Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book

I enjoyed reading this book, in fact I blew through it in two days, but I don't think I would pick it up one million times to purposely immerse myself in its pages. Having read many Beauty and the Beast based fiction I feel this one would have been better served as its own story with its own well-rounded lore. As it stands "Lost in a Book" reads too much like a fanfiction in writing and story-telling skill.

I really enjoyed this book! It's definitely an easy and quick read, and even though it's not my typical book genre, I found it pretty entertaining! I would have to agree though with what another customer said, with Belle seeming pretty unobservant and a tad ditsy, but that's the only issue I had. The book doesn't fail either in delivering great interaction scenes between the Beast and Belle, filled with a few sweet/tender moments. Beauty and the Beast is my ALL TIME favorite Disney movie, and any fan of the movie will find this a special gift to both celebrate that fandom and get lost in! :)

An entertaining and engaging story fillef woth familiar and loved characters. As great an escape as Nevermore is for Belle but definitely not as dangerous. I enjoy Jennifer Donnelly's writing and enjoy visiting the worlds she creates.

Donnelly's story is more like an interlude set in the live action world of: Beauty and the Beast.
Love and Death make a wager, and Death cheats by inserting an enchanted book
titled: Nevermore into the Beast's library.
There is a message about experiencing life first hand, instead of only reading about it.

Oh.... Oh my gosh.

Astonishing! This has got to be the best retelling I have EVER read. I am in tears.
This book was phenomenal! All retellings I have ever read tend to plat close to the chest and not change very much... or change it all together so the original gets lost.
But... Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book totally changed AND challenged them all. It's a one of a kind!

I will say this, I pre-ordered it the SECOND I knew about it. Being a fanatic of Beauty and the Beast there is no possible way I could pass this up. The waiting game drove me insane but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! I mean it is so epic, even halfway through the book I told my local library they HAD to buy a copy for others to read.

The story line was unexpected and so different I really didn't think it would work. Boy oh boy. I was wrong. Jennifer Donnelly has some SERIOUS talent. I have a feeling if someone tried to one up this book, they would fail.

The writing was awesome and flowed so perfectly that there is no way you would want to put it down and if someone made you, you would possibly beat them over the head with the book WHILE reading it. It is just that awesome. Lol

The characters were so strong and so powerful that you bond over a whole new level. Just being smoldering, sexy, sassy like Death. Sweet, charming, and beautiful like Love. Adventurous, strong, and bookwormy like Belle ... I mean the list goes on. Even Beast, Chip, and the rest of the gang is so powerful that you not only feel what they fell, you ARE them.

Ugh stop reading my review and go by this book! RIGHT NOW! What are you still reading for!? YOU NEED THIS BOOK! Go! Go get it!

(Also....can I please rate HIGHER than 5 stars! It deserves more!)

―Reviews of a fearstreetzombie

I really wanted to like this book. The premise is there, but it was lacking. The writing was over-simplified and the character motivation was flimsy at best. The description is not immersive and instead it feels like I am being told the story from a third party. Like I said, I really wanted to write this book, but it felt more like a cash cow than a labor of love and it was disappointing.

I was so excited about reading this book! After a few chapters I became bored and really didn't want to read anymore. Most of this book is exactly like the Disney movie. However, the author threw in an interesting story of Death and Love (sisters). That was the only part of the story I found interesting was the interactions between Death and Love (very little part). I stopped this book at 200 pages giving it a good chance. The entire book is very juvenile for even a young adult read. Almost like a really long little children's story. Also the author uses words out of content. Like, I steal the book into the Beast's house? I steal? I stuck it in or I placed it there, anything that would have made sense. I am not the grammar police by any means. If I can pick up your grammar errors or words out of content, you have a problem. LOL!

To all those who have seen "Beauty and the Beast: the Enchanted Christmas" this book is not so different. It starts off with Death and her sister Love make a bet regarding Belle and the Beast. No different than the bet made in "The Book of Life" except Death and Love won't be trading roles. Death tries to cheat by trapping Belle in a book (she's a sore loser) and very nearly succeeds. I'm not gonna lie; after the first 10 or 13 chapters I pretty much skimmed the rest of the book.

