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Chargement... Beauty, Inc. (Pennymaker Tales Book 3) (2016)par Tara Lain
Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  Penumbra1 | Oct 11, 2022 |  aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la sériePennymaker Tales (3)
Les contes de Pennymaker, numéro hors série La beauté se limite-t-elle À notre apparence extérieure ? Le docteur Robert Belleterre, surnommé Belle, a trois grandes passions dans la vie: les plantes, sa meilleure amie, Judy, et son "bébé" un projet de nouvelle crème pour le visage qu'il a mis au point afin d'aider au développement du petit commerce de cosmétiques de son père. Malheureusement pour lui, son père est un alcoolique notoire, accro aux jeux, et après une fatidique partie de poker durant laquelle il a parié son propre fils, Belle se retrouve À la merci de Magnus Strong, le PDG de Beauty Inc., la plus grande société de cosmétiques des états-Unis. Magnus Strong est réputé pour son apparence effroyable et son visage couvert de cicatrices, plus proche de la bète que de l'homme. Du jour au lendemain, Belle est arraché À sa propre vie, et enfermé dans le gigantesque appartement d'un certain monsieur Pennymaker, un endroit À la décoration ahurissante. Très vite, et malgré lui, Belle développe une attirance incontrôlable pour le charismatique Magnus Strong. Révolté par ses propres sentiments, il les refoule avec force, mais plus le temps passe, et plus la bonté et l'humilité de Magnus lui font oublier son terrible visage. Et lorsque la famille de Belle décide contre toute attente de venir mettre son nez dans cette affaire, le destin se retourne contre lui et menace de faire voler en éclats le bonheur fragile qu'il a cousu avec sa tendre bète... Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires 
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyÉvaluationMoyenne: (4)
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Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairytale so it’s no wonder that I enjoyed this story. One thing I liked about it was the author crossed over into using the evil step-mother and step-sisters from Cinderella, but instead of using females, chose male characters. The father had emotional problems and the brothers were moochers and self-absorbed. The side characters were fun and Mr. Pennymaker is back, magically assisting in the background and helping the characters find answers to their problems by asking the right questions.
First the cover. It's a new version for this edition. The cover model definitely is lovely enough to be Belle. However, Belle distinctly has very white-blond hair and this model has brown hair. It's a shame the graphic artist couldn't make the model more closely resemble the main character. The first edition model definitely looked more like Belle because of the hair coloring than this one does.
The apartment building where Belle lived was vivid; I had no trouble picturing it with its lush gardens, and the other residents living as one big happy family.
As to the characters, Belle is a twenty-two year old scientist in charge of formulas and packaging at his father’s company. Magnus is the mysterious and misunderstood CEO of Beauty, Inc. Belle’s father is an alcoholic and gambler and loses Belle in a poker game to Magnus. Outraged, Belle moves to New York to work for Beauty, Inc., but he says he’ll refuse to help a competitor. He soon finds out that Magnus may not be at all like he imagined. For one, he’s very attracted to Magnus, and that’s Belle’s conflict. Magnus on the other hand doesn’t believe anyone could be attracted to him because of his scared face.
I have a few issues with Belle’s behavior. One Belle’s father, during the poker game, tells Magnus, that Belle is shy. Belle is not shy at all. He just doesn’t trust or like people. For a young man, he tends to be suspicious. The other, he is also immature. There is more than one place in the story where Belle is mad at Magnus and thinks to himself ‘Magnus’s ugly face.’ This is after he has already told Magnus that he thinks Magnus is amazing. Magnus has been hurt a lot, so now Magnus is starting to trust Belle. Can you imagine how Magnus would feel if every time Belle got angry he’d think ‘ugly’ and one day it slipped out? The fact that those lines were written in the book I found disturbing, especially since Belle never did any soul-searching on why he thought those mean things just because he wasn’t getting his way or misunderstood something. In the beginning I liked Belle, but as the story continued, I thought he was too immature and needed to grow a bit before he and Magnus got together, since Magnus had some issues to get over and Belle was too selfish.
The other issue I had with this story was a writing/grammar one. I noticed several sentences throughout the book, where it seemed that the sentences should have been in italics as a thought by a character. Because the sentence wasn’t in italics, it came across as an odd tense change. The story is in third person and suddenly switched to second or first. I’m hoping this wasn’t the author’s intention, because it reads oddly if it is.
One thing that bothers me in stories is inconsistencies. There's the bathroom scene. I'm not worried about the logistics. What I noticed immediately is when Belle left the bathroom there was no mention of him putting his sock or shoe back on. Did he go back into the dining room without them? Quite a few pages later it's mentioned that Magnus had the sock. Incompleteness tosses me out of a story and I'm left wondering what happened and why the author or editor didn't fix it.
I also have some questions about some things that weren’t clarified. If you read the book, you’ll understand what I mean by, “Why, Mexico?” There’s no explanation in the story of why Mexico. If Magnus is that rich, he could go to Los Angeles to find what he wanted or even New York or any other metropolitan area with highly qualified people. But Mexico? I found that to be too much manufactured drama even for a fairytale.
Overall, I enjoyed this variation of Beauty and the Beast. However, I wish Belle had grown more emotionally by the end of the story and had more introspection about his inner nastiness to use the words ‘ugly’ towards Magnus when Magnus had always treated Belle kindly. Also, the tense changes were odd and I hope they are fixed in another edition.
I want to give Beauty, Inc. 3.5 stars, but I’m giving it 4 Stars because the remake was good, I really liked Magnus, Mr. Pennymaker, and the apartment and setting.
I received this book from the author for an honest and unbiased opinion. (