Actual rating: 2.75 stars Thank you to Penguin Random House for reaching out to me and sending me an early copy in exchange for an honest review. When I saw that this was a gender switched retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I was really excited and went into the book with such high hopes. However, by the end, I was disappointed. I want to start by saying that the book started off slow, it took me a good few days to get into it. From about 100 pages in, the story picked up a bit but then seemed to switch between fast paced and slow paced. The world building, however, intrigued me but they way it was done didn't necessarily fit the story and made it quite confusing. I did like the twist on the tale of the enchantress in the form of the Godlings. Godlings have the power to give people either a "curse" or a "gift". I would have like to see more of this is the story as it would have made the story a little bit more interesting. What I really disliked about the book is that it perpetuated the stereotype that women are weak and need to be saved. This is because throughout the book, Merit seemed like see was a "damsel in distress". This is the complete opposite to the original story - where the beast is strong and powerful and able to hold his ground. Why should that aspect change purely because the genders were reversed? Plot wise, the book was extremely jumpy and I often became very confused with what was going on and when. The story didn't feel like it flowed. As a result, I was often bored by the story and had to keep putting the book down. The book would have been better with chapters from the POVs of the various characters meaning the story would have been better executed. One of the few things I liked was that it included good LGBTQIA+ rep, whilst they were side characters, their backstories could have done with a bit more development. I was desperate to like this book. It had potential and it just didn't live up to the expectations I had of the book.