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A modern Beauty & the Beast, this story has it all - romance, angst, realism, humour & action. I loved every moment of it.

Honestly, I learned about Beastly through the news that Alex Pettyfer was going to play the main hero in the movie adaptation, but it was the fact that the plot was based on my favourite fairytale that made me eager to read it. I was a little cautious about starting it, but once I began, there was no stopping.

Beastly is a modern rendition of a man without kindness changing from the outside-in - the perfect, rich and handsome Kyle who thinks that ugly, or even plain people are not worth looking at, turns into the dark, brooding and lonely Adrian who seeks the beauty of his roses in order to forget about his own hidious appearance.

The story being told through his eyes, the reader sees how isolation and pain slowly mend Kyle's soul, turn it to seeking inner beauty and create Adrian - a guy who descriminates between shallowness and true kindness. Kyle never saw Lindy as someone beautiful, but for Adrian, she's like one of his roses - pure, and gentle, and shining from the inside-out.

The shallow playboy learns to love for the first time, and to sacrifice - to let the one most precious to him go free and choose her own destiny, even though that means that he may never return to his human form. Yet, as his friends tell him - there is more humanity in his beastly form than in most people.

I was charmed by how the classic love and transformation affected a spoiled, shallow New York City guy. There was a lot of the dark sins of our current reality in this book, but also a look deeper into the souls of those who have it all and those, who fight with life every day yet retain their inner beauty. Beastly can teach us a lot about people in these times of fallen taboos and lack of values, but also about the kindness and the beasts within our own souls.

A truly beautiful story.