Rose Daughter

I purchased this book with some hesitation based on the mixed reviews I had read. This was an excellent story!! I enjoyed this book so much, it took me less than a day to read it, and I can't wait to read it again! (so I'm not:) What a wonderfull retelling of an old classic.

I finally got around to reading Rose Daughter and was rather disappointed. I love McKinley's Beauty and knew that this would be different but found it a much rougher read than I expected.

The concepts could have been interesting but the writing (unlike most of McKinley's other books) seemed more rough draft than final version.

I enjoyed many parts of Rose Daughter but, overall, it failed to impress me. If you are new to McKinley's work I would recommend "Beauty", "The Hero & the Crown", and/or "The Blue Sword" before "Rose Daughter".

Wow, I normally love Beauty & the Beast books, but this was such a disappointing read. The story lumbers on so slowly before the Beast ever even appears. I almost put it down 1/4 of the way in because it was boring me too much, I kept hoping when the Beast appeared it would improve -nope. Some of the world building was ok, though there was a lot of useless information repeated thru the whole story. I felt like it was Beauty & the Beast combined with Alice in Wonderland in quite a bit of the story (with parts -down the rabbit hole whimsical or other times as a bad mushroom drug trip). Beauty was not so likable in my opinion. I actually liked Beauty's sisters more than her. I Couldn't tell you anything about the Beast because he wasn't really in the book enough to develop an opinion of his character. I love roses, but it seemed like that and the weird appearing animals in her room was the focus of the story at the magical palace. I would have liked less about the roses/animals & more of her & Beast interacting. Beauty spends so little time with Beast how can she fall in love with him? She spends 7 dinners (2 are short where she claims she's not hungry & leaves almost immediately), one brief roof-top star gazing/looking at art, 2 times in the orchard for a brief verbal exchange, one event on a ladder that he holds for her, so maybe 8 hours? Come on that does not lead to fairy tale endings & curse breaking! The weird time thing also was disturbing. In Beast's world, Beauty is there about 1 week before going home, but in her family's time it was 7 months, that threw the whole thing off kilter. Then the end where she chooses his Beast form & he was ok with that? I really felt that turned the whole thing on it's head, because it felt like she selfishly chose what she wanted (to stay at Rose Cottage for her stupid obsession with her roses) instead of making him not a beast. He clearly was lonely & unhappy as the Beast why would she make him stay that way if she "loves" him? Gah, wish I hadn't read this!

I like Robin McKinley's writing. I enjoyed the story. The reason I gave it only two stars is that this kindle version is missing major pages in at least two different places leaving big holes in the story. Very frustrating! Somebody should have proof read and edited it before it was put up for sale.

When I first got "Rose Daughter" I read the first part, was baffled by it and how awful it was, and stuck it on a shelf. When I finally got desperate and needed something to read I picked it back up and made my way through all 300+ greuling pages. This book was everything "Beauty" was not, and in my opinion, "Beauty" is a far better book.

I love Robin McKinley, and I love her flowing prose. But she went above and beyond in "Rose Daughter". So much of it was just long rambling sentences that were unnecessary and took away from the book. I would find myself at the end of a long, rambling paragraph wondering what the point was and having to re-read it. The names are awful and jarring. She tried to make this book 'darker' and succeeded, but also managed to write a completely uninteresting, confusing and strange book. The things that made "Beauty" so charming are missing here, and even if I hadn't read "Beauty", there is just enough wrong with this book that I still wouldn't like it. The ending was off, and I know she was going for a surprise ending, but it just ended up seeming rushed and weak.

I recommend "Beauty" ten times over this book if you are looking for a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast". This retelling of "Beauty" seems completely unnecessary.

Years ago, I read Beauty, McKinley's first attempt at the Beauty and the Beast story. I loved it. Earlier this year, I picked it up again and read it. It held up well and I still find it incredibly charming.

Given how much I enjoyed Beauty, I really wanted to read "Rose Daughter" and see how McKinley's second crack at the tale fared. I expected a lot. I assumed McKinley would have matured as a writer and I was hoping to love it as much as I loved Beauty.

I was wrong.

The term 'florid prose' springs to mind. This novel is absolutely strangled by the egregiously wordy prose. You have to wade through painfully winding and ultimately pointless descriptions of everything, large and small. After slogging through a single run-on sentence that choked up the better part of an entire page, I threw the book away. This novel is a fine example of writing at its worst.

I read this immediately after reading "Beauty" by Robin McKinley, which was her first novel retelling the Beauty and the Beast faerie tale. While the first was a straight-forward telling of the faerie tale, with little deviation, this one certainly takes it to more of a retelling. The basic story is the same, but she adds lots of details, background, and magic to the story to give it more life. However, I just couldn't get into the mythology of the world she built.

I liked the beginning. McKinley brought in a lot of magic to the story with greenwitches and sorcerers. I also liked that the story started fairly quickly. Where "Beauty" took a long time getting Beauty to the Beast's castle, "Rose Daughter" had her entering the castle around the quarter mark into the book. I thought that boded well for showing their relationship and watching it develop. But it didn't. The heroine spent more time talking about the roses in the garden and the animals on the grounds than she did the Beast. There is little to no conversation between them and what little there is comes from her with barely a word spoken by him. There are maybe two or three sweet moments between them, but they are short, few, and far-between. Yes, he's kind to her, but there is never any basis for them to be in love. Especially, when you factor in that from Beauty's perspective the whole time in the castle only takes seven days.

One of the things I like most about the Beauty and the Beast faerie tale is the redemption of the Beast. He goes from a horrible, mean person to being humble and kind. I like the fact that he was brought low and he took the opportunity to change himself. And this retelling takes that off the table. It's about vengeance and spite with the Beast as the victim in the story. It takes one of the greatest aspects of the faerie tale out.

The story really has quite a lot of magic elements, but they're not explained well or thoroughly enough to add depth to the story. It simply throws in these random things that don't really enhance the story and feel like they're just tacked on. For example, Beauty receives a magic gift from a salamander in the beginning, which was an interesting idea, but apparently all it does it calm her down, like a magic Valium. It seemed strange and unnecessary. When it first cropped up in the story, I thought it could have some cool applications, but in the end it just didn't feel like it had any purpose in the story.

One major issue I did have with the magic was the inconsistency with time in the book. While Beauty is with the Beast, seven days pass for her, but it's seven months for her family. That was a little strange (maybe it's in one of the original faerie tale versions somewhere), but then when she leaves the Beast at the end, he tells her if she doesn't return soon, he'll die. He gives her a rose to remind her of that and tells her when it dies, so will he. She's home for all of a few minutes and the rose dies. So, if that's the case, the Beast would have had to die the instant she left him, if time passes more slowly with him than it does at home.

