Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions are my own.

Sapphic Beauty and the Beast?? SiGN ME UP.
We have two different and well written characters. Celeste and Belle were different not only on character but also her interests differ yet all the time their relationship did not feel weird or forced. Both of them were well characterized.
The setting was incresible and it made the book even better.
The only issue I had with it was the fact that it was quite slow paced. I personally like more fast paced books but overall it was really good.

3.75 Well, I had fun with this one. This is another retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and with a queer Belle and Beast. Interestingly, this time we focus more on our Belle character, following her as she strives towards her dreams and goals. We don't even really meet our Beast until about 2/3rds of the way through the book. Also, all the elements of the original tale are there, but with some fun twists that are kind of refreshing.

Celeste is a charming, beautiful, and quirky young woman who dreams of being a naturalist. She and her sister are primed to go on a promised trip to Paris, where Celeste hopes to show off her findings, but circumstance makes it impossible. In fact, she is forced to be engaged her longtime childhood friend because of a misunderstanding, and is subjugated to his overbearing and cruel mother. With her dreams squashed, she runs away and ends up in a seemingly abandoned chateau where she gets sick. That's when she meets the Beast, a monstrous being who as smart and charming as she is horrifying to look at. Celeste is fascinated by the Beast and soon feelings stronger than a scientist interviewing her subject arise.

I really enjoy this Belle and Beast pairing. Celeste is as quirky and charming as her Disney counterpart, and the Beast is actually as kind and smart as Celeste, but because she hasn't actually interacted with people in over a hundred years she has to re-learn people. Beast's backstory is quite tragic, but it really wasn't explained how she could become human again, I think. I did re-read some sections of the book, but it kind of is hand waved away as the Beast forgetting most of her transformation. There are other fun nods to the Disney version and the original, but it avoids making the Beast cruel by kind of making her just indifferent, then intrigued by Celeste, which is a nice dynamic. Celeste is endlessly fascinated with the Beast, but the Beast really doesn't care to much at the beginning.

This looks like it could start a small series, and because the book kind of ends with the Beast and Celeste kind of facing the future together, I'd love to see what they do next. I love their chemistry and I love that Celeste is such an adorkable nerd with a bit of steel in her. I would love to explore more of that as well. Love this retelling.

*I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Fairy tale retellings are everywhere these days, it seems, and they never seem to get old.

There’s something at once comforting and exciting about reading a lot of different takes on the same story. You know what’s going to happen, more or less, but the thrill lies in waiting to see what unique spin the author will put on this familiar story. How will the pieces fall into place? What will the author keep, and what will they leave out? How will they incorporate this particular element of the original story? And now that we’re starting to see gay versions of fairytales… I have to say I’m a fan.

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I actually managed to forget that The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast in the time between requesting it on Netgalley and opening the ARC, and didn’t catch on until about halfway through. I think that’s a testament to how effectively author Ceinwen Langley manages to create an original story around the fairy tale setting. By the time the Beauty and the Beast elements come into play, you’re already invested in the characters and their story.

Here’s the summary from Netgalley:

ASPIRING YOUNG NATURALIST CELESTE ROSSAN IS DETERMINED TO LIVE A LIFE OF ADVENTURE AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. BUT WHEN HER FATHER LOSES EVERYTHING, CELESTE’S HOPES OF EVER LEAVING HER HOME TOWN ARE DASHED… UNTIL SHE SEES A NARROW OPPORTUNITY TO ESCAPE TO PARIS AND ATTEND THE 1867 EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE.

CELESTE SEIZES HER CHANCE, BUT THE ELEMENTS OVERWHELM HER BEFORE SHE CAN MAKE IT FIVE MILES. IN DESPERATION, SHE SEEKS REFUGE IN AN ABANDONED CHATEAU ONLY TO FIND HERSELF TRAPPED INSIDE THE DEN OF AN UNKNOWN SPECIES: A PREDATOR WITH AN INTELLIGENCE THAT RIVALS ANY HUMAN.

