The Rose Kiss is a fun foray into the Beauty and the Beast tale. Darker than Disney, there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader's guessing. I loved the mythological basis that Esme Rome used to provide a rich tapestry on which to tell her story.

A beauty and the beast retelling
Lana's father I'd wanting her to marry. She runs away and finds a castle that is under a curse. If you know beauty and the best you can guess what happens.

I tried to get into this book but I just couldn't. However I loved the cover and I usually love retelling of fairy tales but this book was pretty boring.

I wanted so much to enjoy this book, the cover art is stunning and I love retelling of fairy tales so there's a different spin on a familiar beloved tale, but this was lacklustre if I am honest.

The characters ard very two-dimensional and often feel as though they have been added for the sake of filling a space within the book to add more context rather than fleshing out the more relevant faces. As for Lana our Beauty within the tale, she isn't anyone I could picture clearly and came across as selfish and naive which doesn't make her likeable in any way. She disregards her fathers concerns and instead adds to his monetary issues and disregards his fervent wish that she marry safely so he need not worry.

I struggled to not leave it as a DNF, hoping instead that the Book would get better, that there would be some world-building that would give the tale something that the reader could visualise or the characters would become something ones I could invest in. However, sadly The Rose Kiss pales greatly in comparison to Beauty and the Beast.

I would give The Rose Kiss by Esme Rome a three star review because, the story was short, it started out slow but as I kept going it got longer. But what I really liked was how the two lovers grown to love each other through their literature which I love though I do wish there was a little more character development.

“But there’s a reason people keep telling fairy tales. They last because they touch on something true. Not true the way a barometer reading is true, but true the way a painting of a cloud is true.”

Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the eARC! 💜

I did enjoy reading this retelling and it went about a completely different way. However, it was not as impactful to me as I anticipated. I loved the setting and the world, but I feel as if the execution could have gone better. It’s a fun quick read and if you’re into retellings, this is a breath of fresh air from all other Beauty and the Beast retellings out there. I guess it kinda fell flat for me in the end 😂 That was the reason for my okay rating 🙂

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I am a fan of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The cover of this book is beautiful so obviously I was very excited to read this.

I was not a fan of the MC personality and I was also not a fan of the abrupt transitions in the book, one time I was in a garden and then I am somewhere else in a matter of seconds. I was confused with that. I also didn't get the magic system.

I admit that I was sucked into this book by the beautiful cover, and a Beauty and the Beast retelling with some fairytales thrown in. While I did get the fairytales, which were nice, this book ultimately fell so flat and I think that was due to the writing. There were multiple sentences that either had typos or just stopped in the middle of the sentence. There were also scene changes where it wasn't clear AT ALL that the scene had changed, you were just suddenly somewhere else. Some things were rushed, other things felt too slow. Nothing was explained, you're just supposed to accept when magic is an important plot convenience and when it can't be used to further the plot. The ending was long and dragged out for no reason. The dialogue was incredibly stilted and awkward.

Ultimately the writing of this just killed any hope of this being a good story; there were just too many flaws, which is really sad because there are some good ideas hidden in here.

I really enjoyed this take on beauty and the beast, it added a great twist and additional plot to it.

I enjoyed reading this as I do most Beauty and the Beast retellings. I look forward to more from Esme Rome as far as fairytale retelling go she did a wonderful job. It kept me interested from the very beginning right up until the very end. I would recommend this for anyone who is interested in fairytale retellings.

Initial Thoughts
I saw this Beauty and the Beast retelling was a Read Now title and I jumped on it. I love Beauty and the Beast retellings.

One Thing I Liked
I liked the regency inspired setting. It felt like 1800s France and I love that time period.

Some Things I Wasn't Crazy About
The main character. She was basically a crazy brat and I really didn't connect with her at all.
The scene changes. They made absolutely no sense. One second we're in a garden, the next someone is coming through a mirror? I had no idea what was happening for large chunks of the story and that made the story very difficult to enjoy.
The romance. It seemed very superficial and it was basically insta-love in the worst way.

Series Value
I would not continue reading this series. I don't see how a series would even connect to this one but I am not interested in reading further.

Final Thoughts
This was not a book for me. I found there were many parts that I just didn't follow and didn't enjoy. I can look past some of it because I liked the inspiration and the time period but I really didn't connect with anything else.

There wasn’t anything I disliked about this book, but there was also nothing that made me love it either. My biggest issue is that things seemingly happened for no reason and I spent a lot of the time being confused and trying to figure it out.