The writing was very long-winded. I'm fine with meandering prose if it's at least lyrical or well done, but the longer the book went the longer the words took to tell you what was happening. Which is funny, when I realize that when it came to explaining what was important (like the Beast's background), it was too sparse. The author took more time explaining Beauty running through the castle looking for the Beast than it did to explain how he became a Beast.

WARNING: Review contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

Ever since I read "The Blue Sword" as a teenager, I've loved the works of Robin McKinley. She has a lovely writing style, a keen eye for the human condition, and a way of both crafting new worlds and of taking classic tales and retelling them with a fresh spin. Aside from "The Blue Sword" and its prequel "The Hero and the Crown," I've enjoyed her fairy tale retellings as well -- especially "Deerskin" and "The Princess and the Frog" (from her short story collection "The Door In the Hedge") -- but up until recently I hadn't read either of her adaptations of "Beauty and the Beast." And with Disney's much-hyped live-action remake of the tale almost upon us, I figured it was time to revisit the tale, and so I picked up "Rose Daughter" to see how McKinley's version of the tale would spin out.

I find myself incredibly conflicted in regards to this book. On the one hand, McKinley's writing style is still superb, and one can't help but root for her protagonists... but on the other hand, this story feels incomplete as a "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale, and the ending in particular feels rushed.

"Rose Daughter" follows Beauty, the youngest daughter of a wealthy merchant, who has a peculiar affinity for flowers, especially roses. When her father's business fails and her family is forced to relocate to a dilapidated cottage in a faraway village, her talent with plants and flowers have the villagers whispering that she must be a greenwitch... especially as she's the only one who can make the cottage's rose bushes bloom. As her sisters settle in and find their places in their new village, her father sets off on a journey to try to reclaim some of the family's lost wealth... but after accidentally stealing a rose from the castle of a frightening beast, he's forced to make a terrible bargain -- in exchange for the rose, he must let Beauty live in the Beast's castle. Beauty accepts the bargain, and soon finds herself stunned by the Beast's enchanted, ever-shifting castle... and determined to bring to life the beautiful roses that grow in the castle's greenhouse. But the Beast is hiding a dark past, and it will be up to Beauty to break the curse that overshadows him... and perhaps find love for both of them in the process.

The fault of this book doesn't lie in the writing, nor in its heroine. The writing, as is typical for McKinley, is excellent, gorgeously written and evoking a wealth of detail for the reader. She's adept at not only physical descriptions, but at laying bare characters' thoughts and emotions and psyches. And her characters are well fleshed-out, and her heroines are always well-done -- neither weak and constantly in distress, nor stereotypically "strong" to the point where they're unlikable. And it's nice to read a version of "Beauty and the Beast" where Beauty's sisters are sympathetic characters instead of snobs, as some versions of the tale are wont to do (or at least versions of the tale that don't make Beauty an only child, like the Disney version...).

Where the story falls on its face is in the Beast. I'm not asking for pages and pages from the Beast's point of view, but in a tale based on "Beauty and the Beast," I'm expecting the Beast to be a major player, or at least have some page time. Here Beauty interacts far more with the roses than with the Beast himself, and we get precious little information on the Beast until we're nearly three-quarters of the way through the novel -- and most of that comes in the form of an info-dump in the last ten pages. In a novel that's supposed to be a love story between a brave young woman and a fearsome Beast, shouldn't the Beast get some attention?

Also, there's the obsession with roses. I understand roses are symbolic of many things in this book, but here they dominate the book so much that, like an invasive weed, they overtake the story. And as stated before, Beauty seems to be more in love with the Beast's rose garden than with the Beast himself. Less flowers, more Beast interaction, please...

Also, the ending feels tacked on at the last minute. Yes, there are some snippets laced throughout the book about a curse and the story of the woman who inhabited the cottage before Beauty's family, but they feel clumsily tied together in the end, and the curse ends up being entirely for naught by the end. I can understand that McKinley was trying to give us a different ending to a familiar tale, but even a changed ending has to make some sense to the reader, I feel.

I do give McKinley props for switching up one aspect of the ending, though. I won't spoil what it is, but it's a bit of a refreshing departure... even if it raises some odd and rather unfortunate implications when one thinks about it after the fact...

I didn't hate this book, and I still loved parts of it, but all in all it's not my favorite of McKinley's work. I feel like there was far too much focus on roses -- both actual roses and as a symbol -- and not enough focus on the interactions between our heroine and the Beast. I am still curious about McKinley's earlier version of the story, "Beauty," and will probably give it a shot. It will be interesting to compare the two stories and find the differences. I just hope "Beauty" is a little less obsessed with roses than "Rose Daughter"...

I was SO excited when this book came out- "Beauty" , of course, having been one of my all-time favorite books as a girl. Surely the amazing Ms.McKinley could strike gold again, especially with such a beloved story! But... But... I started reading the book and... nothing! I could not get into the book at all. The exciting, colorful immediacy of "Beauty" seemed to have vanished... All that seemed to be left was a dull, abstract narrative where the heroine spent an incessant amount of time puttering about her flowers. I felt very disappointed indeed. First "Deerskin," now this! What happened, Robin?

A retelling of Beauty and the Beast, about three lively sisters and a cottage covered in roses. Once upon a time, this was one of the first McKinley novels I read--and, after Deerskin, it felt insubstantial. But I've read more McKinley since, and come to appreciate her breadth of style. This was much better upon reread, cozy and charming and enchanting; the haunted atmosphere of the Beast's castle is particularly well done. McKinley has knack for finding definitive moments, and Beauty's monologues, as she gives herself voice and carves her own experience out of her fairytale setting, are the unequivocal highlight of the book. The ending is half that: beautiful, intimate, character-driven; but it's also half talky, confusing, and largely divorced from the core plot and characters, which sours things. This isn't my favorite of McKinley's retellings (that would be Spindle's End)--I see too many flaws in it, and its messages lack personal appeal. But it's lovely comfort reading, as McKinley often is, and I recommend it.

** spoiler alert ** I want to begin by stating that Robin McKinley has an incredible knack for creating worlds. The laws of magic and the clarity with which she can make a scene come to life is incredible.

That said, as many other reviewers have pointed out, this book was much longer than it needed to be. Reading about every second of the protagonist's life make reading drag, and there were many times where I wondered at McKinley's reason for including certain scenes. There was too much time spent on how she was adapting to life in the castle, and not nearly enough time with the prince. (I mean, we read these stories for the romance, right?) I wanted to see their relationship grow and blossom, and Beauty and the beast simply weren't involved enough in their own love story.

I also thought it curious that she took so little interest in how the enchantment came to be, and spent little time trying to get the information out of the beast. Then came the ending, which I still don't understand. As others have pointed out, it was an information dump.

