Rachel L. Demeter
Autor von Beauty of the Beast (Fairy Tale Retellings) (Volume 1)
Über den Autor
Bildnachweis: Photographer: Reba Demeter
Werke von Rachel L. Demeter
Getagged
Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1988-04-07
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- USA
- Wohnorte
- Anaheim, California, USA
- Ausbildung
- Chapman University (School of Film and Media Arts)
- Berufe
- novelist
- Kurzbiographie
- Rachel L. Demeter lives in the beautiful hills of Anaheim, California with Teddy, her goofy lowland sheepdog, and her high school sweetheart. She enjoys writing dark, poignant romances that challenge the reader's emotions and explore the redeeming power of love.
Imagining dynamic worlds and characters has been Rachel's passion for longer than she can remember. Before learning how to read or write, she would dictate stories while her mother would record them for her. She holds a special affinity for the tortured hero and unconventional romances. Whether crafting the protagonist or antagonist, she ensures every character is given a soul.
Rachel endeavors to defy conventions by blending elements of romance, suspense, and horror. Some themes her stories never stray too far from: forbidden romance, soul mates, the power of love to redeem, mend all wounds, and triumph over darkness.
Her dream is to move readers and leave an emotional impact through her words.
Stay in the loop with Rachel's Author Newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/p7kbs9a
Mitglieder
Rezensionen
4.25 Stars
Rachel L. Demeter brings to life the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast with this more traditional, yet dark retelling. Rachel's vibrant prose weaves the story of the Beast and his Beauty, with the castle transforming into ruins before your eyes and the emotions taking hold of you from beginning to end. Unlike other retellings, Beauty of the Beast takes place in a world without fantasy; there are no talking housewares, the Beast is a man badly scarred, and Belle runs from a town that isn't quite as provincial as you'd like to believe.
"Except he didn't save me from the darkness. He brought the darkness."
"The words weren't spoken, yet she heard them all the same: Give me a chance."
Isabelle Rose and Prince Adam are not "simply meant to be," their chemistry is overshadowed with their distrust in the world, Adam is haunted by his nightmarish past and Isabelle does not trust men after far too many run ins with her supposed fiance. Told from their alternating points of view, readers will be delighted to see the story from both perspectives. Both characters had a lot of development through out the novel and I found myself liking each a bit more with every page turn. Their transition from captor/captive to friends to finally lovers was natural, the progression into romance felt real, like Isabelle truly saw Adam for more than his features and his roguish behavior. It is a story of trust and judgement and truly believing that fairy tales are so much more than just those you find in storybooks.
"Winter melted into spring, and along with it, the icicles that had clung to Adam's heart deftly fell away like shackles"
Perfectly timed for the new movie release, Beauty of the Beast will delight historical, fairy tale, and dark romance readers alike. Though lengthy in word count, the classic story comes to life with descriptive details, breathtaking emotion, and a romantic favorite turned just dark enough. The characters are different than you've seen in the past, the history re-written, but the romance is beautiful and captivating.… (mehr)
Rachel L. Demeter brings to life the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast with this more traditional, yet dark retelling. Rachel's vibrant prose weaves the story of the Beast and his Beauty, with the castle transforming into ruins before your eyes and the emotions taking hold of you from beginning to end. Unlike other retellings, Beauty of the Beast takes place in a world without fantasy; there are no talking housewares, the Beast is a man badly scarred, and Belle runs from a town that isn't quite as provincial as you'd like to believe.
"Except he didn't save me from the darkness. He brought the darkness."
"The words weren't spoken, yet she heard them all the same: Give me a chance."
Isabelle Rose and Prince Adam are not "simply meant to be," their chemistry is overshadowed with their distrust in the world, Adam is haunted by his nightmarish past and Isabelle does not trust men after far too many run ins with her supposed fiance. Told from their alternating points of view, readers will be delighted to see the story from both perspectives. Both characters had a lot of development through out the novel and I found myself liking each a bit more with every page turn. Their transition from captor/captive to friends to finally lovers was natural, the progression into romance felt real, like Isabelle truly saw Adam for more than his features and his roguish behavior. It is a story of trust and judgement and truly believing that fairy tales are so much more than just those you find in storybooks.
