ARC Review: Ensnared by Rita Stradling

Ensnared
Author: Rita Stradling
Publication: Kindle Press (May 23, 2017)

Description: A Near Future Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Alainn’s father is not a bad man. He’s a genius and an inventor. When he’s hired to create the robot Rose, Alainn knows taking the money is a mistake.

Rose acts like a human. She looks exactly like Alainn. But, something in her comes out wrong.

To save her father from a five year prison sentence, Alainn takes Rose’s place. She says goodbye to the sun and goes to live in a tower no human is allowed to enter. She becomes the prisoner of a man no human is allowed to see.

Believing that a life of servitude lies ahead, Alainn finds a very different fate awaits her in the company of the strange, scarred recluse.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Alainn takes the place of a robot - Rose 76GF - that her inventor father has not yet perfected to keep her father out of prison for fraud. She finds herself locked in a high-tech tower controlled by an earlier version of the robot her father needs to perfect. The only other living inhabitant of the tower is Lorccan Garbhan who is a scarred recluse.

Though Alainn has fears about what Mr. Garbhan will want her to do, she learns that all he wants from her is someone to eat dinner with him. He is trying to become accustomed to having another person around him so that he can finally meet in person a woman he has been courting online.

Alainn has to make quite a few adjustments. Assuming she is a robot, she only gets food once a day but feels she can survive until Rose 76GF successfully executes her rescue. Living in the tower is hard for Alainn because she is used to the freedom she has working at a mountain ski resort.

Gradually Alainn and Lorccan get to to know each other as their time together expands from just dinner to meetings to play games and talk. Each day it seems that Lorccan is able to get a little closer to her. The two fall in love but Rose 76GF has other plans for the two of them.

This was an engaging story with well-developed characters in Alainn and Lorccan. It follows the basic plot outline of Beauty and the Beast but throw in an evil robot with a dastardly plot. I liked the world building. I love the relationship that grew between Alainn and Lorccan.

Favorite Quote:

She turned to see Rose standing at the window, watching her. Looking into Rose's face - her own face - Alainn knew three things: that she didn't trust that Rose would get her out, that she would go anyway, and she was probably making a huge mistake. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.