Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 Just outside Aspen, Colorado, nestled between the sentinel mountains and an inkblot lake, lies St. Rosetta's International Academy. Its sweeping spires, creeping ivy, and timeworn brick turrets often lead visitors to remark that it looks like a venerable castle from an old European city. The Academy would be Princess Jaya Rao's home for the next year. While she was there, Jaya had one mission: break an English nobleman's heart. But first she had to fall in love with him. Excerpted from Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
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In this uneven "Beauty and the Beast" retelling from Menon (When Dimple Met Rishi), Princess Jaya Rao is the heiress to an old Indian kingdom, and though India is now a democracy, she still has to act the part. This means doing her duty (acting "benevolent, firm, and fair"), aspiring to perfection, and looking after her free-spirited younger sister, Isha. Isha's appearance in the tabloids is why, in Jaya's senior year, they've been sent to St. Rosetta's International Academy, a fancy boarding school in the Colorado mountains where the rich stash children who they want out of the public eye. Jaya has reconciled herself to it, though: Grey Emerson, scion of the English family that her own has feuded with over a cursed ruby for generations, also attends there. The plan is to break his heart as payback for his allegedly leaking a photo of Isha to the press. Seventeen-year-old Beast stand-in Grey is lonely, brooding, and, "tainted" by the curse, sure he can't be with people. As if their family connection isn't enough, Grey and Jaya's tempestuous relationship becomes entangled with other school dramas. En route to the inevitable happy ending, readers may tire of repeated descriptions that underline not only the characters' wealth and family connections but also their emotional states, which are often described, and then announced, within the protagonists' alternating first-person narratives. Ages 12--up. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. (Feb.) |
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Though India is a democracy now, Jaya Rao of the Imperial House of Mysuru is still a princess, and she understands the expectations. At the top of the list is upholding her family's honor, which is why she's starting at St. Rosetta's International Academy, an elite boarding school, alongside her little sister, Isha. Also at the academy is Grey Emerson, a British aristocrat from the family of the Raos' biggest rivals. It's a deep rivalry: in fact, Grey believes he was cursed by Jaya's ancestor to die before his eighteenth birthday. As a result, he's angry, isolating himself from his classmates. But Jaya is determined to get her revenge on the Emersons, who recently targeted Isha in a public attack: she plans to make Grey fall in love with her, then break his heart. This lightly fantastical spin on Beauty and the Beast works in plenty of crowd-pleasing elements an enemies-to-lovers romance, a boarding-school setting, an ebullient supporting cast. Fans of Menon's frothy, contemporary rom-coms will be excited for this venture into new territory. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Menon's debut, When Dimple Met Rishi (2017), was a New York Times best-seller, and its companion novels have been hotly anticipated. A national media campaign will get her newest into eager hands.--Maggie Reagan Copyright 2020 Booklist |
Reseña de Kirkus
Rajkumari Jaya Rao has one goal during her time at St. Rosetta's International Academy: to take revenge by breaking the heart of English aristocrat Grey Emerson. Indian princesses Jaya Rao and her sister, Isha, begin their senior and sophomore years, respectively, at St. Rosetta's near Aspen, Colorado, a school that has a reputation for well-kept secrets. The Emersons and Raos have had a feud for generations over a ruby that once belonged to the Raos and was stolen by the Emersons in the days of British colonialism. Now Jaya has discovered that the Emersons have dragged her little sister into the feud, and she will not rest until she has gotten her revenge. On a mission to break Grey's heart, Jaya finds to her surprise that there is more to him than she thought. Grey, on the other hand, has lived as a recluse thanks to Jaya's great-great-grandmother's curse that makes his family fear he will die at age 18. Seeing Jaya at St. Rosetta's wearing a shining ruby pendant fills him with terror. The story is told from the perspectives of both Jaya and Grey. Readers will empathize with both of them, although their long internal monologues may cause their attention to waver at times. Grey is white, and there is diversity among the secondary characters.A lukewarm retelling of "Beauty and the Beast." (map) (Romance. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission. |