Beauty

Rating:
Summary: What a waste of money!
Review: As a recently diagnosed acromegalic I found the book extremely offensive. I may not look like the rest of the world but you would not recoil in horror if we should meet, as suggested by Ms. Wilson. This book was not researched as it should of been. Acromegaly is a serious disease with no easy answers and seldom a cure. It is something we deal with the rest of our lives. To be taken so lightly is an insult to those of us who suffer from this disease. I have bought my last book by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Thin plot needs work.
Review: Beauty is a novel that bores the reader to tears because the author tries so hard to make you care about these people. Alix and Lee are flat and not well developed. You were left wondering what they saw in each other and why you should care if they lived or died. On a more positive note, Beauty does have lovely descriptions of the winter cold and snow. The reader becomes engaged with Wilson's use of the color blue and of nature. If it were not for the picturesque setting, Beauty would be completely empty.

Rating:
Summary: Not the fairy tale you might expect
Review: I began this book believing I knew what was going to happen, and thinking it would be a nice, romantic mirror of the fairy tale I've loved since I was a child. Some elements mirror the classic tale - Lee Crompton, a reclusive author, has a disease that makes his face seemed deformed. Alix Miller is a talented young woman who strives to capture beauty in her paintings. The two meet "kind of" by accident - Lee tries to retain Alix's father to paint his portrait (I know - not something you'd think he'd be willing to do, what with his belief that he is utterly repulsive, but it is a "family tradition" that the Millers paint the Cromptons' portraits, and Lee plans to hide his portrait away for other generations to discover after he is gone), but Alex convinces his daughter, Alix, to go in his place (he thinks his daughter will do a better portrait than he could). Would you expect Alix and Lee to fall in love? (Yes?) Ok, but that's about where the mirrored fairy-tale elements end. What you wouldn't expect: the details and agony of Alix's father's debilitating illness, and how Lee helps; Lee's reaction to Alix's feelings for him; the details of both Alix's and Lee's work; the illustrations of the team that Alix and Lee make as friends, before either fully realizes how they feel about one another; the way the secondary characters, including Bad-dog, make the story fit together better, like the seemingly seamless mahogany banister that Alix inspects at Lee's house. Finally, the "beauty and the beast" fairy tale ended happily with a mutual profession of love, without letting anyone see what happened next. When you think this story has ended, it goes on. And the ending is nothing like what I expected...

Rating:
Summary: Debases Acromegalics
Review: I found this book to be a terribly debasing book for acromegalics. It takes a fairly rare disease and uses that in a thin plot. Acromegalics are neither beasts nor monsters. Lee, the portrayed 'beast' certainly had other options available to him besides radiation, namely surgery and drug therapies. Those are never mentioned and it leaves the reader to believe that there is no hope for anyone with the disease. True, it can be quite disfiguring. Rather than illuminating the disease as one of a host of ravaging pituitary diseases the author seems oblivious to that. The analogy to the beast is debasing and unnecessary. The disease leads to giantism if its onset is before puberty. If acquired after puberty the disease can lead to all sorts of conditions including cardiovascular diseases and colon cancer which are the leading causes of death among acromegalics. The ending of the book is ludicrous as the heroine if she can be called that dies in childbirth. SO, to me the book is not medically well researched, is a poor romance with a little sex thrown in. It does not go into great depth as to the 'art' of the heroine nor the 'writing' of the hero if he can be called that. It does little to develop Lee as he could have been. It is superficial in all aspects.

Rating:
Summary: Almost makes it
Review: I have known about this book for a few years now, but not until I discovered an old tape of a CBS movie called, "Beauty" did I bother to do research on Amazon to gather more information about the book.
I enjoyed the book, and I read the other comments reviewers made before I started writing mine. I was very distressed to read that some people were offended by the book, and those reviews really did make me think.
I enjoyed the shyness of the characters and their getting to know each other. I think that the book was very honest in its desciptions of how someone reacts to another who looks so different even though we all tell ourselves that we have better manners than to stare or be shocked.
I hated the ending and I don't know why Ms. Wilson felt the need to hurt the characters that way. I just don't get the trend of romance writers to write "down" endings. Is it to make the story be more realistic? Who cares? We aren't reading romances for the realism. We read them to renew our belief in ourselves and in love, and this book did a good job for me in that respect except for the ending.
I would still recommend this book, but like people have said previously, you can readily skip or ignore the last few pages. Just pretend that Lee and Alix are snuggled up in their home, sitting by the fire, enjoying each others company. It works for me.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully crafted modern fairy tale.
Review: I have never been happier that I decided, to go beyond the circle of authors I normally read, to try someone new! Susan Wilson created a story so finely crafted it is truly a work of art. I could truly see Lee & Alix as real people,living a very unique story.After finishing this novel it makes you want to look for the "beauty" in people instead of the "beast"

Rating:
Summary: An ending consistent with the characters/plot is crucial.
Review: I just started and finished Beauty yesterday. It was an intriquing read until the last 13 pages. It was then that the tenor and the narration of the book changed. A story that could have been romantic and uplifting, instead turned into a poorly written and maudlin tale in which the main characters suddenly lost their character, and the ending lost whatever significance the author had hoped to achieve

Rating:
Summary: A Good Story with Some Flaws!
Review: I listened to the audio cassette recording for Beauty by Susan Wilson, I bought it from a used book store because the back cover discription interested me and the reader of the audio interested me too and for the most part I actually liked listening to this story. I'm usually someone who doesn't like romance stories with unhappy endings and the last romance book on audio cassette that I listened to that had an unhappy ending like in Beauty I found depressing and though I wish that Beauty didn't have an unhappy ending, from reading these reviews before I listened to the story I knew what was going to happen and I was prepared for it. I liked Lee and Alix and I especially liked Lee and admired him but I can see why the reviewers who said that they or loved ones had Acromegaly were insulted by the authors discriptions of his appearance and I do think that some of her choice of words to describe him could have been toned down and I myself felt that she didnt need to write things like hideously ugly and I can definitely see why things like that insulted these reviewers and though for the most part I enjoyed this story it is things like that that keep it from getting 5 stars but there are good things in this story that make it worth 3 to 4 stars but I think I will give it 4 stars just for how much I liked the characters of Lee and Alix. BTW: The audio cassette was mostly read by Polly Draper who some reviewers might remember as Ellyn from a TV show called Thirtysomething. She did a pretty good reading but the last part of the audio is read by a man named Stefan Rudnicki. Anyway, I have decided that even with it's flaws that this audio book is a keeper and since it is an abridged recording I'm thinking of when I get back to the used book store of looking to see if they have the paperback book for Beauty. BTW: This audiobook recording is abridged and not unabridged as listed. Just thought I should mention that just in case someone is thinking of buying this audiobook version thinking that they are getting the whole complete book on audio.

Rating:
Summary: True Beauty
Review: I love all retellings of Beauty and the Beast and admit to being addicted, so of course I had to read this modern version. It was exactly the type of book I dream of writing. You fall in love with Lee along with Alix. You begin to hate Mark. The characters are all so real, you can feel their pain with them. I loved this book so much, and it is something any fan of B&TB should definitley read! The only sore spot is the ending. I really don't see why Wilson chose to do what she did, but the book is still very beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly beautiful
Review: I loved this beautifully written "reality" romance. Today's romance novels focus too much on external beauty and not enough on internal beauty. I've been reading romance novels for the past 20 years and frankly I'm getting bored with the too perfect babes and hunks. Here is a novel filled with emotion, strong characters and real issues. It doesn't have the typical romance "happy ending," but the story will stay with you forever and you'll be glad you read it. I recommend Hawkes Cove as well.