Finally, I couldn't get past the fact that the beast stayed a beast. Sure, I want a new take on fairy tale retellings, but there are some pieces that just need to stay the same in order for it to count as the original tale. Implied bestiality was certainly not what I had expected from such an otherwise clean book, and I finished the book feeling incredibly let down.

Robin McKinley has been one of my favorite authors since I first read Beauty in the eighth grade. I was overjoyed when I found out that she wrote Rose Daughter, a re-telling of her own story, and I was very excited to read it.
The main character in Rose Daughter is Beauty, the youngest daughter of a rich, widowed merchant. The oldest sister, Lionheart, is bold and loves to be around horses, and the middle daughter, Jeweltongue, is smart and likes to play with words. Beauty is quite shy and loves gardening, but loves roses more than any other flower. After their father's business fails, the family moves into Rose Cottage, even though there had been rumors of an unexplained curse. After living in Rose Cottage for a couple years, the father learns that one of his missing ships has returned from it's voyage. Hoping that they might get some money or other wealth out of it, he sets off for their old city. However, when he arrives, he finds there is nothing for himself or his family. On his way back to Rose Cottage, the old merchant gets lost in a blizzard. He finds refuge in an enchanted palace, and when he takes a rose from a vase to give to Beauty, he finds himself nose-to-nose with a Beast. In return for stealing the rose, the Beast demands the merchant's youngest daughter, Beauty.
As I mentioned before, McKinley has written this plot before, but I think this version is more calm and thoughtful, with more of a Gothic impression. The story goes along at it's own pace for the most part, and isn't rushed in the least bit. McKinley writes witch such adoration for her characters and their surroundings. Every animal, spirit, vegetable and rose in the book are so alive, it seems as though they are all characters in themselves.
In the author's note at the end of the book, McKinley states that she didn't purposely re-write her own novel, but I'm sure glad that she did, otherwise I would never have been able to enjoy it. Rose Daughter doesn't have quite the energy and vigor that her other novels do, but it really is a gentle and charming story.
"...There came to her there some strange breath of air, some movement just seen at the corner of her eye. She turned her head; the edge of the nearer summer tapestry stirred..."

I fell in love, like so many people, with "Beauty" and so was drawn into the amazing, richly-textured worlds that Robin McKinley creates with her words. I swooned over "The Hero and the Crown" and "The Blue Sword" is still one of my favorite books on earth, so I was understandably thrilled about "Rose Daughter." This book is beautifully written and is a thrilling adventure to read through. However, I'm still unsure as to how I really feel about it. I give it four stars since it's a quality piece of fiction, but it's so different from "Beauty" and is, in fact, quite different from her other works. It's very much a true fairy tale in the truest sense of the word, and I appreciate that treatment, certainly, but I can admit that it wasn't what I was expecting.

Like a true fairy tale, the characters aren't entirely fleshed out in many ways. By the end, I felt like I hadn't really gotten to know any of them at all except for within the boundaries of thier specific contexts. The Beast, especially, was left wanting, especially since I'd read "Beauty" and had come to love and admire the kind and patient Beast of that book. This Beast is kind and patient, but he says so little, and his relationship with Beauty doesn't so much progress as it appears. Again, this is wonderful in the sense that it's how fairy tales work, but it takes some getting used to. I do love that the magic is described in such detail, and the circumstances of the Beast's appearance are explained.

I think this book can almost be combined with "Beauty" (in my mind at least!) as so much of the scenery is supplemented considerably more than in "Beauty" while "Beauty" tends to go deeper into the hearts and minds of the characters involved.

If you like works of fiction that are fairy tales rather than simply regular works of fiction, I strongly suggest that you reach for "Rose Daughter" before you reach for anything else.

The beginning of this book was brilliant, in my opinion, and engaged my interest far more than Robin McKinley's original Beauty. I liked the better characterization of the sisters, the father and Beauty herself, and the world and events were far more fascinating. Where this book loses momentum is, strangely enough, when the plot gets going and Beauty meets the Beast. The scenes at the Beast's castle are incredibly slow, with large amounts of description and nothing much ever happening. The only times I felt a spark of interest again was when it returned to Jeweltongue and Lionheart, which surely shouldn't be right? The original Beauty was also quite a slow-moving book, but at least managed to track the development of the relationship between Beauty and the Beast in a believable and more interesting way. I preferred the ending of this book, of course, but found it didn't work after the poor setup. It's too hard to believe that they could fall in love in only seven days, during which they didn't even see much of each other.
I liked some of the gardening information in this book, but again, felt it was over-described, and was disappointed to see Beauty's love of books going out the window to make room for it. The descriptions of the roses worked at Rose Cottage, but not at the Beast's castle - there they just fell flat. Overall, this book had a much more fairytale feel to it than the original Beauty, but didn't tell the story nearly as economically as fairytales manage to do. In my opinion, you should read both Robin McKinley's retellings of this story, if you're interested - both have their flaws, and their strong points. Neither of them are going to be my favourite books.

I love Beauty and the Beast stories, but this one is not one of the better ones. The growth of their love was lost to roses; it had no foundation. The time where they really get to know eachother was portrayed as a paraphrased memory. And the commas could choke you. The run on sentences are so numerous it feels like I should get a red pen out and edit. The author does a good job at showing how maze like the palace is, but didn't know when to stop and let us get to know the couple. This is more of a story about rises.

I originally read "Beauty" some years ago, and immediately fell in love both with the fairy tale all over again, and with McKinley's writing. Like another reviewer, somehow I missed Rose Daughter when it was first published, but spotted it in a book store and wondered why on earth someone would tell the same story twice.

Clearly, as I have come to realize whenever I dabble in fairy tales, even the same author does not tell the same story in quite the same way the second time around.

I greatly enjoyed the very much Beauty-centric tale, as well as the more fantastical points of the novel. I enjoyed Jeweltongue and Lionheart, especially the fact that unlike my favorite "children's" retelling (the version written by Marie Leprince DeBeaumont, translated by Richard Howard, illustrated by Hilary Knight- his illustrations are DIVINE!), Beauty's sisters are not malicious and spiteful, but instead far more textured characters with kindness in their hearts and ways of adapting to their life at Rose Cottage

The two major flaws I saw in this book were the Beast, and the ending. I simply did not feel that there was ENOUGH of the Beast! In a story otherwise so fleshed out, the Beast just didn't appear often enough for my taste. I felt that the romance between Beauty and her Beast was not fleshed out enough- especially the end, which just didn't quite do it for me. Still, I found this to be a book well worth reading!

"Beauty and the Beast" is a favorite fairy tale in which its heroine is very proactive and saves her beloved beast in the end. Unlike the cautionary tales like "Snow White" or "Cinderella", Beauty does not wait for her"Prince Charming" to solve her problems and rescue her into a "happily ever after" state of being.

