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The Subtle Beauty: A fractured Beauty & the Beast retelling (Crowns of the Twelve Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Ann Hunter (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 301 ratings
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A cursed prince. A vain beauty. Glory is the seventh daughter of Balthazar, High King of the Twelve Kingdoms. Glory hopes that - of all her sisters - she can escape the fate of a loveless marriage. But on the night she plans to elope with the royal falconer, her world comes crashing down: Her father announces Glory's betrothal to Eoghan of the Blood Realm - a prince no one has ever seen. The prince is said to be a recluse, cursed and deformed by the gods for the sins of his power-hungry father. Yet when Glory is trapped in Blackthorn Keep she discovers that not everything is what she expected. An insulting gryphon, a persistent ghost, and a secret plan to usurp the prince keep Glory reeling. Can she overcome her vanity to learn that what you want isn’t necessarily what you need—and save the cursed prince?
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  1. Book 1 of 4
    Crowns of the Twelve
  2. Print length
    164 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    January 2, 2014
  6. File size
    4374 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"I could not put this story down from the time that I began reading it, and would read it again in an instant... the story is intense, but full of love and loss, and the true face of love is shown"
--Logan Nance, Various Meanderings of a Madman
logananance.blogspot.com/

"I found her world easy to envision and her characters real and deep"
--Toney Larson, author of Growing Amaranth

"Ann artfully weaves a tale of innocent romance, time honored morals, adventure, and fantasy"
--Amazon review

"There are so many twists in this book that you'll never know what's going to happen next."
--Amazon review

"She's the kind of writer who is so talented you think to yourself, "I wish I wrote like this"
--Amazon review

"This is a writer to watch"
--Amazon review

From the Author

Book Trailer:

youtu.be/YigJVIYd_0o

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00HNJX0Q2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aisling House, LLC; 1st edition (January 2, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 2, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4374 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 164 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 301 ratings

About the author

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Ann Hunter

Ann Hunter

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Multi-award winning author Ann Hunter is awesome. And hilarious. She is often told it must be a blast living in her brain. She argues that the voices in her head never shut up. The only way to get relief is to let them out on to the page.

She credits the voices for:

Crowns of the Twelve - A fractured fairy tale series: Moonlight, Blade of Woe, The Subtle Beauty, Fallen, A Piece of Sky

North Oak - championing tough kid and teen issues through the fast-paced world of horse racing. IF YOU'RE A FAN, DON'T MISS UPDATES:

http://eepurl.com/7Lch9

She likes cherry soda with chocolate ice cream, is a mom first and a writer second, has a secret identity, and thinks the Twilight movies are cheesier than cheez whiz (which is why they are her guilty pleasure! And Oh my goodness, have you seen Vampires Suck? Bwahaha!)

She lives in a cozy Utah home with her two awesome kids and epic husband.

Be sure to sign up for her mailing list for exclusive news about upcoming books!

http://eepurl.com/VZsFn

And if you love what you've read, please swing by to visit

http://facebook.com/authorannhunter

Ann realizes she speaks in third person, and this profile is entirely unprofessional.

But that is why you'll love her!

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
301 global ratings
Amazing Retelling that stand on its own two literary feet!
5 Stars
Amazing Retelling that stand on its own two literary feet!
Disclaimer: I applied via Tomoson.com to review this book for free.I honestly did not consider that this was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and saw it as its own story. I loved every part of this story--from the familiar characters at the start, to the ending where once again, love healed all wounds in the end. It was interesting to see how our two heroes from Moonlight made their appearance, but how time and old familial wounds can turn even the happiest ending into the darkest outcome. There are so many layers to this story that each one blossoms and links to the other.Sylas warns the reader that lives will intertwine. I asked "how", and was delivered a wonderful exposition page after page. I especially loved how the new heroine of the story--Glory--has to learn that vanity and pride are two different things, and humility is its own reward. We are often bombarded with tales of fair royalty, and that's the best quality over all things. In this story, as the truth unfurls, we find that beauty is nice, but virtue is much better.I wish I could tell it all, but Ms. Hunter has already done that for us.#CrownsoftheTwelve
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Top reviews from the United States

Rachael Vinzant
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Retelling
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2014
Verified Purchase
Review Posted at Rachael Turns Pages http://rachaelc94.blogspot.com/2014/06/book-review-subtle-beauty-by-ann-hunter.html

This novel was beautiful, absolutely beautiful! I fell in love! The Subtle Beauty is a unique retelling of Beauty and the Beast where Glory is our Belle and the cursed Prince Eoghan, the beast.

Glory thinks that she has found her true love and the man she will marry, but the King's Falconer, Colin is no fit for a princess as lovely as Princess Glory. King Balthazaar announces Glory's bettothal to Prince Eoghan of the Blood Realm and Glory's world is turned upside down. Nobody has seen prince Eoghan for years. He is said to be recluse. Glory's heart remains with Colin and she plans to marry Colin as she had originally planned.

When Glory's plan is turned upside down she leads a life full of surprises. She discovers an insulting gryphon, Xander the terrible king, and no prince to be found. Princess Glory can't find why she ever was betrothal if she is never to meet her prince, but will prince Glory be able to overcome her vanity and see that true beauty can not always be seen on the surface, but lies within.