I didn’t get to finish before it vanished off my app. But from what I was able to read it was good. You have to read it in a new perspective almost forgetting about the beauty and the beast story we grew up with. But overall it’s good

This book had potential, a beauty and the beast retelling is my cup of tea. Sadly it just didn't hold my attention and I kept putting this book down and not wanting to pick it back up.

The romance was lacking and the characters had nothing to ground me to them. I felt no connection to the characters.

While this was a retelling of beauty and the beast, I didnt really get that vibe with this book at all.

In 1700, Lana Moreau is the beautiful daughter of a bankrupt French nobleman. Every attempt to find a suitor fails, so her father brings her to the local soothsayer. Unfortunately, Lana is named the Belmorta, a beautiful woman doomed to marry a beast, bringing on famine and death. Hoping to escape that fate, she runs to hide in an abandoned castle. It's enchanted, and staying there just might fulfill the curse.


This is the first YA novel in the Fairy Tale Love Stories fantasy series. This one is based on Beauty and the Beast, and even includes a fairy tale that resembles it that the people talk about. Scattered throughout the text are stories and songs, plays and mentions of alternative history.


We start with Lana and her a hilariously disastrous meeting with her thirteenth potential suitor in the beginning; she's more learned than the men wanting her for her beauty, and her father has been bleeding goods to the local nobleman that claims to be a soothsayer. As with the tale, Beauty has to meet the Beast in the enchanted castle, empty save for whatever she needs and asks for. They get to know each other and their histories, as well as the source of the curse. It goes exactly how you think it will, because it's following the fairy tale. It's a cute retelling, and a fast read.

This book sounded really great from the synopsis but I found myself a bit disappointed by it unfortunately. I found it slow and really dragging in places.

It's too bland for my taste and the dialogues are so painful to read because the characters talk unrealistically. The book is also too long when I think the story could be told in a shorter and much concise way. Despite that, I still find the descriptions and narration to be quite good and easy to get into. The overall flow and the dialogue just take me out of the story and made my reading experience not that enjoyable.

It started off really slow and to be honest quite confusing. There was a prologue that I felt was just unnecessary. It made the story feel disjointed and the story just didn't flow well. I was very close to just putting it down and not finishing at about 25%. I stuck with it and it did get a tad better but overall was just ok. I did enjoy the magical elements to it with the enchanted castle and the fairies, however I feel it could have been resolved better. It was not explained clearly why what she did was what broke the curse. The ending even dragged on a little bit too long. Usually I like having more background about the characters after they have their happily ever after but this one just didn't add much to story. Unfortunately this one was miss for me.

Fairytale re-tellings are always a bit of a gamble. They are a hit or a total miss usually. And as a - okay I admit - total Disney fan, I'm a bit partial to the original. But, every now and then I take a leap of faith and check out a re-telling So, I dove into the story of Lana, who is in search of a wealthy suitor to help pay off the debts her father has. Her father is consulting a seer, a prophet, who tells a tale where Lana is an evil witch, who will put a plague over the whole population. Unless she marries the prophet of course.
Lana flees for her life and ends up on a magical castle, with a disfigured host, who doesn't want to show himself to her. The story also includes singing flowers, who are slowly withering. And although Lana is enjoying her time in the castle, she still misses her father. When she is shown her father through a mystical mirror, she sees that her father is not well. The prophet is draining all of his funds.
Does this all sound very familiar? It is, but on the other hand, it isn't. Esme certainly gives her own flair to the characters and the story. So, the ending will certainly not exactly I be, what you would expect. A wonderful story. Four out of five stars from me and a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this advance copy for an honest review.

This is a true fairy tale with many fantasy elements, including other fairy tales, a wicked wizard, fairies, and magic spells. It is not a realistic or historical retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Many of the ideas were very creative. There were also some lovely quotes. However, it did not flow. Many of the scenes were quite jarring and I wondered what was happening. There was not the forethought or wondering curiosity before something happened. Similarly, it seemed like the author thought of a witty or funny sentence and then just threw it in without making sure it fit within the story.

The hero was not introduced until somewhere between 1/3 or 1/2 into the book. Although I think the intention was to surprise the reader, it did not work for me. I think perhaps a parallel telling of the heroine's and the hero's backstories with alternating scenes until they met each other might have worked better.

The story was a little longer than a novella but still too short to be fully developed. For a debut, I could see potential in the author. I would not be opposed to trying another story in the future to see her writing development.