Belle

Belle by Cameron Dokey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had no idea what the story was about - I mean, I get what it was about, but not sure if it was the same re-telling, or a new one - I just knew I saw the name & the cover & had to have it. I got home & found out this was released in 2008 & re-released with this new cover. It totally suckered me in.

Not that I needed suckering in. I loved this book. Another version of the Beauty & the Beast story - nothing like the Disney one - & similar aspects of the original - but kinda different. Stands on its on.

The story of Annabelle Evangeline Delaurier & her sisters, Celestial Hevans & April Dawn ... "Belle" being the youngest of the sisters & someone who feels like she stands in the shadows of her beautiful sisters. But Belle has her own talent of feeling what wood feels. Weird, huh? But it was a neat concept. She would widdle wood into what the limb wanted to be - she could see the REAL things inside.... Hello Foreshadowing!

It's a really good time period book - the days where their father makes his careeer on freight on fleets of ships. The language even reflects a time jump.

& I was kind of shocked when I was half way through the book & we still hadn't even met the Beast. That's probably my only grief about the story. I wish we had more interaction between Belle & the Beast. & the ending got kind of repetitive about "true love"... other than that, I really did love the book & glad I have it. It makes me want to check out the Once Upon a Time Series now.

View all my reviews

The story of Beauty and the Beast finds new life in this magical and imaginative retelling that’s filled with romance and adventure.

By the time her sixteenth birthday comes around, Belle feels more convinced than ever that she is being called by the wrong name. Unlike her older sisters Celeste and April, whose names suit them perfectly, Belle knows that she is not beautiful. She begs to be called by her given name, Annabelle—or even Anna for short—but to no avail. Her solace is her wood-carving hobby, and she longs to find the Heartwood tree: Legend has it that, when carved by the right hands, it can reveal the face of one’s true love.

One day, during a fierce storm, Belle’s father stumbles upon the fabled tree—only to become ensnarled by it and come face-to-face with a terrifying and lonely Beast, who will set him free on one condition: that Belle carves the Heartwood. Belle agrees, never dreaming that she and the Beast have the same wish: to be seen not with the eyes of the mind, but of the heart.