller of folk tales has two challenges: bringing something new to something very old, and bringing to life archetypal characters. Ms. McKinley succeeds, but also wanders far from the main story. Beauty spends more time communing with various creatures than with the Beast. The writing is sometimes magical, and sometimes a slog.

Wow, this writing is just beautiful. I read this a very long time ago and just reread it the past week. Robin McKinley's language and style is incredible. I felt like crying while reading the book, but not from sadness, just from the beauty of it all.

Robin McKinley wrote this one nearly 20 years after her first adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, called Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. Her first version was incredible as well, and written before the Disney movie ever came out, which makes it even better. I first fell in love with the Disney version, and then read the two adaptations of Robin McKinley's, and I love them all. I would recommend reading "Beauty" first, and then this one. I just finished them both in a row in the past two weeks and they are both so wonderful.

As per usual, this story is enchanting and wonderfully told with just the right amount of story you've always known and things that seem to fall into place as if someone forgot them. Love it.

an age-old story renewed. always a favorite with me, these romance stories. 5 stars, totally.

this was an AWESOME book...5 stars for this 1!

I loved this story and felt that it was a great re-telling of the story Beauty and the Beast. This book has many interesting elements to it and is a great book to read!

I liked the 1979 version better. There was less of the interaction with Beast and Beauty in this one. This was less magical and too much prose.

I strongly recommend that you read them in order - but not one after the other. Both Beauty and Rose Daughter are Beauty and the Beast - but this author does it justice twice again! Well worth the read!