I loved this novel. Jennifer Donnelly did a great job keeping the characters of the original storyline (movie) and simply adding more. It was like reading a story within a story we all already know. It isn't just a print version of the movie, like I had originally thought. I could picture the characters of the movie in the story interacting with Belle and her life. In this story Belle is indeed a prisoner, looking for an out. The members of the house all become her friends and family, but she needs to get away from being prisoner of the Beast. She takes any break she can, but when she does, does she regret it?
This is a great representation of a story within a story. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone.

This was a fun sweet young readers book. While you don’t have to see the new movie to enjoy this book, there were references and things brought up that do come from the movie, so I would recommend doing such. If you have seen the movie, the book mentioned has nothing to do with the book used in the movie, rather this is an adventure that’s right in the middle of the story. You don’t get the story of how Belle ended up there, although it’s brought up, nor do you see how the story ends for Belle and the Beast. This does help you get to know the characters a bit more, but because so much of this story takes place in Nevermore we’re really seeing more of what’s going on with Belle and what’s really keeping her in the castle, and how she feels being pretty much trapped there. However, even as simplistic as this tale is at times, it really does a good job of looking at what real relationships, both romantic and friendly, and how they aren’t always perfect and sparkly, that they have their ups and downs. That’s life and that being there for someone when they’re down is when they tend to need that connection the most, and that’s a pretty good moral for a fairy tale, and definitely makes this worth the read. My one complaint was the number of typos in the book. You’d think a book like this would’ve been edited a bit better.

Title: Lost in a Book
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Age Group: Teen/Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Standalone
Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

I borrowed this book through my local library and reviewed it.

Jennifer Donnelly won my heart a long time ago in high school when I bought her first novel, A Northern Light. Ever since, I've really enjoyed her novels. When I heard about this book, I just knew I had to read it. I mean, one of my favorite authors, telling a completely original story that kind of ties into the brand new, live-action Beauty and the Beast movie? I mean, this was like literary catnip to me. I was drooling. It's been sitting in my library stack for a while now. (I put all the books that have holds on the top so I can be sure to get to them before I return them.) I wasn't sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed it!

Smart, sweet, bookish and independent, Belle has grown used to her new home, the Beast's castle. But even so, she longs for her father, for friendship and travel and adventure in the great wide somewhere (Sorry not sorry, I couldn't resist). When she finds a magical book in the library that the Beast bestows on her as a gift, she is convinced that she's found the answer, her escape. But darker forces are working behind the scenes, and she soon finds that she has to find the truth about Nevermore, before the book claims her as its own...

I really liked this book! It was absolutely enchanting. The prose was gorgeous, and as I read it, it almost felt like I could see an alternate, mini-movie in my head. It was so much fun. Belle is my character; when I was sixteen years old, I discovered her for the first time, and I found my princess. This Belle was a tiny bit different, but I loved her! She was refreshing and kind, and I loved the way that Donnelly made her her own interpretation. It was also lovely, the pacing, the adventure, the way the other characters were new but nonetheless familiar. Honestly, I gobbled it up in a day and a half. What a sweet, lovely little book, with a heart-pounding adventure at its center!

There were times, though, when I got a little bit lost, when other elements of the book came into play, so I couldn't completely rate it. Nonetheless, this book was so much fun--a brand new adventure in one of my favorite classic stories! The bottom line: An original story in the Beauty and the Beast universe (the live action movie, coming out next month), I loved Lost in a Book! A must-read for fans of the original tale and those who are looking to whet their appetites for the movie! Next on deck: Caraval by Stephanie Garber!

I always find retellings of retellings a bit strange. Lost in a Book is retelling of Disney's BatB story. I came into this verrrrry skeptical. I mean, Disney Press publishes a retelling of its own movie just around the time their live-action of that same film is coming out . . . A marketing ploy so smack on the nose obvious that I was like ugh, this is going to be horrible but everyone's going to love it because they have stars in their eyes right now.