IT’S THE DISCOVERY OF A LIFETIME. OR, IT WILL BE, IF CELESTE CAN EARN THE BEAST’S TRUST WITHOUT LOSING HER NERVE – OR HER HEART – TO HER IN THE PROCESS.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist is a really fun and quick read. The characters are well fleshed-out right from the start and the author does not waste any time setting things in motion. Protagonist Celeste Rossan is instantly likable. It’s easy to empathize with her as you watch her try to reconcile these two desires: the desire to build a life for herself that isn’t just being a housewife, and the desire to make her family happy. She makes a lot of very difficult decisions in this book, but they always make sense to some extent.

Even the character of Étienne – whose role in the story is somewhat similar to Gaston’s role in the Disney movie – ends up being a much more interesting character than I expected. In stories about arranged or undesirable marriages, the men are often cast as one-dimensional villains, but Étienne is simultaneously more likable and more off-putting than those types of characters. He’s a recognizable figure: the perfectly nice guy who feels entitled to more than friendship. Celeste is put in a really difficult situation when it comes to managing that relationship, and even though the specific circumstances are so different from anything I’ve ever experienced, I found the storyline really resonated with me. It’s a really, really good take on a popular trope.

This book is also a really interesting look at queer history. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that the protagonist and her love interest are far from the only queer characters in the book, and the queer history is not limited to just their love story. The book does a really good job, I think, of showing both the good and bad of 19th century queer history. There’s plenty of angst of the type that you can only really find in historical gay romances, but there’s also lots of joy. It’s sweet and inspiring and fun. I couldn’t stop grinning the entire time I was reading the last few chapters.

Goodreads says that this is the first book in a series, but I haven’t seen any confirmation that that’s the case. Honestly, I would love to see more of these characters, but the story does stand really well on its own. It could be a great series, or a standalone. Either way, it’s worth reading.

Self-published books can be very hit-or-miss, and I know there’s always a lot of new media to consume in the fall, but I hope The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist doesn’t fall under the radar. It’s a really fun read, and well worth picking up this September.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist comes out September 1st, 2021.

While I went into this book excited, it was underwhelming. The beginning felt like an entirely book than the ending. The writing was enjoyable, but the lack of drive made it fall flat. Overall, this book was average. I definitely could see a lot of other people enjoying it, but it just did not get me invested in the story like I had hoped.

This was an absolutely wonderful sapphic beauty and the beast retelling! I’m so grateful to have received a copy, and would like to thank the author for sharing it with me. The cover is stunning, and the characters are extremely loveable. I also was pleased at how it stayed true to the original storyline, but not so much that it felt repetitive or flat. Ceinwen found a way to make the story unique.
Part One took up a large part of the book, which I liked because of the character development, but I’m not sure if other readers will enjoy. There were a few editing errors, which can easily be fixed.
Overall, I immensely enjoyed this, and will definitely read more of Ceinwen’s books!

Thank you for the Publisher and Netgalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was such an unexpected gem. As a bio/eco major I was thrilled to read a fiction with a female naturalist lead. I also for some reason did not expect the paranormal/fantasy elements in it, so I was pleasantly surprised by that too.
The main character Celeste is so likeable and most of the side characters are as well. I very much enjoyed the writing style and the choices Celeste made. She was relatable and I felt a bit of a kinship to her.
At the beginning of the book we got a lot of detailed and beautiful description of nature and animals but I felt that in a way as the story progressed it lost it's importace with the beast put in the center. I also kind of felt that for a naturalist Celeste's way of thinking felt uneducated and naive.
I enjoyed the descriptive writing and how the writing enabled me to visualize everything to it's full extent. The side characters were so well developed and had depth. I also enjoyed the layers the newspaper adventure story and the reading of the diary added to the storyline.
The story dramatically slowed down in the middle of the book and I wished it didn't cause at points I was getting bored. The ending of the book I absolutely loved and it saved the book for me cause the previous 30 pages I did not enjoy at all. Everything just worked itself out way too easily and we said goodby to characters in meaningless ways just to fit the narrative of the ending and the next book.

All in all it was a great start for the series. I hope the second book will have a bit more action and investigation in it.

What could have been a cute wlw take on Beauty and the Beast is instead killed by the story's torpid pacing. The first third plus of this book doesn't even feature the interaction between Celeste and the beast. Instead, so much time is spent setting up a relationship between Celeste and the Gaston stand in (in this case, a very sympathetic young man named Etienne). There are some allusions to Celeste having a romantic interest in women, but for most of the book, it's very much between the lines until she suddenly has these revelations about a childhood female friend. Aside from her sister, there are very few females she even interacts with to the point where I had to keep checking that this was indeed a wlw book. You are in for a very, very long wait on that payoff. Once Celeste and the beast do finally meet, the pacing thankfully does pick up but then it's a weird rush towards the finish. Ultimately this book was extremely unsatisfying for what the summary promised.

