Not a sequel. Just to be clear. This is just another version of beauty and the beast by the same author. This is not a sequel to beauty. I'm not sure if I like this one or Beauty more. Both are pretty standard retellings. Good but standard. But they both different from eachother. Like in beauty she doesn't know she's beautiful. But this beauty knows she's beautiful (not in the overly vain way) but believes she has no other good qualities, which is why she's called beauty because there was no other quality in her worth talking about....or something like that. Yes i.am to lazy to look up the quote, why did you ask? Also there mom had a per dragon when they were little. Just putting that out there. The ending is different. Interesting but different

Not even the fact that "Beauty and the Beast" is my favorite fairy tale, could make me like this book. I found it wordy and slow. Way too many unnecessary and repetitive descriptions about everything. The characters seemed interesting enough, but most of the book seemed to be about the unseen magic and running down corridors.

I just love McKinley on principle, but this was really engaging, as Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, I'll read it no matter how many times it is retold. She is very descriptive and it takes a while, but that's her style, so, I expected that. I like that McKinley explains the curse in more detail than other versions usually do, and I love that Beauty is so close with her sisters. And I really approve of the choice she makes in the end, I think it suits Beauty more. I always feel like there needs to be more of the main two spending time together and getting to know each other, but you can't have everything.

I got this book because I liked the blurb I read about it and I was curious. This is a sweet romantic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It is also about family, courage, and compassion. It is about finding out what is important in life and being true to yourself. This is about warring magic and unrequited love, but also about true friendship and sacrifice. I love the theme of roses and bringing the roses to life with love. I love the cats and small animals that play a role in the story. The ending is less traditional than the themes but I really liked it. I honestly could not stop reading when I got to the last third of the book. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I was so captivated by the end. I recommend this to anyone who would just like a sweet, romantic fairy tale.

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*

Reading this book is like watching someone else's dream. Things happen inexplicably and the dreamer is unruffled, incurious. She just moves on to the next strange occurrence. You get a sense of symbolism everywhere, but the symbols are specific to the dreamer herself, and have nothing to do with you, nothing to tell you. The people in the dream are not people at all, they are personified roles and attributes - Bravery, Intelligence, Wealth, Wisdom, Envy - moving through a landscape of Big Town, Small Town, Manor House, Enchanted House.

Everything is heavy with magic, every living thing and situation, but it's unclear, really, what the hell is going on. Even when Beauty finally gets some explanations, at the very end, it doesn't make a lot of sense. And, like a dreamer, she doesn't mind at all. Because Happily Ever After. And given the choice, she chooses poverty, and for the Beast to not revert to his human form, because "not even the wisest married pair can see the best way to dispense justice for people beyond their own ken." Ergo (apparently) being human, having power and wealth, are Bad. So much so that Beauty, who was herself the personification of Kindness, would have become some kind of tyrant if she'd gone that way. A large statement of belief crammed into a very small space, jarring even within the illogical dream-story.

Sorcery and the quest for knowledge are also Bad, by the way. Sorcerers are inevitably utter bastards - save the Beast, when he was human, but it's cool because he thought sorcery was a false discipline and went with philosophy, instead. Greenwitches are ok, because Nature is Good. All very black-or-white. It's a dream.

It's an ok story. Not really recommended. I remember McKinley's first Beauty and the Beast story was quite a bit better - think I'll find and re-read that one.

Actual rating 3.5 stars.

My favourite fairy-tale of all-time is Cindrella, but The Beauty and the Beast is a very close second and I simply adore what McKinley did with the classic story. She put her own twist to it in a magical way that simply grabbed my attention and made it very, very difficult for me to put the book down late at night. Rose Daughter both is and isn't your typical Beauty and the Beast story and I simply loved reading it.

I admit, it was slow at times, but slow was just the thing I wanted needed at the moment. It was just the right pace for me and I while some readers are not happy with the way McKinley decided to dot the i with this one, I have to say that I'm one of those readers who like that ending. I like that it's different and I liked that I didn't predict it right from the start.

