Book Review: Ensnared by Rita Stradling

Title: Ensnared
Author: Rita Stradling
Publishing info: December 18th, 2017
Genre's: New Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Retelling
My rating: 3/5
Add to Goodreads: click here
Provided by: Received a Galley through Netgalley for an honest review.
Synopsis: A Near Future Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Alainn’s father is not a bad man. He’s a genius and an inventor. When he’s hired to create the robot Rose, Alainn knows taking the money is a mistake.

Rose acts like a human. She looks exactly like Alainn. But, something in her comes out wrong.

To save her father from a five year prison sentence, Alainn takes Rose’s place. She says goodbye to the sun and goes to live in a tower no human is allowed to enter. She becomes the prisoner of a man no human is allowed to see.

Believing that a life of servitude lies ahead, Alainn finds a very different fate awaits her in the company of the strange, scarred recluse.

“Love didn't seem like something that could be organized or contained; it should be messy and emotional, like exploding and imploding with someone at the exact same time.”  

My Thought's

★★★

*I received a ecopy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review*

I absolutely love retellings of my favorite Disney stories, and when I saw Ensnared I was ecstatic to see it was inspired by Beauty and The Beast. With the movie coming out soon I was just in a B&B mood. Plus who doesn't love the romance of Beauty and the Beast. I mean it's a story of falling in love for what's on the inside not outside. It has always been one of my favorites.

In Ensnared they take a different aspect than a lot of fairytale retellings I've come across, except Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Instead of doing the classic past/historical romance setting, Ensnared takes a futuristic feel. It doesn't seem to be to much in the future. Life seems about the same as it is now except robots play a big part in everyday life. The whole IRobot feel with the IA robots was really cool, and reminded me of the Cinder book as well, but instead of some IA's being cool, in Ensnared they are all more IRobot devilish.

My favorite aspect of Ensnare was the sweet romance between Alainn and Lorccan, two very damaged people. In the beginning it was kind of slow and then it did feel rushed at times which was a weird to get the feeling of but they really gave me Beauty and the Beast feels, and they have some steamy moments that just make you have to fan yourself. *swoon*.
Ensnared really had a lot of aspects that gave it the opportunity to be really great but I ended up having to sadly give it 3 stars. I almost did 2 but I did enjoy it enough it deserves 3. The reason for the low rating is for the plot and world building. It really fell flat. There just wasn't enough details or build up that really made me connect with the story on that greatness level. There also seemed at times it would switch to another character's point of view that I just didn't see necessary but as a filler to make the book longer.

Rita Stradling had a really spectacular idea for Ensnared and while it was cute and sweet I just wish the story could have held up to it's potential.

-Amanda Margaret