Essentially a sapphic beauty and the beast retelling, though this doesn't become evident until at least halfway into the book. The beginning is a bit slow and though it's not really relevant to the plot, it was still kept my interest. I kept waiting for it to have the weird bestiality subtext that comes with most beauty and the beast stories but it didn't have that at all. I felt a lot reading this book. Maybe it was the long week I was having or maybe the characters make me empathize with them. I felt a lot of frustration and anger and sadness reading this book and though those are negative emotions, I like when books make me feel things, and I liked how I felt reading this book. It was righteous anger, relieving sadness. If you're looking for a romance, it's not this book, but as someone who usually cannot read a book without romance, I still really liked it. It's a good read.

I went into this book with not much expectations, I only new it was a beauty and the beast retelling and I do enjoy retellings, but sometimes their just more of the same. But I didn't feel this with "the misadventures of ana amateur naturalist".
The book gave me a bit off "stalking jack the ripper" vibes, in the sense that Celeste made me remember Audrey rose, being that Celeste is a bit more careless sometimes. But the idea of wanting a career in the time where those were for man, and their attitude about it was pretty similar. I liked that they made Etienne, which I assume was Gaston, not be actually a bad guy, just a man stuck in it's traditional family and values. I loved the beast and all the story around it, and I found that it was at least a bit different from the original story to be interesting and captivating, also it was interesting that it wasn't actually that centered in the curse.
I didn't know it would be a sapphic romance which was a rather good surprise and well delivered.
Overall really enjoyed the book.
About the prospect of other books, it might be an interesting idea if the next ones are centered around Celeste being a amateur naturalist of special and fantastical creatures, which I think the story might be pointing to.
But if there were such next books I would no doubt read them.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist has some interesting spins on the Beauty and the Beast fairytale, such as Celeste (the Beauty) sacrificing herself to a marriage she doesn't want in order to save her family, instead of sacrificing herself to the Beast, as well as making her a naturalist/scientist. I did enjoy these takes on the plot beats of the original fairytale. I also liked Celeste well enough as a main character, although I'm not sure she had much of an arc, as such. I felt she was more or less the same character in the end as she was in the beginning of the novel.

The biggest issue is that the pacing is very off. We don't meet the Beast until close to the 50% mark. The first half is spent on Celeste's life and the circumstances that lead her to being desperate enough to run away. I'm not opposed to this idea, but we simply spend too much time in it, and as a consequence the story dragged quite a lot. The better choice may have been to shorten this and have Celeste act sooner.

Langley's choice not to introduce the Beast until nearly halfway in also harmed the progression of Celeste's relationship with her. Their progression from distrust to trust, to friendship, to love wasn't as clear cut as I would have liked, and in the end I'm not entirely certain I believed the love between them. Quite literally, Celeste initially spends more time on-page with a barn owl in the castle than she does with the Beast.

At times it felt like Langley suffered from the issue of not really knowing what to have Celeste do in the castle, and instead chose to focus more on scenes with Celeste and the Beast. However then the issue became that there simply wasn't enough time to develop that relationship as it should have been developed.

Also, if I didn't know this was the first in a possible series, I would have been very put off by the fact that Celeste doesn't seem to spend much time thinking about her family in the last chapter. They still believe she's dead and here she is, going off on an adventure with her wife, and she doesn't even think about them once. No remorse? No guilt? Maybe this will be handled in the sequel, but it should have had a mention here, in my opinion.

The strongest parts of the novel were the technical writing aspects of it -- Langley has a lovely writing style that's easy to read, and I was able to envision her world easily. Her characters were also strong, and I appreciated that she didn't go the Gaston route with Celeste's fiance Etienne. If the issues of pacing were fixed, I would have enjoyed this novel much more. I may still read the sequel (I'm thinking it'll be a Little Mermaid retelling, given some dialogue in the end).

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

Rating: 4*s

As soon as I heard there was a sapphic retelling of beauty and the beast coming out I literally screamed and instantly requested this book on NetGalley, and I'm so happy it didn't disappoint !!