"Winter melted into spring, and along with it, the icicles that had clung to Adam's heart deftly fell away like shackles"
Perfectly timed for the new movie release, Beauty of the Beast will delight historical, fairy tale, and dark romance readers alike. Though lengthy in word count, the classic story comes to life with descriptive details, breathtaking emotion, and a romantic favorite turned just dark enough. The characters are different than you've seen in the past, the history re-written, but the romance is beautiful and captivating.… (mehr)
ARC Review: Beauty of The Beast (Fairy Tale Retellings) by Rachel L. Demeter
What gives Beauty and the Beast the right to be called a classic? Could it be that to this day the story is just as profound as when it was first written? Perhaps, it's the many interpretations of how beauty blossoms out of ugliness and pain. Or is it the hope laid out that even in life's darkest moments, we can endure. Beauty of the Beast captures many of the central elements of this haunting story with more of a dark edge to this fantastical fairy tale. The names may be different, the story more tarnished but the message of acceptance and beauty still resides inside of Ms. Demeter's version of this inspiration tale.… (mehr)
What gives Beauty and the Beast the right to be called a classic? Could it be that to this day the story is just as profound as when it was first written? Perhaps, it's the many interpretations of how beauty blossoms out of ugliness and pain. Or is it the hope laid out that even in life's darkest moments, we can endure. Beauty of the Beast captures many of the central elements of this haunting story with more of a dark edge to this fantastical fairy tale. The names may be different, the story more tarnished but the message of acceptance and beauty still resides inside of Ms. Demeter's version of this inspiration tale.… (mehr)
2.5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A soldier with nothing to lose has everything to sacrifice.
With his emperor imprisoned, the most important battle Colonel Gabriel de Laurent has left to fight is with his self. On a dark night by the Seine, his demons win and in full dress uniform he takes his pistol, places it in his mouth, and pulls the trigger. While it looks like he lost this battle, he has not yet lost the war. Ariah, wrestling with her own past, comes upon Gabriel and wanting to atone for misdeeds brings him home to care for him. In a defeated Paris, a different kind of war is being fought in a little house tucked back into a poorer neighborhood but can Ariah and Gabriel break free from their self-imposed imprisonments?
Now his face would match the tattered depths of his soul.
Finding Gabriel was a different toned historical romance, instead of the very common English soldier story we have a French soldier from the Napoleonic Wars hero, a heroine who is married, and the French feelings of defeat, loss, and what happens now bleeding into and helping to create the story's atmosphere. The book description mentions Les Miserables and I would definitely agree it has that feel as I felt like the overall dark and murky story took over from the characters at times. This was a combination of fiction and romance but in a way that I felt romance readers would want more focus on the romance and fiction readers would want less. Especially in the beginning, I felt the story was overwritten, in the way that everything is over described in a flowery way; think poetry. There were a lot of flashbacks for our main characters weaved into the story and in the beginning they were a bit jarring at times. We don't get Ariah and Gabriel's full stories of why they are broken people until around the 60% mark. I started to feel like I was reading the diary of a teenager who was going on and on about how hard a life they have lived but didn't want to tell me to keep feeding off the drama.
A frown creased her lips as she echoed the word, "This…" Her finger skimmed his greatcoat, traveling from decoration to decoration. A trail of heat formed wherever she dared touch. Swallowing deeply, he stiffened and tightened his grasp on the bowl. It soon threatened to shatter against his damn palm. "And what precisely is this?"
Swept with emotion, Gabriel shook his head and struggled to form a coherent answer. "Defeat."
With being introduced to Gabriel as he is committing suicide, he definitely came across as a dark and tortured character. He is a bear to Ariah in the beginning but it all read natural and fit into the story. Ariah veered into martyrdom a few times with her saintliness but her will to keep fighting, what I imagine many a woman would have been forced to endure during these times, will endear her to many readers. The majority of the story takes place in Ariah's house but I strangely felt like Ariah and Gabriel didn't spend enough time together but what I think I was really missing was Ariah and Gabriel talking to each other instead of around each other; they are in their own heads a lot. There were sentences and sentences of descriptions but I wanted our characters to physically take part in the story, too.
The thing I fear lives inside me.
Secondary characters did a wonderful job of rounding out the story and broadening it more. Ariah's daughter worked well with Gabriel to help bring him out of his mind more and wake him up. Miriam, Ariah's sister, had her own, very tiny, romance story but only popped in enough to minutely play devil's advocate in regards to taking care of Gabriel rather than being a full bodied character. Ariah's past demon represented by the character Geoffery and her lost at war husband Jacques, helped to add more to Ariah but on their own felt like hanger-ons in the story. The climax of their story comes on a little too quickly and wraps up a little too perfectly.
A way to find beauty in the darkness.
Overall, I liked this story because of its differentness in regards to the typical romance genre story and the outline of Gabriel's character (I felt the author approached the line with Gabriel's attempted suicide but didn't fully commit with leaving out how having a gaping hole, with bone fragments protruding, in one's cheek would cause difficulty in eating, kissing, and drooling) but the writing style just didn't jive with my personal tastes. I needed more action and less description, this reads to be a highly emotional story but I didn't feel a connection to the characters.
