Beauty is a reimagining of a couple of different classic tales, notably “Beauty and the Beast,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White,” and “Rumpelstiltskin.” It reminds me a great deal of the ABC series Once Upon a Time, in the way that it marries many different tales together into one story. Most of the time, I enjoy such a premise, but as Beauty is more of a novella than a full novel, I found myself thinking there were more characters and stories than Sarah Pinborough really had time to effectively explore.

And that is really the crux of why I didn’t love Beauty as much as I really wanted to, and why it took me far longer than I would have liked to read. Like every good fairy tale, a prince is set off on a quest, in this case to investigate a kingdom that appears to have been swallowed up forest. A huntsman is enlisted to help him and along the way they meet Petra (Little Red Riding Hood) and she joins them on the adventure as she senses her destiny lies somewhere on the other side of the densely forested wall. The three make their way into the kingdom and awaken Beauty, a la sleeping beauty.

And that’s when things turn decidedly more Grimm. This is not Disney. Beauty is written in the same vein as the original dark and terrible German tales by the brothers Grimm. I liked that things were flipped on their head, but it was far too sudden. I wish there had been fewer characters, fewer fairy tales and more about those that really intrigued me, or, that the story had been fleshed out into a full novel and not written as a novella. I finished the book wanting so much more out of it. ( )

Maybe if I had read the other two books this would have made more sense. Who knows. Light read. ( )

It took me a while to move on to this final book of the Tales from the Kingdoms, but knowing me this would be down to my Cinderella moment when as a 3 year old child I was crying my eyes out at the end as 'I didn't want it to finish'. I just have to say it one more time: these books published by Gollancz must be the most beautiful hardback books I have ever seen.

Although ultimately a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty has a proper mixed bag of fairytales in it. So whichever was your favourite as a child, and you didn't read about them in Poison and Charm, chances are your favourite fairytale character will appear in Beauty.

I do love the TV show Once Upon A Time, so I was thrilled to find Rumpelstiltskin (dearie) appearing unexpectedly in Beauty. I loved how Sarah Pinborough brought a little bit extra to his character but I'll not say any more as it will spoil the story. This is my definitely my favourite of the three Tales from the Kingdoms, it's an absolutely genius characterisation of 'the beast' - so simple yet so clever.

I love reading adult fairytales - although loosely based on our childhood favourites, they remind us of happier innocent times when anything was possible and our imagination could run wild. With the addition of 'adult' to 'fairytales', you do get a more risqué version of your favourite childhood classic so any demure readers should be prepared to be shocked and slightly uncomfortable.

Beauty is fabulous escapism fiction that will awaken your inner child and allow your imagination to have free reign while you escape from the real world and visit a faraway kingdom from once upon a time. ( )

Ugh. Book three. Finally done. (I'm determined to read every book I own). I made it.

I don't have the energy to tell you how shitty this is.

I’ll say one good thing about this series, I like that it’s all connected at least. I like getting more background on characters and history and all that lovely stuff. This would be great if it was a good series.

This is still garbage. ( )

Wow! Interesting plot twists, different characters, colorful retellings of classic fairy tales, this book has it all! I thought it was a wonderful read. Not for kids, but young adults may love it. ( )