This story was beautiful from beginning to end. I was enamored by Glory's story. At the beginning I was in love with her relationship with Colin, but later in the story I saw the beauty in the beast. I was interested in Glory's relationship with Eoghan. I also loved the unique personalities of each of Glory's sisters and how their father was only worried about their best interests although they might not see it at first. The ending was everything I could have wanted for Glory and more although it didn't seem like there was going to be anything happy about this ending only pages before. This was a rather short story and it was totally worth reading. I can't wait to dive into more fairy tale retellings with this author.
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Brittany A
4.0 out of 5 stars A Good, Clean Beauty and the Beast Retelling
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2015
Verified Purchase
** spoiler alert ** As a fairy tale fanatic, I'll read the same lovely old tales an infinite number of times if I find the retellings enjoyable. (I mean, I just wrote my own retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and I still can't get enough of the story!) This story didn't fail to impress.

As promised by other reviews, Hunter's world building capabilities are amazing. I felt like I could really picture the setting without getting bogged down by too many physical descriptions of the terrain. The description is woven artfully throughout the action so that neither drags. I read the book in two days, hardly putting it down to do those things called chores.

I only had one major critique. I appreciate that the story moves quickly. There are parts, however, that move a bit too quickly for my taste. For example, at the end when Eoghan returns, Glory has spent an entire year in a state of depression. Her beloved shows up as a human, and I think we only get about two or three pages of explanation. I wanted to see them spend just a bit more time together. I also would have liked him to tie up a few loose ends, such as how his father died, and how he went from being a beastly child to a wise, discerning monster.

Likewise, I'm not sure how Colin's father came across such a powerful sorcerer's dagger. Perhaps it's in another one of her books, but I felt like Colin's transformation was somewhat sudden and unexplained. When you know someone all your life, the way Colin and Glory knew each other, it's hard to imagine one of them just going berserk.

That said, I think one of my favorite things about Hunter's writing style is her ability to show without telling. I would much rather figure things out on my own based on the characters' thoughts and reactions, rather than having the author simply announce details authoritatively, and Hunter actually made me pause and figure a few things out along the way. I was quite pleased about this because I absolutely love characters that make me think.

This is definitely a good, fun, easy read. It was clean and thought-provoking, and a whole new spin on a beloved tale that will never go out of style.
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2014
Verified Purchase
The Subtle Beauty is loosely based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

Glory the youngest, prettiest and vainest princess of King Xander. She believes herself in love with Colin the royal falconer who is besotted with her. Her plans to run away with him are cruelly thwarted by her sisters and she is taken to her betrothed in a far away realm.

Colin decided to follow her and rescue her from the 'evil' Prince Eoghan but as with all plans they go awry and then there are all sort of twists and turns.

Does Glory get her happy ever after?
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Harlon James
3.0 out of 5 stars The Subtle Beauty
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 30, 2015
Verified Purchase
This book left me feeling... meh. I read it on the basis that it was a re-telling of my favourite fairytale (Beauty and the Beast) with a twist. This book started off so promising I loved the background to the curse and the detail in which the author went to help you get a feel for each character. However, the turn of events that is supposed to follow the traditional tale left me rooting for the bad guy because the author went to so much effort to make you understand his motive and like him, but didn't really do the same for the 'prince' of the tale. The book could have done with being a bit longer and investing more time into interactions between the main love interests. The justification for the end of the book (I don't want to give any spoilers away by describing what happens) left me feeling confused with a flippant explanation as to how this could be possible. It piqued my interest but left me hungry for more details which did not come. Another annoyance with the book is the unusual technique the author has adopted of using words of another language that require a dictionary at the back of the book to understand what is being said. When using this on a kindle - be warned that when you press the link to take you to the dictionary, you can see a full list of the whole dictionary on one page which pretty much a bit of a spoiler for what's coming. Then to further add to that annoyance, if you press the back arrow it does not take you back to where you were reading - it takes you literally to the page before the dictionary which is after the end of the book!! Grrrrr. so remember to bookmark where you are before clicking on any links! Whilst I was disappointed with this book I did think the general concept was interesting. I just wish the Author had put more time into letting the reader see the growing relationship between the main love interests.
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IdaintyIt
3.0 out of 5 stars Good if you like this style of book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
Overall this book is an okay read, I found it to be very slow to start with as the prologue took up a quarter of the book! But then once you actually get into the story it is a very quick read, it feels a bit rushed like the Author has tried to squeeze everything in. The story line is good but personally I didn't find it was written in a way that appeals to me. I received this book free of charge for an honest review.
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Photog
4.0 out of 5 stars Magical reweaving of classic tale
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2014
Verified Purchase
This book is a retelling of the story beauty and the beast.
After a prologue the story begins to unfold. The author writes a flowing tale and I was drawn into the action. I enjoyed much of the descriptive prose which pulled the story along to its climax.
The book is well written although you need to read carefully on time to follow the narrative.
If you like Celtic mythology threaded into a great story then you will love this.
One person found this helpful
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Bunnyky
2.0 out of 5 stars Words fail me
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2016
Verified Purchase
Couldn't give a one star rating, and it would have been unfair as I did actually manage to finish reading it. I found this to be car crash reading - couldn't stop! The heroine wasn't a complete Mary Sue, which alleviated the occasionally painful writing style. Some of the English used was very unnatural!
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