The best part of this version of a beloved tale is Mr. Beast maintains his beast-like form after he is rescued. Beauty's innate kindness sees true beauty in the bats, spiders, and thorny half-dead rose bushes. Likewise, she receives acts of kindness from salamanders, cats, and unicorns.

Time well spent and a good read!

I really liked this book. Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairy tale and McKinley does it justice. Her writing is like a garden. It is full of prettiness and stuff to look at and so very descriptive. It makes reading so very wonderful, but it can also make it a little difficult to get into. Fantasy has always been my genre of choice, but I have not been reading much of it lately. I am glad that I read this book.

Robin McKinley's view of magic in this book is so very fairytale, and almost not there. It makes for a wonderful story. I loved her clever use of names for the characters and places. Once I got past the first chapter and the different writing style, I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to find out what happened to Beauty and her sisters, the merchant and Longchance as well. The idea of roses as a major theme of a story was wonderful. The roses were so integral to the story that they almost became a character of their own. The use of a myth in the story was wonderful as well. This was close enough to the Beauty and the Beast that I know, and different enough for me to keep reading.

If you like fantasy and fairytales and sweet stories, you should definitely read this.

I have never read Beauty before (although I would love to) so I can't compare the two but I have to say that Rose Daughter is one of the most magical and beautiful books that I've ever come across. It is very dreamy and full of enchantment. I loved the fact that Beauty and her sisters were close in this book and I don't think it was at all overly sweet as one reviewer has said. The characters of the sisters were wonderful and I liked Beauty's character too, very quiet and practical yet not too much of a goody two shoes. My only complaint (and the reason I'm only giving four stars) would be that McKinley gives us a great atmosphere of suspense and mystery and yet the end is rather hurried and weak. I was really getting interested in the mystery of the palace and the beast and yet all the of mystery is explained by the greenwitch in a very undramatic way. It seemed the great buildup fizzled out. I was hoping for some great confrontation between the evil sorcerer and beauty and the beast yet nothing really happened and everything was not fully explained. I was also hoping for the transformation of the beast to a handsome young man but I can kind of see why McKinley's ending is just as good as the original fairy tale ending. You normally don't want the person you've fallen in love with to turn into somebody else, do you? Anyway, besides the weak ending I still think this a very good book and I can't wait to read Beauty because it is suppose to be even better.

Okay, I read all the customer reviews about "Rose Daughter." As a lot of them were pretty negative with a lot of stuff to back it up, I prepared to read the book with my most discerning mindset. McKinely had done "Beauty" and I was sure that was all she could get out of the Beauty and the Beast story. I was surprised. "Rose Daughter" is absolutely beautiful. The story is done in a fantasy style, with rich, vivid descriptions and word usage. It is so hard to find writing like that anymore. It makes a novel so much more artsy and absorbing. The book has a darker side, and is almost a mystery, in a certain sense. There are spells, sorcerers, simularcums, stuff that "Beauty" didn't have. Don't get me wrong, "Beauty" is fantastic, and not worse than "Rose Daughter." But the two books have so many differences that they just can't be compared. The ending, to say the least, wasn't quite what I expected, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it. =D I probably wouldn't have done what Beauty did, but then again, I have a twisted sense of morals. Hehe. Anyway, I don't see why so many didn't like it. "Rose Daughter" is one word: Beautiful A

"Beauty" was one of the first fantasy books I ever read, and remains my favorite to this day. I anticipated "Rose Daughter" eagerly, hoping for a retelling that would flesh out the characters and the setting while retaining the soul-deep appeal of the Beauty character and the supporting cast. Although McKinley dedicates more words to the world of these characters, she has reduced Beauty from a powerful, wonderful, sensitive, strong character to something of a simp, someone who lacks a backbone and any strong-mindedness. Instead of determining the course of her life and fighting for herself, as she does in "Beauty," she really just goes with the flow, exhibiting very little spunk, or indeed, energy. She seems to be more of a context for the story than an actual character. Her interest in gardening is wonderful, but that is the ONLY dimension to her character here. At least the original Beauty was capable of having a bit of fun...
Otherwise, McKinley's language and writing is beautiful, as expected, and the supporting cast is OK, if neglected. The castle is wonderfully drawn (the rooftop painting by the Beast is especially appealing), though the march of wildlife back to the castle became a bit predictable. All in all, I'd advise fans of this particular story (Beauty and the Beast) to read this book for the sake of a different perspective. All McKinley fans, fairy-tale fans and readers in general should stick to the original.

Compared to Beauty, Rose Daughter is (in my opinion) softer, gentler and rather like looking at the familiar tale through a veil...it's slightly fuzzy and shimmery around the edges. Both versions are slow moving, almost pastoral in nature, there is the beast, but we are absent the menacing feel that many retellings of this particular story have. The main "negatives" about Rose daughter are the lack of depth in the Beauty and Beast characters (which I don't know really makes all that much difference in the end) and the utter cacophony of rose talk...there are endless pages of rose gardening, pruning, planting, musing about roses, dreams about them, looking at them, admiring them, talking about them...by the end, I was feeling beat about the head and shoulders with all the rose references and talk. It's clear the author is very in love with roses and the gardening thereof, but I could have done with less of it in the book myself.

In the end, I'm left with the feeling that the individual characters where not so much important as the overall story...the traditional elements are all there...ruined merchant family, three sisters, move to the country, fathers trip to the city for the ship that returned, father gets lost in the woods and finds beast/castle, father takes rose, beast demands daughter, daughter goes to castle/beast and on and on. As in her previous book, the two older daughters are NOT vain, spoiled and mean-spirited nor are any of the daughters all that put out about having such a drastic change of lifestyle. Here again, beauty is hard working, industrious and initially the most helpful of the daughters.

This version is looser, the bones of the original are there and there ARE a lot of similarities between Rose Daughter and Beauty...but where beauty focuses a lot more on the relationship between the Beauty and the Beast, this one feels more focused on the family and how they endeavored and prospered without Beauty and on the back-story of how the Beast came to be...and this time it goes beyond the simple shallow, callousness of a young and vain prince...and I rather liked that about this version. Additionally the use of magic is prominent in both, but is very different in Rose Daughter...darker and more ever present I think is the best way to describe it. There are illusions about a curse and how that all plays out in the end is an interesting twist to the tale.

Overall, I think people who loved beauty and who cannot get past comparing the two may not fully enjoy Rose Daughter...this is a different kind of tale (so very similar, yet strikingly different); its shorter, choppier, doesn't pay as much attention to the main characters as one might think it should, and the ending IS a kind of happily ever after...but not in the way we'd all think, and I think despite it being a good ending, the reality of it is too much for people to accept. For me, I'm good with it, the story is reminiscent of the original feel of fairy tales...Rose Daughter is rich in details and a magically enthralling world but it's vague and fuzzy at the same time. What I mean is that as in most of the original stories there are details or gaps in the story that leave you wondering but...or how...some string of events could possibly work out that way...there is a it of unreality to it that gives the reader pause and for some, that's too uncomfortable a thing to have happen in a story. For me, it comes down to having JUST enough to wonder about (a few loose ends that never really go anywhere) that Rose Daughter lingers, conjuring alternatives that might have been and enjoying over again what was wonderful about this version and in my mind and that's a good think in my book.

