This is the first book in a dark fantasy romance series that follows the story of a princess that is kidnapped by the All-beast. Being a "Beauty and The Beast" retelling you can already guess the main elements you'd find here: the castle, the magic, the library, and of course, the Beast. It helps it also hits on a couple of troupes i adore, age gap, forced proximity, and enemies to lovers.

I feel like "retelling" is a very generous description, as there is no curse, he is more shifter than beast, there is no strong father/daughter bond, and the castle can be better compared to Howl's Moving Castle.I definitely enjoyed the tumultuous emotions and character development of the the heroine, Lisane, especially the slowburn build between her and Rhaim. In all instances, we're told, the reasoning behind the visions is the same: if you're strong enough to be trusted with powers, then you must learn to accept the hand of fate, as surely as you'd earned it as your mage-mark.

As such, this bad guy reputation feels unfounded and he comes off more like a caring parental figure that gets angry sometimes… and justifies abuse as “training”. Rhaim and Lisane are immensely different, they come from two different worlds and are brought together by appalling circumstances. When Lisane comes into his life, he knows his days are numbered because she was the woman in his vision.The characters were unique and the story is not overcrowded with a plethora of fantastical beings to track.