Let me say right now, I was wrong!! Maybe some readers will be starry-eyed in love with this regardless of how good/bad it'd been, but it actually was a really good book.

I had to adjust to the idea of it being a retelling's retelling. The names and references that tied into the movie were strange. But overall this is a very unique idea.

This isn't so much a retelling of Beauty and the Beast as it is a story within that story. What if in the background the figures of Love and Death in their eternal battle happened to use Belle as their recent entertainment? What if lonely Belle found a book she could walk into?

So while there is some reference to things we know from the movie, we don't start at the beginning of Belle's story or go to the end of it.

This is an adventure that Belle has while the figures of Love and Death are trying to win a bet. Belle's journey through a book and having to choose between an easy, glamorous lifestyle that's false, or returning to real life where she has to struggle.

I always get annoyed when characters miss the obvious. I hate shaking a book and going, "You idiot!!! We all know x. Why don't you?!"

In this case I appreciate how it was handled. VERY obvious throughout the book, even if we didn't see Love and Death's interactions away from Belle's knowledge, that something about this book is very very very wrong. Belle is oblivious but it's also clear that she's stubbornly choosing to remain so. She so badly WANTS this to be good and real that she puts blinders on and ignores what is so blatant.

One of my favorite parts is when Death tells Belle that she made it obvious. She made it easy, gave her lots of signs, and if Belle had cared to look, she would've known it was all deadly. I got a chuckle out of that, because it was so true.

A very good book and well-written. Even skeptics like me should give this a go!

I read this having never seen any of the "Beauty & the Beast" movies or the old TV show. It's not that I don't adore fairy tales---I find it easy to identify with Belle's love for books. I simply had no idea this could be so enchanting.

I bought this book with the express purpose of reading it with a 3rd grader who's struggling with reading. Since everyone seems to know the Beauty & Beast saga but me, I hoped she would identify not only with Belle, but also, with Belle's love of books---& why she loves them so much!

Try explaining "Here's how to grow your imagination" to a restless 3rd grader, or "reading allows you to gain vicarious experience"...well, we both became hooked---me by the Prologue with Love & Death, & she by the characters she's so familiar with from the most recent Disney movie.

What made me gasp with delight was the very first book Belle chose to pull from the library's shelves---my heart leaped, for it was none other than a very literary epic poem from the English Renaissance that I studied as an undergrad & graduate student in English Literature! (No spoilers here!) I just couldn't believe it, & am so grateful to the author for truly loving good literary classics---& promoting them!

It does the soul good to know that a little girl will develop her love for reading from this exquisitely crafted tale, & that it will make her curious about the fabulous authors & stories mentioned throughout Belle's adventure.

Belle has traded her freedom for the freedom of her father, leaving her a captive in the Beast’s enchanted castle. Belle has grown to care for the many inhabitants of the castle, from Lumiere the candelabrum to Chip the teacup. After the Beast gifts her the castle’s marvelous library, Belle is thrilled; reading can grant her some of her freedom back, in its own way.
When Belle stumbles upon a book titled Nevermore, she is pulled through its pages to a glamorous world she has only ever imagined being a part of. While there, Belle meets charming and intriguing new friends and the opportunity to live out her dreams. Dreams she thought she had given up forever. In the pages of Nevermore, Belle can have the life she has always dreamed of, but is any of it real? Is Nevermore really what it claims to be and can Belle really trust its charming characters? Will Belle choose a life inside Nevermore’s pages over that of the Beast’s castle? Can Belle discover the truth behind Nevermore’s enchantment before it is too late and she becomes trapped in its world forever?
Many girls grow up dreaming of becoming one of Disney’s Princesses. I am no different. Of all of Disney’s Princesses, my favorite has always been Beauty and the Beast. So, of course, when my stepdaughter told me about this book -- surprisingly I hadn’t heard of it -- I knew I had to read it.
Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney Princess movie for many reason’s but one of the most important was that Belle was such a strong female character and she was willing to sacrifice herself for someone she loved. Belle’s strong character is apparent in this novel and Donnelly captured her fierce fighter spirit as well as her love of books perfectly.
The fantastical characters who live in the Beast’s castle are also present in this novel. Chip is the most amazing little teacup in the original movie, with an innocence that effects everyone around him. I was pleased to discover that his character was also maintained, as well as, the characters of Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, and Cogsworth.
The world of Nevermore is rich with detail and extravagant settings. Belle’s appearance is even transformed when she enters its pages. The characters inside Nevermore are interesting with loads of charm and interesting personalities.
I loved this unique side-story to the Beauty and the Beast tale and am so very glad that I was able to read it.
I would recommend this novel to fans of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and to book lovers everywhere.
I received my copy of this novel as a Christmas gift from my husband and three beautiful children. I am currently seeking permission from the publishers at Disney Press to use an image of the cover artwork above.