In the end, I can enjoy both of McKinley's versions of Beauty and the Beast...for different reasons. I give Rose Daughter a sold A, it's just as readable for me and every bit as enjoyable. I'd recommend it in a heart beat for anyone who enjoys reading revisioned fairy tales...for those addicted to McKinley's usual style of writing or who simply adored Beauty beyond all measure, these readers may have trouble enjoying Rose Daughter because it is a departure from her usual writing style.

ALmost twenty years after her original breakthrough success with "Beauty", McKinley returns to the tale of Beauty and the Beast.
This is a somewhat darker version of the tale than "Beauty", which was, somehow, very "American" in tone in my mind. This book, somehow, seems rather "French" to me (in keeping with the original source of the tale, if nothing else, i suppose).
But i suppose this "Frenchness" i seem to sense may come because i suspect that at least part of the imagery for this book came from Cocteau's wonderful 1940's film with Jean Marais and Josephine Day (which i heartily recommend to anyone who enjoys any version of the story) -- Beauty's nightmare of running down a dark corridor lighted at intervals by candles in wall sconces certainly resonated with some of the imagery in the film, and her father's first view of the Beast and his costume certainly did also.
But this beast is different from Cocteau's; there is less of the frisson (however mild) that we get when Cocteau's Beast, his hands covered with the smoking blood of his prey, claws at Beauty's door. This Beast, almost from the start (except when he is terrifying Beauty's father, to set in motion the events that will bring Beauty to him) is quieter, more melancholic; a philosopher-Beast, one might say.
I'm not sure if it was altogether a good idea to remove the mantle of scariness from the Beast, even if it was then transferred to other elements, some part of the existing tale, some invented for this book; i feel as if the Beast should *gradually* be revealed as harmless.
One of the most telling moments in the Cocteau film (i seem to be referring to that a lot) is at the very end, when the handsome Prince who was the Beast just moments before tells Beauty not to be afraid -- and she looks shyly up at him, holding his hands in hers, and says "I like to be a little frightened -- with you."
"Beauty and the Beast" at heart, is partially about discovering that that which we fear -- the Unknown, in the strictest sense -- is not that scarey. Facing our fears and confronting and laying them to rest -- if only in a metaphorical manner -- is part of its appeal. To a great extent, this book doesn't offer that, except in the last third or so.
But, of course, it is Very Much about discovering that a scarey exterior may hide a gentle and noble heart; and that even the smallest and weakest of us can, if we be determined enough, and hold on and don't falter, no matter what odds seem against us arrayed, make a Difference.
And that, added to lovely prose and smooth storytelling, makes this a four-star read and i recommend it.

When _Rose Daughter_ came out, I was surprised. I read _Beauty_ when I was ten or eleven and loved it, and I wasn't sure how differently the same person could tell that story.

McKinley did an amazing job of it. First of all, you should know that _Rose Daughter_ is not a short book, or a quick book. If you're looking for a quick, light read for a younger reader, _Beauty_ remains a good choice--it's more interesting than the standard version by far, and it tends to stick with you.

It's not that she changes the story in this newer version--it's that she gives it a setting, and that the people have far, far more depth. The characters are clearly totally different people from their counterparts in _Beauty_, and the world is different, and it all progresses differently. (The ending, too, seems like she took seriously the joke we all made after watching Disney's final, slightly awkward, transformation--that he looked better as the Beast.) McKinley gives herself more room to maneuver in this version--rightly feeling that she's already told the story the simple way once. Don't get me wrong--it's not like she took the story and changed it, and that's what makes it interesting. The actual differences in simple plot are mostly unimportant. The famous story is more than a theme here. But it's like she looked at what might have really happened, had Beauty and the Beast really happened, to actual people--just in a different sort of world from ours.

The words are beautiful; the imagery is amazingly detailed yet concise (here we see the full benefit of McKinley's practice as a children's writer). The characters are people, whom you'd like to meet (or not, where appropriate). She doesn't waste much time on proving that the Beast is really a handsome prince suitable for her heroine--she skips over that, and makes him a character. When he speaks, you feel like you can hear his voice. One of the best sections of the book describes his interest in painting. For just a moment, Beauty--and the Beast--are removed from the fatefull progression of the story, and you can see them as people, as they might have been if there weren't any enchantment at all. Suddenly it's easy to believe that they'd fall in love.

Another thing McKinley changes is the reason the Beast is a Beast. Without spoiling the story, it's not the usual simple answer of fairy-tale arrogance. He's not just a rude or cruel prince, the sort that no heroine ought to love but this one does anyway because she is so good that she improves him. He has his faults, but he's not annoying, and the more interesting questions that come up have to do with what it actually means to be human. Which is quite an improvement. The book is romantic in an older sense (exciting and more than a little dramatic, especially when it comes to roses). There aren't any simpering scenes of clichéd storybook Disney Princess romance here. Beauty eventually realizes she's in love, and she does what she thinks she ought to do. If you want something to goo over, go back and read the section about the roses again (well, any of the sections). The traditional, romantic tale becomes a framework for something more complex--like writing in really detailed illustrations where all the gaps in the simple text are filled in with the expressions on people's faces and all the things going on in the background. Fairy tales are never much more than an outline. This time, the rest of it--what they ate for breakfast, the random friends and acquaintences and teacups/carpets/neighbors/histories are all there, and all of them interesting. It's the difference between publishing the novelization of a story and taking a story as the starting point, then going and writing a novel.

I wish people hadn't thrown _Rose Daughter_ into the "young adult" category at all, because it really isn't that kind of book. It's more suitable for adults, or teenage readers who would normally be looking for something more literary than your standard juvenille fantasy story about dragons and princesses. Basically, _Rose Daughter_ is _Beauty_ for an audience that wants their fairy tales to be not just engaging and memorable but creative and unique, full of wordplay and a narrative style that goes beyond entertainment.

The characters are complex and believable, despite their strange, allegorical names and seemingly (until you know them better) cartoonish characteristics. The first chapter or so is odd, and some readers may be lost at the begining, unable to get into the story and unwilling to continue. But this is unusually rich writing, and beautifully done. The gimmicks fade as you start to realize exactly how skillfully she's constructed the system of names--by the second or third chapter, you've forgotten that there's anything strange about a woman known as "Beauty." It may be a different world, one that we never fully see (what cities? what countries?), but it quickly starts to feel natural, in a way that is quite rare for fantasy of any kind.

