Book review for "As old as time: a twisted tale" by liz braswell

Disclaimer: This review is spoiler free except for the parts labelled as spoiler
Book: As Old as Time: a Twisted Tale
Author: Liz Braswell 
Page Number: 484 Pages
Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling Fantasy
Age: For readers 12 and up 
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Synopsis: What if Belle's mother cursed the Beast? When Belle touches the Beast's enchanted rose, memories flood through Belle of a mother she thought she would never see again. Now it is up to her and the Beast to work together and save all those who were cursed by the Enchantress’s spell.

I’m a sucker for all things Beauty and the Beast! I absolutely LOVE the story and romance between Belle and the Beast. I’ve watched the live action movie and the animated movie both at least a hundred times. So it came as a shock when I realized that I didn’t like this book as much as I would have liked to. It showed so much potential but the magic and beauty from the original story was just….missing….
The book just felt flat, especially near the end.

What I Liked:

Mystery of the Plot: I love how this book kept me on my toes even when it’s a story that I’m very familiar with. After the first 200 pages, this story goes on it’s own, unique and different from the original fairytale. Yet it still gave us some iconic moments between Beauty and the Beast sprinkled throughout the rest of the book.
Belle’s Book Addiction: This was SO relatable! The lines where Belle raves on and on about books...I felt that. Belle has always been my second favorite Disney princess (after Mulan) because I can relate to Belle’s book passion with every fiber in my body. I totally understood when she was talking about how she wanted the adventure and magic from books in her own life. 
“Reading books let me realize there was a world beyond the river, beyond the people who made fun of me and my father. (...) I had books. Reading them is like travelling to other places. Being with other people. Living other lives. It made life far less….sad and lonely for me.”
Backstory: Ok wow! The backstory on Maurice and Rosalind was great! At first I was wondering how all this back story connected with the book. Then I realized that it was tied very well with the rest of the story. On page 152 (spoiler: when she came to see if the prince was going to be just like his parents), it all made sense and you could visibly see my revelation as I went “OHH”. 
The Pacing: It was well paced and a fast read!


Why This Book Wasn’t a Favorite:

1. Nonexistent Romance: I searched high and low in this book for even a spark of chemistry but couldn’t find any. Seriously! You’d think a Beauty and the Beast retelling would be primarily focused on the romance between the two. They have no spark, no chemistry, no loving and caring glances or words and. There. Wasn’t. A. Single. “I love you”. WHAT KIND OF BEAUTY AND BEAST RETELLING DOESN”T HAVE THAT?! Remember when you first watched the movie and felt your heart twist when the Beast “died” and Belle was crying over him, telling the Beast that she loved him? Yah well there is no scene even close to that in this book. OH and in the end *spoiler* Belle and the Beast didn’t come to the conclusion themselves that they loved each other. Instead Maurice and Rosalind said “Oh we think you guys love each other” and then Belle and Beast look at each other and blush. THAT’S IT?! After 484 pages we don’t even get to hear it from your own mouths?! Someone has to tell it to you? Yah for sure you guys have true love….
   
2. The Ending (Spoilers: skip past this paragraph): There was no transformation scene. There was no iconic Beauty and the Beast ball dance (ok fine I get why we didn’t get this scene but I really wanted it). But there is no excuse for not having the transformation scene. WHO THOUGHT THIS ENDING WAS OK?! I was looking forward to the transformation scene where Belle recognizes him by his blue eyes and...sigh… The ending was very lame. Note: I just realized that Belle doesn’t even know the Beast’s real name by the end of the book.
   
3. The Inconsistencies: There were WAYYYY too many inconsistencies in this book but here are a few that made me super confused.
   

• 1) The age gap between Belle and the Beast. I think Belle was around four or five when the Prince was cursed (he was eleven). So that makes the age difference between them seven or six years. In this book, the Beast is 21 which means Belle is around 14-15?! Uh….. anyways. 
  
• 2) Ten years ago when the curse was placed, Chip was five. When the curse was broken he remained five. However the Beast went from an eleven year old boy to a 21 year old man. How did he manage to age while Chip and the other servants stayed the same age? Or does this mean that when he transforms he will be eleven? How is Belle supposed to marry an eleven year old? 
  
• 3) SPOILERS: When they find Alaric’s dead body ten years later, the corpse is somehow magically still intact. By ten years the body should have been a skeleton so it’s really weird how the Beast could identify who the ten year old corpse was.
  
• 4) Spoilers: In the end of the book, the Enchantress says she can either change back all the servants in the castle or change back the Beast. The Beast chose to change all the servants back. Belle’s mother apparently had enough magic to uncurse each furniture one by one. So why did she not have enough power to change just one more person? How come she didn’t have enough magic to change the Beast back? 
  

1. Gaston: Gaston is one of my favorite villains so I was incredibly disappointed. Sorry to disappoint you all but he’s barely in this book. Gaston has about two scenes and we don’t get to even have a conversation with him until we get around the 300 page benchmark.  
   
2. Belle: This book completely changed her. In the movie Belle was angry at the Beast when he locked her up and took her prisoner. At one point she even tries to escape out of the castle on her own with scraps of fabric tied together. However in this book, Belle weeped half of the time and it felt like all the determination and motivation in the original Belle had been taken out of her. 
   
3. The Writing Style: The style was a bit off and in some sentences I got confused at its structure. These weird sentences were often written in odd ways where Brasswell writes in a more confusing sentence structure to get a point across. 
   

This book was enjoyable because of the plot and pacing. However the ending and the non existent romance sort of diluted the reading experience for me. It’s a cute and fast read, but don’t expect too much out of it!