Catharina Maura

Princess Arabella of Althea grew up with a sister she adores and a father who calls her a curse. In her kingdom , magic is outlawed and Arabella was the daughter of a witch. With unknown and possibly dangerous powers, her father the King puts blame of anything that goes wrong on to Arabella, and thus locks her up and tortures her.

Little does she know, Felix Osiris, better known as the Shadow Emperor, has his eyes set on making her his bride. Felix has little interest in love and only intends to use her to break the curse on himself and his kingdom. Felix arrives to Althea and claims Arabella as his bride. She then learns the truth and they come to an agreement, she will help to try to fix some of the damage the curse has done to his people, and then she gets to go back to her home, to her sister, to the man she thought she would marry.

Arabella starts to learn how to control her forbidden magic with help of the feared Shadow Emperor. In the process of trying to work with Felix to control her magic and help his people. She realizes that maybe all she thought she knew of The Shadow Emperor, Magic, and even herself isn’t the truth. She is capable of so much more than she ever dreamed. She is stronger than she ever thought possible.

The character development of Arabella was so well written, as was with Felix. However, the progression of Arabella was written in such a way where it wasn’t solely dependent on Felix, much of it was her inner strength and coming to terms that what one may call a curse others will call a miracle. You can see her breaking out of her own shell and her self doubt. Her growth also reflects in Felix and softens him in areas he didn’t think he even had after all this time.

The ending does a beautiful job of bringing everything together with a twist that will leave you teary eyed and with a warm heart.

This is a truly well written, well thought-out and heartwarming retelling of Beauty and The Beast.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio | Forever for the ALC.