I have read few books with such amazingly well-sketched "minor" characters. One of the things that--on re-reading--seems to be lacking from _Beauty_ (and any other version of Beauty and the Beast that comes to mind) is any kind of real personality among Beauty's family. Disney omitted the sisters to save space, and most stories marginalize them as stereotypes. McKinley correctly asks how and why relationships change as the story progresses, and it makes all the difference. And it lengthens the book a good deal (thank goodness! in my opinion, because I didn't want it to end), but the depth of description in this novel is truly wonderful. The whole time you feel like you're right there, in the story--something that's hard to accomplish with such a well-known fairy tale. McKinley shows us that maybe we didn't already know all there was to know about this story, after all. Beauty and the Beast is not the kind of story that lends itself to the creation of a world, instead of the crafting of a parable--but on her second try, McKinley goes far beyond the story itself. If you've ever watched the Disney version and wished you could find out more about the villagers, because they seem more interesting than they're given credit for, this telling does just that.

The only downsides--in my opinion--are when she feels obliged to return to the traditional plot, and we suddenly have a villain and an explanation tossed in. They disrupt everything, and are hardly necessary. The story could have just been allowed to happen--it feels real enough to work that way. I gave it five stars anyway because I think it's still a really exceptional work, from a literary point of view. Everything that McKinley does in this book that ISN'T the story of Beauty and the Beast is absolutely phenomenal. Somehow a lot of fantasy writers seem to have forgotten that taking on a traditional story provides an opportunity to work with other aspects of the writing instead of just trying to find a unique plot. _Rose Daughter_ ends up being marvelous because McKinley looks at it as the potential for a world--one where strange names and incomprehensible enchantments make sense--instead of as a writing exercize, or her chance to put her "stamp" on a particular story. This book goes far beyond that.

In short, if you're looking for a traditional fantasy telling of a novelized fairy tale, perhaps you should look somewhere else. If you're looking for an unusually rich, complex, and unique work of fiction, and have the patience to enjoy it, _Rose Daughter_ is just about perfect.

I was amazed to see that McKinley introduced almost all the elements I found lacking in her earlier retelling of Beauty and the Beast into this book. We really understand and enjoy the Beast, we see how Beauty spends her days. I really enjoyed the idea that daily life in the magic castle helps her fulfill her calling.

However, this review is really more like a 4 1/2 stars rating. There needs to be more development of the "bad guys" to create a real sense of tension and danger. Also, the fable-like beginning of the book and names of characters are off-putting...I think that if that quality is what McKinley was going for, she should have stuck to it as the book progressed, and if not, she should have abandoned that style.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, particularly for teens.

Although I discovered the beauty of Robin McKinley's magical tales, I have only recently read both retellings of Beauty and the Beast. Rose Daughter is very different from the original tale. In Robin McKinley's second version, all thsisters are beautiful. None are arrogant or spoiled. Each is uniquely characterized and beautifully described. Lionheart, Jeweltongue, and Beauty are down-to-earth and sensible. The sentences are descriptive, but sometimes too much so so that the excitement is taken out of the moment. But don't let that stop you from reading this fantastic book! The Beast is also wonderfully depicted. He seems perfect for Beauty. It's wonderful that, unlike the traditional fairytale, the Beast has a more complex, harder to solve problem that confines him to his palace. Robin's McKinley's writing make you feel like you were experiencing everything, that you're there with the characters. This book is perfect for any fairytale lover!

Robin Mckinley's Rose Daughter goes to great lengths to establish a setting for the tale it is based on, but it lacks a degree of fresh insight and depth needed to make the book truly great.
Based on The French Fairy Tale of Beauty and The Beast, Rose Daughter follows the struggle of Beauty, her three sisters and her merchant father, from wealth to finincial ruin to the courtship of the Beast. Mckinley handles the story with a grace that belies true talent, and she creates a magical world full of detail and imagination that will entertain readers throughout the book.
But while Mckinley pays special attention to lavishness of setting, and goes to great lengths to give Beast a backstory and Beauty a family, she seems outright negligent on other aspects of storytelling. Her novel ends abruptly, as though she simply decided she'd had enough, and she seems uninterested in exploring what happens after the traditional fairy tale ends. The novel's supposed "allegorical resonances" ring hollow, and in my mind it fails to address some of the more complex process of learning to love a beast. McKinley seems to preoccupied with detail to address other areas of the narrative.
All in All, Mckinley has crafted an extraordinarily well-written book filled with imagination and delightful prose. It's well worth reading for those who simply wish to immerse themselves in a grand fantasy world and see Beauty and the Beast in far more detail than previously imagined. But for those looking to see a deeper approach that develops characters and conflict in a way the original tale never did, this book falls short of a solid delivery. Rose Daughter is an enjoyable book, but not an earth-shaking one.

Twenty years later, Robin McKinley returns to the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast. The author notes on her original version, Beauty, describe her as living on a horse farm, and Greatheart, Beauty's horse, is a significant character in the piece. The author notes for this version describe McKinley as living with a garden of 400 roses, and roses suffuse this book. I loved her original version; I wanted to love this as much, and somehow I didn't quite do so. It's better than the Disney musical version of this fairytale - McKinley writes a better, more powerful and intelligent and interesting Beast. For so many women in particular, this fairytale sits in the back of our minds, framing our view of the world, though we know it's only a tale. McKinley shows it to us freshly and strongly in both versions, with well-written minor characters and an eye for telling detail - but I liked her first version "best of anything and best of all".

This book is another Beauty and the Beast retelling by Robin McKinley. Although I liked Beauty's character better in McKinley's first novel I prefer this book to the original. Both books are wonderful but the plot and most of the characters are far more fleshed out in this book. Beauty's sisters have a lot of personality compared to the first book, when they were just nice and pretty. I also like the Beast better. His history is interesting and he even has a cute little hobby. The plot focuses on the magic as much at if focuses on the characters and the romance which makes for much more exciting reading than the original. I really love the ending of this book for a change. The one thing that's always annoyed me about the Beauty and the Beast tale is the ending but that's all I'm going to say about that. I don't want to give the ending away. I'm sure this is a book I'm going to read many times. Buy this book people!

Having recently read Sunshine and Spindle's End, I picked up Rose Daughter expecting the same delightful twist to a common tale, this time Beauty and the Beast. So I was disappointed to discover it did not particularly engage me. I finished it -- something has to be truly awful for me not to finish -- but I was not smiling with satisfaction at the end. I was not involved in the characters, the plotting seemed entirely too pat, there seemed no doubt in each step of the tale. Granted, everyone should know the story of Beauty and the Beast. But McKinley usually gives us something different, a parallel tale perhaps, in which the characters do not necessarily do the same as their fairytale counterparts. The primary failing for me was with the characters. They were interesting on the surface, but I didn't seem to get beyond that surface. They seemed sketched, rather than fleshed out. We were told what they were feeling, rather than allowed to share their experiences. My first disappointment with McKinley: if you want to try her, go for one of the others, or her first Beauty and the Beast tale, aptly named Beauty.

