This one was a much quicker read than the first. It doesn't really drag on.
The time frame of the backstory is changed a lot. Here the prince is already pretty old when he's cursed. Old enough to have been a skilled hunter and womanizer and Gaston's best friend. Gaston was the son of the gamekeeper and it was the prince who gave him lands and wealth, something he hates to be reminded of.
The prince is engaged to a girl named Circe but Gaston says she's the daughter of a pig farmer. At first, the prince doesn't believe it but when he sees her on the farm, he's enraged and declares she lied to him because she knew he could never marry that far below his station. She comes to him and tries to win back his love but when he's cold to her, she reveals her true self. The odd sisters from the first book swoop in and say Circe is cousin to the old king (Snow White's dad) and their younger sister. They're all witches but Circe is the most powerful as well as the most kind-hearted. She curses the beast with the curse we know from the movie.
Unlike in the movie though, the curse takes a long time to take effect. As long as he remains cruel, the prince's cruelty will begin to show on his body. At first, this is hardened eyes and looking older than he is. It takes a long time before he becomes the beast. In this time, Gaston throws a party to find the prince a new bride. He matches him with Princess Tulip Morningstar. Belle is actually at this party, though the prince never gets a good look at her.
Tulip is an interesting character. I like her a lot. She's well aware she's trapped by her gender. Being a girl means you're only taught certain things and she's frustrated that she knows so little and that people think she's stupid for it. She was also taught not to contradict men or offer her own opinion. So she doesn't carry on conversations very well but she's so pretty that when she giggles instead of contributing thoughts, it's endearing. From the outside, this would be a very annoying character but being able to be inside her head a bit, you see how she's a product of being a royal girl in that time.
So the prince tries to use Tulip to break the curse but his cruelty remains and everything comes undone. The staff slowly turn into objects, though they never actually appear on the page as speaking objects. The prince hides in his room.
The odd sisters are determined to make him pay for hurting their sister so they send compassionate Circe off on an errand to see Ursula. Ursula saved Tulip when she tried to throw herself off a cliff after the prince broke their engagement, but being Ursula, she took Tulip's beauty in payment. Circe's off to fix this and help Tulip's family, as they were counting on the marriage to help their land. The odd sisters bring about the events of the movie and this part of the book is only the last few chapters. Most of it is taken up with backstory. When Circe returns, her sisters spell her into sleep but awaken her to see the beast mortally wounded after fighting Gaston. An angry Circe berates her sisters and uses her powers to revive the beast and return him to human form, as seen in the movie.
It's not the most fascinating story ever and the details are strange. Making Gaston the prince's BFF and then part of the curse being that everyone in the castle forgot about the townspeople and everyone in town forgot about the court was a bit contrived. Making the prince stay human for far longer seems like less of a punishment, although it does serve to show that he really earned that curse. It wasn't only a fleeting moment of rudeness that caused such punishment. Lumiere just sort of appears, too. Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts are the only servants named for quite some time but then later on, Lumiere is just suddenly there.
I do like the odd sisters being the older sisters to the Enchantress (Circe). I like that they know Ursula and Circe says she likes Ursula best of the sisters' friends. They make a few references to the days of Snow White, though it's clearly long past. They also make references to the events in Sleeping Beauty. Next up is Ursula's book, then Maleficent's. I believe I stopped partway through Ursula's and never finished nor did I read any of the rest of the series, so this will be my first readings of each from here on out.
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