Rose of Prophesy by Hope Ann

This is another book I read because I bought it at some point and I'm working through the books in my account before buying more.  What I hadn't realised before I read it was that this was a novella, nor that it was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.


This book seems to be no longer available on Amazon, so here is the blurb from goodreads:

She is afraid. Not because she is alone. Not because thick roiling clouds obscure the moon. Not because the wind rushes through the forest like a wild dragon. She is afraid because she is late. And to be late means death.

Her life had been happy once.

Despite the destruction wreaked by Tauscher, traitor to the King. Despite the distant war led by the Prince and fought with the help of her three brothers. Despite her own poorly-chosen nickname of Beauty, she'd enjoyed life.

Of course, that was also before her father left home on a hopeful errand but returned weary and ill, bearing a velvety scarlet rose which he claimed would never wither. But even life in the ancient hall, tucked away in the center of Mosswood, surrounded by roses of every description, overshadowed with mystery and home to a scarred figure who was more beast than man, wasn't too bad after a time.

But now...now, in a flash of light, Beauty finally glimpses the truth. And the cost. The price which must be paid, or the sacrifice which must be made.

It is a curse which even love alone may not be able to break.

So, not realising when it started it was based on Beauty and The Beast, the fact that the protagonist's nickname is "Beauty" didn't give it away for me, nor the fact she asked her father for a rose - duh!  There was enough story around these elements that it felt totally natural.  (I did 'get' it, by the time we met the Beast, I'm not totally silly!)

For being book 1 in the series, I thought there was not enough background to the thing between the Prince and Tauscher.  There was also a reference that I totally didn't understand - the Stieg Der.  Always written in italics, and never explained.  I don't even know what it means (a quick google was no help).  Having finished the book, and noticing there is some Christian allegory to this retelling (though it is not overt, so I other than a Bible reference on the very last page, it won't 'ruin it' for non-Christian readers, but is an interesting twist) it's something to do with The Fall: 'stieg' is the past tense of 'steigen' in German, where 'steigen' means 'to climb'.  So is it a play on words, rather than The Climb (Der Aufsteig), to illustrate the fall, the words have been place backwards (Stieg Der)? I don't know.

Other than that, however, I enjoyed the book.  At 78 pages it is very short (Kindle estimates it will only take an hour to read) and if you enjoy retellings of classic fairy tales then you will enjoy this book.