I wanted so much to enjoy this book, the cover art is stunning and I love retelling of fairy tales so there's a different spin on a familiar beloved tale, but this was lacklustre if I am honest.

The characters ard very two-dimensional and often feel as though they have been added for the sake of filling a space within the book to add more context rather than fleshing out the more relevant faces. As for Lana our Beauty within the tale, she isn't anyone I could picture clearly and came across as selfish and naive which doesn't make her likeable in any way. She disregards her fathers concerns and instead adds to his monetary issues and disregards his fervent wish that she marry safely so he need not worry.

I struggled to not leave it as a DNF, hoping instead that the Book would get better, that there would be some world-building that would give the tale something that the reader could visualise or the characters would become something ones I could invest in. However, sadly The Rose Kiss pales greatly in comparison to Beauty and the Beast.