Indeed, the greatest pieces of artwork told stories, offered beauty, and whispered painful truths.
If highly descriptive writing with a dark and murky feel and slower moving, in fact I imagine the author writing this story on parchment with a quill and sonatas blasting in the background, is to your liking, then this would be worthy of a read. Also, Napoleon escapes in time to make an appearance and pines over Josephine for a spell, something readers who favor history will delight in.
… (mehr)
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A soldier with nothing to lose has everything to sacrifice.
With his emperor imprisoned, the most important battle Colonel Gabriel de Laurent has left to fight is with his self. On a dark night by the Seine, his demons win and in full dress uniform he takes his pistol, places it in his mouth, and pulls the trigger. While it looks like he lost this battle, he has not yet lost the war. Ariah, wrestling with her own past, comes upon Gabriel and wanting to atone for misdeeds brings him home to care for him. In a defeated Paris, a different kind of war is being fought in a little house tucked back into a poorer neighborhood but can Ariah and Gabriel break free from their self-imposed imprisonments?
Now his face would match the tattered depths of his soul.
Finding Gabriel was a different toned historical romance, instead of the very common English soldier story we have a French soldier from the Napoleonic Wars hero, a heroine who is married, and the French feelings of defeat, loss, and what happens now bleeding into and helping to create the story's atmosphere. The book description mentions Les Miserables and I would definitely agree it has that feel as I felt like the overall dark and murky story took over from the characters at times. This was a combination of fiction and romance but in a way that I felt romance readers would want more focus on the romance and fiction readers would want less. Especially in the beginning, I felt the story was overwritten, in the way that everything is over described in a flowery way; think poetry. There were a lot of flashbacks for our main characters weaved into the story and in the beginning they were a bit jarring at times. We don't get Ariah and Gabriel's full stories of why they are broken people until around the 60% mark. I started to feel like I was reading the diary of a teenager who was going on and on about how hard a life they have lived but didn't want to tell me to keep feeding off the drama.
A frown creased her lips as she echoed the word, "This…" Her finger skimmed his greatcoat, traveling from decoration to decoration. A trail of heat formed wherever she dared touch. Swallowing deeply, he stiffened and tightened his grasp on the bowl. It soon threatened to shatter against his damn palm. "And what precisely is this?"
Swept with emotion, Gabriel shook his head and struggled to form a coherent answer. "Defeat."
With being introduced to Gabriel as he is committing suicide, he definitely came across as a dark and tortured character. He is a bear to Ariah in the beginning but it all read natural and fit into the story. Ariah veered into martyrdom a few times with her saintliness but her will to keep fighting, what I imagine many a woman would have been forced to endure during these times, will endear her to many readers. The majority of the story takes place in Ariah's house but I strangely felt like Ariah and Gabriel didn't spend enough time together but what I think I was really missing was Ariah and Gabriel talking to each other instead of around each other; they are in their own heads a lot. There were sentences and sentences of descriptions but I wanted our characters to physically take part in the story, too.
The thing I fear lives inside me.
Secondary characters did a wonderful job of rounding out the story and broadening it more. Ariah's daughter worked well with Gabriel to help bring him out of his mind more and wake him up. Miriam, Ariah's sister, had her own, very tiny, romance story but only popped in enough to minutely play devil's advocate in regards to taking care of Gabriel rather than being a full bodied character. Ariah's past demon represented by the character Geoffery and her lost at war husband Jacques, helped to add more to Ariah but on their own felt like hanger-ons in the story. The climax of their story comes on a little too quickly and wraps up a little too perfectly.
A way to find beauty in the darkness.
Overall, I liked this story because of its differentness in regards to the typical romance genre story and the outline of Gabriel's character (I felt the author approached the line with Gabriel's attempted suicide but didn't fully commit with leaving out how having a gaping hole, with bone fragments protruding, in one's cheek would cause difficulty in eating, kissing, and drooling) but the writing style just didn't jive with my personal tastes. I needed more action and less description, this reads to be a highly emotional story but I didn't feel a connection to the characters.
Indeed, the greatest pieces of artwork told stories, offered beauty, and whispered painful truths.
If highly descriptive writing with a dark and murky feel and slower moving, in fact I imagine the author writing this story on parchment with a quill and sonatas blasting in the background, is to your liking, then this would be worthy of a read. Also, Napoleon escapes in time to make an appearance and pines over Josephine for a spell, something readers who favor history will delight in.
… (mehr)
Statistikseite
- Werke
- 4
- Mitglieder
- 102
- Beliebtheit
- #187,251
- Bewertung
- 3.6
- Rezensionen
- 23
- ISBNs
- 7
- Favoriten
- 2
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author.
Please overlook any typos. Learning to use screen reader.… (mehr)