Mar 15, 2022
Emma Theriault’s Rebel Rose is the first novel in The Queen’s Council series, a series of Disney princess continuations with historical fiction twists; Rebel Rose is a continuation of Beauty and the Beast. Belle must learn to be queen and navigate politics as the French Revolution divides France and her newfound kingdom. While I enjoyed how Theriault wove history into a Disney classic, I found that her characters lacked a solid resemblance to the originals on which they were based. Belle’s character was incredibly contradictory; she was weak-willed for most of the novel and lacked her original wit.