In some ways 'Beauty' was better.However, the deeper the story got the more I started to enjoy it. My only complaint is I missed 'the winds' from "Beauty' .Other parts of the story make up for that though. I absolutely loved the roses and the simulacrum. Robin Mckinley's use of elements to compose the palace made it feel like a place I would feel contented and luxuriant in. Which also lured me in to the book. I will have to read this again sometime.It is a great story, and I am glad that I read it.

In 'Rose Daughter,' McKinley expands on and enhances 'Beauty,' a book she wrote twenty years earlier. Both are retellings of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

I actually liked 'Beauty,' the shorter work of the two, better as I didn't feel that 'Rose Daughter' added anything meaningful that wasn't already there. Part of what's missing for me is the natural progression in Beauty's relationship with The Beast - i.e. from fear to love through trust and compassion. In this book Beauty shows little or no terror at being completely uprooted from her family and forced to cohabitate with a beast-like creature. As a result, her ultimate love for this creature is less satisfying to the reader than it could have been. Still, I recommend it to readers who continue to enjoy the magic of fairy tales, adults included.

How many of you are hopeless romantics, especially when it comes to timeless love and friendship? Well, I know I am, and this book tops the list of must reads. After reading Beauty, I was enchanted with the amazing style of Robin McKinley, and the way she brought out each character in a new light, and gave even the sisters a human touch. In Rose Daughter, we meet a whole new family of characters, a whole new perspective, and a brand new enchanting tale.
Rose Daughter presents a family torn by loss of money, and loss of a father due to mental illness. The girls survive in a small cottage left to their late mother, a child of nature. The palace in which the Beast resides is amazing, and I am always looking forward to seeing what new surprise will await her.
Read it; it's magical, enchanting, and superbly written, and you're sure to fall in love!

I would recommend this book together with Spindle's End and The Hero and the Crown by the same author to any mother who wants to encourage daughters to become strong, courageous, self-sustaining individuals. The three sisters are such strong and good characters that raise above adversity and find their place in the world without the help of a handsome prince. We are so bombarded with images of thin, pretty, empty women who must use their looks to get the men provide for them that it is a relief and refreshing to come across books like this.

I read Rose Daughter right after I read Beauty: the Retelling of the Story and I am glad I did so. I was able to start with the simpler story line to the more complex, lush, detailed one. It sucked me in and I was reading in not to find out what next but just to be part of that world, immerse myself in the details and be part of the mystery without really wanting to know all the why's. Thank you for the wonder and the pleasure and for helping me discover great books that I will share with my daughters!

I agree with whoever wrote that Beauty and Rose Daughter are different the way that two flowers are different - both beautiful, but with different ways of being so. So everyone who reads both Beauty and Rose Daughter will have a favorite, not necessarily because one is spectacularly better than the other. I have to admit that my favorite is Beauty, but Rose Daughter is still a good read. Beauty and Beast are more deeply explored, and I agree that McKinley has grown more mature since her first try at the fairy tale, but being a sucker for happy endings, I prefer Beauty. Of course, there are other things to like about Beauty too - the characters seem more warmhearted and believable. Rose Daughter's characters are fascinating, but at times a little distant. Read them both and decide for yourself - it's worth your time.

Beauty is devoted to her family, which includes two sisters and a father. so when their lifestyles break apart, Beauty works hard and discovers a piece of property that the family still owns. Two years after they moved into Rose Cottage nearby a town, the part of the story we all know takes place. Beauty's father is caught in a storm, seeks shelter, steals a rose from the castle, and makes a bargain with the Beast. Beauty leaves her family and goes to stay with the Beast. Soon, Beauty takes a liking to the lonley Beast. She tends to his dying rose garden and befriends him. Rose Daughter is a fasinating, not to mention enchanting, tale of Beauty and the Beast. The end of the story has a twist to it that no other fairy tale has. I recommend this book to anybody who likes tales told in a down-to-earth way.

Beauty is devoted to her family, which includes two sisters and a father. So when their lifestyles break apart, Beauty works hard and discovers a piece of property that the family still owns. Two years after they moved into Rose Cottage, which was a little cottage near a village that groes rare roses, the part of the story we all know takes place. Beauty's father is caught in a storm, seeks shelter, steals a rose from the castle, and makes a bargain with the Beast. Beauty leaves her family and goes to stay with the Beast. Soon, Beauty takes a liking to the lonley Beast. She tends to his dying rose garden and befriends him. Rose Daughter is a fasinating, not to mention enchanting, tale of Beauty and the Beast. The end of the story has a twist to it that no other fairy tale has. I recommend this book to anybody who likes tales told in a down-to-earth way.

I love Robin McKinley for her detailed characterizations and extended metaphors, but Rose Daughter proved a bit too much for me. Beauty was so mature this time I couldn't believe she was a real young person. In addition, she spent almost NO time getting to know the Beast and ALL her time (I mean litterally half the book) planting roses, pruning roses, thinking about roses, fertilizing roses. I mean, enough is enough. The ending, therefore, was confusing and unjustified. I enjoyed her first version, Beauty, much more, though the flaws I found there were not corrected in Rose Daughter, as I felt they should have been. Still, McKinley does have some beautiful passages, and I am only being so critical of her because I am acquainted with what she CAN do. A good book, but not magic.

Cute take on Beauty and the Beast. I really enjoyed getting to know Beauty's upbringing, about her mother and her vivacious sisters. I liked that the author gave each of Beauty's sisters strong personalities, but yet and still Beauty was the star. I felt that the story had a great deal of slow and unnecessary parts. I will still read her other version.

I, like other McKinley fans of long standing, felt many trepidations about reading this new telling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. McKinley's first version (Beauty) has been a favorite of mine for years and I wasn't sure if I was ready to risk not liking one of her books or, worse yet, damaging my long-held wonder for this gorgeous fairy tale. I agonized for a bit and decided to risk it. Then I read it in one day. True, it lacks some of the fantasy-come-true elements of Beauty and some of McKinley's earlier books, but what it has instead is a realism that is utterly captivating. It is truly the work of a refined intellect, and one can clearly see the beautiful maturity of the author revealed in this book.
Everyone will of course compare this book with Beauty (I do, myself), but they are unlike in the way that wildflowers and roses are unlike. Each has spectacular lovliness, but where the wildflower is untamed beauty, the rose is cultivated, perhaps more deeply wondrous.
Which do I prefer? Both, of course.