I had really high expectations for this book, probably partially because I read it right after I finished "Wonderwoman: Warbringer" by Leigh Bardugo (which was absolutely incredible!!); I'll explain the connection a little bit later.
While I thought the basic plot of this story was a creative idea, and was a feasible fit for the story of Beauty and the Beast, I simply don't think it was executed well. I really wanted to like it, but I was really only mildly entertained.
The characters weren't given a chance to gather depth and, to me, remained flat characters. While their inner conflicts were mentioned, they were explored in an almost child-like manner- fluffy and unrealistic. I didn't get to experience Belle's angst or her dissonance beyond not knowing what to do, limited insight to her thoughts, and cliche descriptions (like "heavy heart"). Donnelly really stuck with a more fairy-tale black and white kind of approach; which is fine and definitely wasn't bad, just not what I was expecting and, thus, unsatisfactory. This relates a little to reading Bardugo's book first- it was almost like published fanfiction, but it was done extremely well and was one of the best books I read last year. The characters were believable and relatable and the narration and world views presented were achingly honest! That being said, I was expecting a similar feel from Donnelly's book, which simply wasn't there. Although "Lost in a Book" is categorized as Young Adult, it really felt middle-grade at best.
All that being said, the ideas and plot were really good! I loved being able to see the beloved Beauty and the Beast characters in what felt like "cut" scenes (one of my favorite parts of retellings). The whole idea of disappearing into a book, while not particularly original, definitely has a place within Belle's realm of interests. It seems believable to me that the gist of this story could've actually taken place in the original fairytale. And the personification of Love and Death, which provided more of a backstory to the Beast's curse, was very clever and I was enticed by that depiction.
Overall, I only rated it 3/5 stars; it was an okay book but I wouldn't read it again, and my anticipation was founded in different expectations.

I purchased Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly for myself. This is my review and all opinions are my own. ?????Belle is trapped in the Beast's castle as the fairytale goes, as love and death are playing chess. Love tells Death she thinks the spell cast upon the Beast and his castle look promising love will win again. Death can't allow love to win, the water is too steep. Death comes up with a plan to trick Belle with an enchanting book that allows her freedom from the Beast's castle and escape to write her own story. But Belle ignores the rules of three and becomes trapped in the book. Who gets to finish Belle's story? Love? Death? Can and will the Beast save her? Or is the castle left for doom forevermore?

This is a great book! Jennifer Donnelly did a great job writing it. In this story Belle finds an enchanted book (Nevermore) that takes her to another world. It takes place after the Beast saves Belle from the wolves. Some of the chapters are short, like two pages. What got me interesting in this book is it's similar to The Neverending Story, which is about a boy named Bastion Bux who reads a book (The Neverending Story) and, at some point, summons him to a fantasy world called Fantasia. I think this is better than Beauty and the Beat: The Enchanted Christmas and it would make a great movie. This is a great book for all Disney and Beauty and the Beast fans

Having listened to the splendid voice of Jenna Augen in "Beauty and the Beast," we anticipated a joyful narration in this book too. “Lost in a Book” was a wonderful and well written fairy tale that surpasses expectations of emotions, suspense and love, all enhanced by the spectacular voice of the narrator. We actually kept our car running before parking it in our garage in order to hear the end of the book. If you want to engage your imagination and be lost in a book, this is the audio book to enjoy. Thank you Jennifer Donnelly and Jenna Augen!

