The conflict with Rose Daughter lies not with Beauty being the only hard-worker in her lazy family, but rather how she discovers the secrets behind the Beast’s palace.
The first point to Rose Daughter is that it makes three-dimensional, likable characters of Beauty’s sisters, Lionheart and Jeweltongue, both usually lazy, jealous shrews in fairy tale books. They’re both the same flower, but they have different smells and colors, providing a unique experience either way. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but it’s not so much comparing apples to oranges, as much as it is comparing two different roses. Just to say up front, this is not a compare-and-contrast between Beauty and Rose Daughter. Now, how about when that author returns to the same fairy tale twenty years later? Can the same magic be made a second time with Rose Daughter? When the stars align to not only give you a novel-length retelling of your favorite fairy tale, but also fresh and quality characters with breezy storytelling, it’s a good day indeed. That book was called Beauty, a novel-length retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
During the freezing Wisconsin winter term of my junior year of college, I curled up with a classic novel from renowned fantasy writer Robin McKinley.
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