This was an absolutely enchanting tale, the writing was beautiful and it really captured that whimsical fairytale feeling but at the same time felt more quirky and with a little twist.

The pacing of the story is a little slow and did require some patience whilst reading because I was so eager to meet the beast, but I actually appreciated the fact that it took a little longer because it gave time to build up Celeste's character and made her a really strong and enjoyable character to read about.

I wish there could have been a little more romance because what was there felt really sweet and special, but perhaps if there comes to be a sequel that could fix that ;)

Overall a great book, 10/10 would recommend !!

When I started this book, I had no expectations and let me tell you that I was not disappointed. The reason why I didn't give this book the complete five stars is because I felt the beginning was slow and a bit hard for me to get through but the rest was amazing. This was the first sapphic beauty and the beast retelling I had ever heard and it was beautifully executed. I loved how the author wrote it and loved the character development. This is definitively a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to get into historical fiction. The books in this genre are usually very slow but this one was a very fast read so if you are usually intimidated by the genre because it's slow you should try this one out.

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist (Celeste Rossan #1) by Ceinwen Langley sounded like it would be right up my alley, but unfortunately I just couldn't get into it - the characters or the story. I guess, this one just wasn't for me.

I received this book for an honest review. Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity. This book definitely has some Beuty, and the Beast vibes to it and I would be lying if I told you that it hooked me right from the start. However, the queer element paired with the retelling element did add up into a delightful book. I loved the main characters, and I liked the side characters as well. They weren't completely flat, but they didn't take up too much space in the book. Overall, if you like queer, if you like light adventures, you should read this.

Thank you to Feed the Writer Press via Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Celeste is an amateur naturalist, everything she wants is go to Paris in the spring so she can learn from naturalist, but everything changes when she discovers her father is in bankrupt. The only way she can reach her dreams is following the mysterious and unknown creature who lives in the woods.

First, I want to say my first language is not English, is Spanish. This book is written in British English many words were unfamiliar for me, that make a little difficult to me read this book. The first part of the book was so easy to read, I was so into the story, the friendship between Etienne and Celeste was pretty, but in the following chapters I could see how she stared to losing herself and missing her special one. This is nothing like other books, I was surprised the way Ceinwen Langley took the idea of the Beauty and The Beast and made her own. It is a slow burn, but in the middle sometimes I get bored, but the last part left me wanting more until I realize I was in the last chapter.

Why You Should Read It: Okay, so I absolutely just stumbled across this on NetGalley, which seems to be how I find most of my NetGalley reads (also thanks, NetGalley and Ceinwen Langley for letting me read this book early!), but I am so, so very glad I did because this book is just *chef's kiss*. It is simply phenomenal. I started reading it during my lunch break at work, and I did not want my lunch break to end because I wanted to keep reading this book. I didn't make it far during my half-hour, especially because I was also trying to eat, but as soon as Etienne's character was introduced, I knew I was in this. (A Gaston character who isn't a misogynist? That's beautiful.) And then her father's business goes under--literally--and a few more upheavals follow that keep the plot moving. And then, finally, Celeste leaves home, and we meet her: the Beast. The Beast in this retelling is just beautiful; she's such a complex character, full of both animal instinct and human reasoning. And while Celeste, the amateur naturalist, the knowledge-seeker, chafed but still shone in her small French town, she absolutely blossoms when confronted with unhindered access to the scientific discovery of the century. As much as I love the Beast, Celeste herself is where the story hinges, and what a worthy character for it to depend upon. She is dynamic, fiery, and full of so much passion for the world around her; there is a brief moment in the book when the passion is forcibly quenched by another character, and it was absolutely heartbreaking to see a character full of life waste away. This book also has some of the romance tropes I enjoy most: marriage of convenience and forced proximity. If you love Beauty and the Beast but felt it could be gayer, if you love watching women escape from undesirable situations, or if you just love historical fiction, then you are going to love this book. It was incredible, and I'm so glad Langley is planning on making this into a series.
Also, I will once again reiterate that this comes out today, so you don't even have to wait to go get your copies! Do it now!

Thank you to @Netgalley for sending me an ARC of “The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist” to read and honestly review!✨

Upon receiving an ARC for “The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist” I was thrilled! I’d already read the blurb and marveled at the gorgeous cover and I was, quite frankly, already sold.

