My sister told me about this book when we were on vacation. It sounded like a good time, and I dig fairy tale retellings, so I gave it a shot.
I bought it, bought it, bought it... and then our Bad Guy surfaces. Okay, Mercedes Lackey, I thought, I still buy it. But she didn't believe me. Instead, she started poking me in the side and going, "psst. I just really wanted to make sure you understood that this is a really awful person. Seriously, he's like a Really Bad Guy."
"Mercedes. Chill. I get it."
"No, I don't think you understand. He's involved in
prostitution."
"Gotcha. And here I just thought he was kind of a dick. And lazy. And probably a sexual predator."
"But you don't understand! He's not just into prostitution, he's into abusing women sold into prostitution! Like, he totally pays for the pleasure of being cruel to them!"
"... yeah. Remember how this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast? Are you ever going to get back to that?"
"
Forced virginal prostitute abuse!"
"Cheers, lady. I'm going to go read some slightly more substantial science fiction now."
And that was my experience with this book.