I really enjoyed "Beauty," McKinley's first re-telling of the fairytale, and was looking forward to reading "Rose Daughter." I ended up being kind of disappointed, however.

The book starts out great with descriptions of Beauty's young life and progresses until she's older. Her sisters are also described in great detail...and they're not just sappy, goody-goody characters, either. After their father's business plummets and the family is forced to move to Rose Cottage, the story continues to be entertaining as their new life is surrounded in mystery and magic (or the lack of).

However, after this the story sort of loses its appeal. There are way too many descriptions of plants...not being a gardener, I guess maybe I don't appreciate them as much as Beauty does. Once she actually goes to live with the Beast, McKinley spends more time discussing Beauty's roses, her glasshouse, the enchanted castle, and her animal friends. The relationship between Beauty and her Beast is never fully developed.

The story also gets a little weird as there is so much about a whole bunch of mysterious curses, Beauty's enchanted dreams, and a magic old woman thrown in. I was also not satisfied by the ending.

This book was an interesting take on my favorite fairytale, but I really prefer "Beauty" over it. However I would still recommend reading it if you are a Robin McKinley fan.

I read Beauty first then this book. I absolutely loved it. I would recommend it to people of all ages. I also recently read The Wand in the Word--a book that contains interviews with various fantasy writers. Ms. McKinley isn't featured in there but one of the authors was inspired by Beauty. So I thought I'd buy it. Now I'm hooked on Robin McKinley.
I hope you read her books too!