When I first saw Robin McKinley's "Rose Daughter" on the shelves, I thought, "Wow! A sequel to 'Beauty'!" Then, when I saw it was a retelling (again), I, too, thought, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Of course, I read it anyway. It's very complex, and if you read with any speed (I just tear through books), you'll almost have to read it twice to understand it. Also note down any pages where Beauty dreams; you'll need to look back on them later. It was not "Beauty," however. The angle is completely different, from the sisters' temperaments to the mother and her motives, the town to which Beauty's family moves, the Beast and his background and the climax and resolution. Still very much worth the read -- I haven't yet regretted reading a McKinley book.

Of course most of you know, "Beauty" was Robin Mckinley's first book.That was a realy great book,the first one I read of her's.My friend,Brittany,knew how much I loved Beauty and the Beast,so she showed me that book and I fell in love with it!I went to the library(after I read the book 15 times)and asked about books by Robin McKinley.They only had one,"Rose Daughter."

I read it and fell in love with it.It's about a girl who thinks she carries a curse.She dreams about running down a narrow corridor,and there, waiting just for her,is a monster. One day her father comes home with a terrifying story about a hideous beast in a castle and how he stole a rose.He says he had to pay a price for this crime,one of his daughters!Beauty decides to go. I've read a lot of reviews,one told something about her sister's names,Jeweltounge and Lionheart,being wierd.Yeah,they might,but give Robin a break!It could of been 1600!Heck,every guy might of been named George! Anyway,the point is it was a great book and fantasy and romance lovers will love it.

I love the pictures Robin McKinley paints with her words. She makes it easy to slip into the worlds she creates. I am often sad when I finish one of her books because I have enjoyed her story telling so much it's hard to leave the world she created. Beauty and the Beast has been a favorite story of mine since I was little, and I have thoroughly enjoyed Robin McKinley's retelling of this tale in both "Beauty" and "Rose Daughter". Both books have allowed me to spend more time wrapped up in my favorite fairy tale.

For the second time, Robin McKinley tackles the story of Beauty and the Beast, a story that has haunted our collective cultural imagination for centuries. While I enjoyed Beauty, her first retelling, Rose Daughter is, to borrow a metaphor that unfurls behind almost every page of the book, to Beauty as a full-blown rose is to a bud. This time around, the story is deeper, darker, and multi-layered; everything, from the depiction of characters, to the plot-line, to the imagery, is more extensive. Throughout the novel, one has a delicious sense that most of the story is going on beneath the surface- only certain images, like that of the rose, float up to the top from time to time. Submerge yourself.

I loved the book, having read many of Robin Mckinley's books I decided to give it a go. It only took me a day to finish because I could not put it down. I loved the rich descriptions and the character personalities. It was a joy to read and I love to pick it up and read it again on rainy days. If you read many retellings of classic fairy tales you have to read this one. Even if you have read her book, Beauty: a retelling of beauty and the beast; You will still love this one. I am glad I bought it and it has a special place on my self.

I am disappointed in this book. I often use McKinley as an example of how to write: her works are clear, concise, and contain vivid imagery. There are scenes in The Blue Sword which, even after 15 years and countless readings, cause me to hold my breath. But in the future I shall have to specify which McKinley books show these virtues.

In this book her imagery is not vivid, it is fuzzy. There is so much murky description that I lost track of the action and very little seemed to actually happen. I had noted this in Deerskin but attributed it to the difficulty of the subject matter. Now I think it might be the author.

This is Robin McKinley's second novel about Beauty and her Beast, and although I agree with some of the reviews that Beauty: A Retelling Of The Story Of Beauty And The Beast, is better - there are aspects of this version that I prefer. I don't want to spoil anything for those who have yet to read this...
All I can say is its a beautiful version of the classic tale. I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the Beauty and the Beast story, or faerie tales in general.
But, if you want my personal opinion - I would read first Beauty: A Retelling Of The Story Of Beauty And The Beast first (as it was written first, and I read it first) then read Rose Daughter directly afterward - that way you get a better and more complete Beauty and the Beast experience.

Unlike most reviewers, I preferred Rose Daughter to McKinley's earlier work, Beauty. I found the style of writing to be eloquent and graceful and the story was more mature and fully explained. I realize that this writing style, rather reminiscent of a mysterious dream, is not appealing to some, but I would recommend this book to fans of Patricia A. McKillip. It is more similar to her style than McKinley's earlier books. It is meaningless to compare it with Beauty when the two are so vastly different. Rose Daughter has an ethereal beauty all of its own. It was an excellent read, symbolic and atmospheric.

I purchased this book as soon as it was published. I love "Beauty" by this author, and I welcomed any view of this tale by her. I think the problem was that I love "Beauty" too much. It is one of my favorites; I've probably read it at least 12 times.
"Rose Daughter" didn't have the variety of characters nor the excellent narrative that "Beauty" does. Sometimes the story got confused and at other times it dragged a bit. It's certainly worth reading, but "Rose Daughter" is more philosophical, meaning bound in metaphor, but buried a bit too deep for me at least for the subject.

I guess there's a reason why authors rarely retell the same story twice -- it's not going to be as good one of those times. Sadly this is the case with "Rose Daughter," Robin McKinley's second adaptation of the traditional Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. It overflows with pretty images and words, but there doesn't seem to be a lot underneath them.

Beauty's mother died when she was only a tiny child, leaving her with only the memory of roses. Because magicians failed to predict her mother's death in a riding accident, her father turned against magic completely, even though it ruined his business. Then one of his ships turns up again. When the father asks his daughters what they want, Beauty only asks for a rose.

But that rose comes with a price -- her father takes it from the garden of a strange Beast, who demands that Beauty be sent to his palace. Beauty goes voluntarily, if reluctantly. But she finds that the Beast is actually peaceful and gentle, and asks her to marry him regularly. So, of course, Beauty must unravel the curse that keeps him a Beast.

Robin McKinley started her career with "Beauty," a version of "Beauty and the Beast" that let us see Beauty not as a vapid victim, but as a strong, intelligent young woman. The problem with "Rose Daughter" is simple: It runs along a lot of the same story tracks, and adds nothing except a few pretty turns of phrase and some peculiar subplots that lead nowhere.

Her writing is truly exquisite -- McKinley definitely has a way with descriptions and evocation. "Rose Daughter" is verbally lush as few fantasy books successfully are. If there had been a plot to go with it, then this might have been a worthy classic.

Unfortunately, it's a thin retread of the fairy tale, with few new twists and turns; the flower theme is virtually McKinley's only new addition to B&B lore. There are quite a few moments which seem lifted from McKinley's debut, such as the Beast repeatedly asking Beauty to marry him. Both of the lead characters are almost absurdly thin; the Beast never develops a personality, and Beauty never shows a single strong or recognizable feeling. She drifts through like an emotional ghost.

"Rose Daughter" could have been an intriguing, lush look at the traditional fairy tale; instead it feels like an overstretched "Beauty Redux." McKinley's prose is exceptional, but everything else fades away.