Synopsis:
At Fairview-Teller High, light mixes with dark. Good with evil. And heroes with villains. But there’s a reason students call it Fairy Tale High. They’ll get their happily ever after– even if they have to fight for it.
Popular girl Jessa is caught off guard when the school bad boy—the guy she hates—moves into her house temporarily.
Not knowing how her friends, or the rest of the school, will react, she keeps her new housemate a secret.
Though Jessa loathes Adam for humiliating her at school last year, the more they’re around each other, the more her hatred starts to wane.
And when Adam kisses her?
She doesn’t hate it—or him.
But it does ruin everything.
Review:
I went into Protect Me Not expecting it to be a fantasy purely based on the start of the synopsis, but that isn’t the case. It’s a modern-day loose retelling of both Beauty and the Beast and apparently Aladdin – I didn’t get Aladdin vibes from this story, but the synopsis mentions it.
Saying this, I actually really enjoyed this book. Danielle Keil is becoming a favourite of mine, her books are super easy to read, the pacing has always been good so far and they’re usually quick reads.
I’m usually more of a fantasy-style retelling, but this one was interesting. The references were often very subtle with a few very obvious ones such as a character called Chip and how everyone calls Adam ‘the Beast’. The part that I found most interesting was that Belle was Adam’s best friend and not the love interest, that probably would have been a bit too on the nose for this style of story, so I love that this was done in this way.
I’ll admit that some moments were a little bit cringeworthy such as Jessa and her friends calling themselves ‘the Queens’ but I’ve come to expect some cringe in high school romance books.
The dynamic of this school was very strange. Is there actually a hierarchy in American high schools? I feel like British secondary schools don’t have ‘the popular kids’ in quite the same way, at least not in my experience.
Protect Me Not deals with some very serious topics, but they are handled fairly well. A couple of plot points don’t come to a satisfying conclusion, mostly Adam and his dad (no spoilers) but I’ll forgive it as that’s not what this book is about.
If you are looking for a subtle retelling with a hate to lovers plot I’d recommend this book. It’s definitely not the most amazing book I’ve ever read, but it is a good read.
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