A contemporary romance with a royal twist.

Clever writing

Sets good examples of girl power and women supporting other women

Friendship and sister goals

I would like to know more.

It was a little predictable but I didn't mind it tbh ( )

teen romance fiction / beauty and the beast reboot, 1st in series but works as standalone (~11hrs, 2 narrators: Arserio is better at accents and creating different character voices, but Carpenter does ok too)

diverse teen romance (Indian princess and British lord with ages-old feud between their royal families) set at elite international school, with the usual teens creating unnecessary problems due to a total lack of communication. The curse premise was forced (these 2 kids should be a heck of a lot more freaked out about Gray's impending death) and I think it would've been stronger as a rom-com without it, but the characters are likeable enough.

Read instead:
other books by Sandhya Menon
Jasmine Guillory's By the Book (adult rom-com)
Brigid Kemerer's A Curse so Dark and Lonely ( )

Life kept getting in the way but I finally got a chance to finish this wonderful book. A modern day retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This time around it was more of a story of taking charge of one’s life, empowering women’s voice, women of STEM! Characters that learn it’s ok to follow their own path, not the one that was determined and directed by centuries of family requirement. An interracial relationship, some LGBTQ mixed in. It was nice to see some characters who seemed to have it all were truly vulnerable and just needed someone to really listen to them. ( )

This was... fine? I stopped at 60% because life is too short for aggressively meh books. ( )

***WHY A MAYBE***
Fun fact: I adored boarding school stories as an 9 year old. My neighbour had so many of these kind of books (like:[b:Pitty naar kostschool Omnibus|9489393|Pitty naar kostschool Omnibus|Enid Blyton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327091635l/9489393._SY75_.jpg|52253619]) and she was kind enough to let me read them. I can still see them on their shelf in the attic and me sitting in the comfy chair reading.

Wait... Is this why I love Harry Potter? Not the dragons and magic but the boarding school aspect?

But... I... Ugh YA. Especially American YA.

But I've heard really good things about Sandhya Menon stories.