The book is a sapphic retelling of Beauty and The Beast, plunged deep into French culture. The writing was exquisite and so beautifully flowing that immediately deemed the book absolutely unputdownable. At the same time, i couldn’t help taking my time with the story, so as to savor all the details and the slow buildup of the plot and the character relationships!

When it comes to fictional characters, Celeste truly is a gem and a character that readers with a secret (or not so secret!) passion won’t help but adore. I particularly enjoyed how the book revolves greatly around her ambitions and becoming a Naturalist, and all the rich descriptions and dreams of travel that came with it.

Her relationship with the Beast was nothing less than remarkably immaculate. Enticing, slow developing—just like I like them—the unraveling of the Chateau’s secrets and Bridgette’s heartbreaking past had this book oozing with delicious mystery that rendered me utterly engrossed from the first moments.

“The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist” truly is a remarkable story, that will be added to the list of “books I wish I could read for the first time again”! With unique characters, and a beautiful romance story, set in a captivating world, this book ought not to be missed!

[5/⭐️]

The misadventures of an amateur naturalist is a beauty in the beast retelling. And plus it’s queer.
Actually from the synopsis I didn’t get the fact that it was a retelling, so I was a little worried because there are literally tons of these so it’s hard to be unique.
In the end I think it was a good read but nothing more, but fortunately it has found its own place in the retelling world.

Sapphic Beauty and the Beast! When I saw the cover and title for this book I knew I had to read it. We aren’t supposed to judge or pick a book by its cover, but sometimes you just have to. I was completely sold already but then I realized that this was also a Beauty and the Beast retelling; I felt like I stuck gold. I’m such a sucker for retellings and B&B (the Disney version) which came out when I was a kid, holds a special place in my heart since it reminds me of my mother who loved it dearly. I’m happy to say that this held up under my pretty high expectations and I thought this was a good historical-fiction retelling of B&B.

This is actually my second sapphic B&B retelling that I have read in the last couple of years. Thorn by Anna Burke was really good and one I would easily recommend. I did like Thorn a bit more than this book, but they were quite different. This book is not as fantastical or as dark as Thorn. Don’t get me wrong, this book is not a fluffy retelling and it definitely has some grit, but this also has a very historical-fiction feel to it.

This book really has two parts. Part one is all about Celeste wanting to pursue her dreams of becoming a biologist, and her relationships with her friends and family. I do have to make clear that the first half has a slower pace. Think classic Victorian times historical-fiction novel that is about Celeste and her family and what they are going through. If you know B&B, you will know certain things that are going to happen. However, I still had to laugh at myself because the book takes a turn I did not see coming, yet I totally should have. I think it shows how much I was into the story and Langley’s writing.

Part two is all about Celeste at the manor/castle and her time with the beast. While I enjoyed the whole book, this really is the part that we all are waiting to read about. Watching Celeste’s journey with the beast, how her emotions change from terror to friendship and maybe beyond, was well done and enjoyable to read. The romance was slow, sweet and a bit on the lighter side, but remember this is beauty and the best which means an actual beast, so the romance fits in just right for what the story is.

One disappointment for me, and an issue I think some people will have, is that we don’t even meet the beast until the second half of the book. This is a slower moving book that needs some patience by the reader. I enjoyed the slower first half that doesn’t include the beast, but what bothered me is that we just don’t get enough time with them together. On the good side, and in hearing this bumped my review up to a full 4 stars, is that there is probably going to be a sequel. Once you take that into account, the slower beginning makes much more sense. Langley, really took the time to build this world up and as a reader I absolutely want more. The main story feels complete, but there are these little balls still left in the air that Langley could take and just run with for the sequel. Plus, the relationship between the mains is just beginning and I want to go on the journey of their possible love story.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable sapphic Beauty and the Beast retelling. I was hooked from the beginning and even during the slower parts I just wanted to keep reading. Langley, writes well and this retelling feels like it does justice to the original while adding its own unique spin to it. This is a good book on its own, but if it is the start of a series like it appears to be, than I actually like it even more. I would easily recommend this to fans of retellings and historical-fiction books, as long as you don’t mind a book with a slower pace in parts. I can’t wait for book two!