This book is enjoyable for adults, but appropriate for children as well! My fifth-grader couldn’t put it down and finished it in no time! Now we are scrambling to find something similar! I’ve explored other options by this author, unfortunately her other works seem geared towards an older audience and are hard to follow for a pre-teen.

I truly hope she will write another book like this! Wonderful purchase.

I quickly and excitedly picked this up from Wal-Mart, but my excitement didn't last long. It's not very well written, with lots of telling instead of showing, and way too many unnecessary dialogue tags. I found an obvious error in chapter four, and that's when I quit reading it. I'm very disappointed something this poor quality was released from Disney. A fantastic editor could have fixed all of these issues.

This is a magical tale that takes place between the time Belle substitutes herself for her father in the Beast's castle to just before the last petal of the rose falls.

Belle is unhappy. She misses her father. While reading in the library she finds an enchanted book called NEVERMORE. NEVERMORE is a fantasy place and Belle believes it will bring her the happiness she craves. However this place is not real and will bring Death to Belle.

The creative story line will captivate the reader. You will not stop reading. There are many twists and turns as the character Death tries to win Belle from the character Love.

With the assistance of a magical spider, beetle, puppet, and a diamond heart, Belle eventually returns to the Beast's castle.

I really wanted to like this book because my daughter loaned me her copy and said I should read it. Typically her choices are at least pretty good, so I was pretty sure it was going to be good. I will also note that the vast majority of reviewers love this book, so I am in the minority for sure. If you would prefer to stick with the reviews that heap praise on the book, by all means move on to those reviews.

I was a big concerned about the basic premise of the book. Love and Death have a bet regarding Beast, and Death is doing her best to win the bet, even if she has to cheat. The problem with the basic premise is that that is, just like the Disney song, a tale as old as time. Well, time as we know it. The Greek gods routinely bet on the outcome of mortal affairs, and they routinely interfered in the bets to tilt the odds in their favor.

The whole concept of jumping into a book (a mirror, a wardrobe, a door, etc.) to be in another world is extremely common. Alice did it. Robert A. Heinlein used it in a far superior novel. Stephen R. Donaldson has used the device more than once. The jump into another world concept is extremely common in fantasy and science fiction.

Since the plot devices used to kick the story off are very old plot devices, the plot has to carry the book. Another part of the problem is that the Belle of this story does not seem to be the Belle of even the Disney story, who seemed self-assured and sharp as a tack. The Belle of this story pretty much ignores every clue that she is in trouble, and only after being manipulated for nearly the entire book does she finally awaken, extremely lately, to her peril. The only positive thing is that she led the way in rescuing herself.

Another issue with the plot is that the story borrows, again, from mythology for the "eat three things" "leave three things" feature of the plot.

Now, it is perfectly fine to borrow from elsewhere to help a story along. The real problem with this book is that it seems as though it pretty much borrowed EVERYTHING. Sadly, I mistakenly thought this book was going to have an original story based on the classic Beauty and the Beast. What I got was some of this and some of that thrown in a pot with a poor attempt to spice the story up to make you forget that the story is mostly a bunch of rehashed stuff with little in the way of a new, original story. My belief is that the people who thought this story is boring may have been responding to the rehashed plot elements, which experienced readers will recall being part of many stories.

Even though my criticism is somewhat harsh from the perspective of someone who has read thousands of books, a young reader who is relatively new to reading and has little experience with classic literature, including classic fantasy and science fiction, may love this book. That hypothetical new reader may see this book as original and exciting because the plot is unfamiliar. That person is the target audience for this book. All others need not apply.

Good luck!