Keertana @ Ivy Book Bindings

Well, this is unsurprising. Yet another McKinley novel fails to enchant me. As always, these 3 Stars are for her writing alone - beautiful, melodic, and practically hypnotic. Sadly, the story is dull, lacking any real conflict and falling back on much of the same dialogue and plot lines from McKinley's original re-telling of "Beauty and the Beast," Beauty. While I enjoyed the vivid personality's of Beauty's sisters in this installment far more than I did in Beauty, its love story remains boring. Why is Beast so human and kind? Why doesn't Beauty fear him, even a little? Where are the flaws in these characters? I am unable to reconcile the epic love story of this fairy tale with McKinely's re-tellings. So far, none of the four novels I've read by her work for me; while all are written beautifully, the characters simply do not manage to make much of an impact. McKinley, it seems, no matter how hard I try, is just not for me. *shrug*