I'm not saying that this book is perfect, because it isn't, but it was damn good and I didn't care in the slightest about the fact that Beauty and Beast didn't get to really interact before there was love; I didn't care that some of it made little sense (e.g. flowers blooming in less than 7 days when at the beginning they were dying); I didn't care that some questions I had, were left unanswered, because all that matters, is that I had a real good time reading and I would gladly read more of McKinley's books when I get the chance.

The Book Challengers blog // The Book Challengers Instagram // The Book Challengers Twitter

what a mess. a slow, painful, overly descriptive mess. it took me F.O.R.E.V.E.R to get into it and then once i did, i found the story only remotely interesting. AND even that was like pulling teeth to get through.
-why does she fall in love with him? because of 6 or 7 encounters and conversations?
-what's with all the animals? and the cat that gave birth on her bed while she was sleeping? gross. burn those sheets.
-i know there had to be some allusions and whatever with all her descriptions of the house and the unicorn and whatever but i just didn't care to plod through them. NOTHING was clear. not even a few gimmes for those of us that need some obvious direction.
-the story dump in the last 50 pages. all the details that the old lady reveals to beauty's mind would have been REALLY helpful dispersed throughout the story.
-the dream/vision/whatever when beauty is climbing on the roof? what in the world was going on?
-why does she LEAVE the beast when she needs answers? and go to her sisters who don't know anything? why didn't she just ask him when he said that he would tell her. and the curse that wasn't a curse. BLAH! this is making me angry.
-and the magic. apparently it you just call it all magic, that takes care of everything.

don't read it. just enjoy her other telling of beauty and the beast, beauty: a retelling of the story of beauty and the beast.

As a fic writer/reader, a lover of tropes, and a lover in particular of those inherent in Beauty and the Beast, I get why Robin McKinley would have wanted to retell this same story more than once. Heck, I was happy to read it again within months of reading McKinley's first retelling, Beauty -- and boy am I glad I read that one first, because if I'd started with Rose Daughter, I doubt I would have gone back for more. Rose Daughter is duller and far less romantic; for this version, McKinley seemed to decide that the most interesting thing about the Beauty and the Beast story is its implications for horticulture. Which, no.

Basically, she got it right the first time. Read Beauty, skip this.

Rose Daughter hit on some of my favorite things: gardens, families who joyfully work together, fairy tales retold, and Beauty and the Beast. I love any well-written fiction that includes someone who loves gardens as much as me just as I love any well written music that includes the piano. They are just things that make my heart sing. Despite my love of gardening, I do not love rose gardening but the love that Beauty has for roses has made me rethink my refusal to plant roses. After reading the book, I find myself searching for a place in my yard to plant a rose.

I loved the story of the family. They didn't always get a long at the beginning and were caught up in their materialistic worlds. But when tragedy struck, they began to each take a role in the family and began to appreciate each other and show genuine love for each other. I hate all the negative relationships that are found in fairy tales so I was relieved to not find any emphasis on these relationships in the books. Despite the family being outsiders, they were welcomed by the town. Another win over the Disney movie.

AT the end of the book, there are still unanswered questions about why the Beast is the Beast and what powers Beauty has and how it ended like it ended, but I'm learning to be okay with not getting a full explanation. How often do we get a full explanation in real life about the stories unfolding around us?

I love this book so much. It's another wonderful retelling by Robin McKinley.

I LOVED Beauty, it was one of my very favorite books growing up. I enjoy most versions of the Beauty and the Beast story, but this one was awful. It was so long and drawn out in boring details, but then it didn’t spend anytime on the things of interest. Most notably how they fall in love. She brings his roses back to life, but they spend almost no time together. Also, while she is with him a day equals one month for her family at Rose cottage then she is gone for what, 6 hours with her sisters and then the rose dies and she has to go find him. The legends make no sense and there is no real resolution, he stays a beast? What? And how did her mother fit into the story, and the timeline is all messed up. And they don’t get to live in the enchanted palace? I thought it was a little strange that the same author would write two different books on the same fairy tale, but I like Beauty so well I would give it a try, thumbs down.