And here it is, another Beauty and the Beast retelling that stole my heart... The story of Isra and Gem is a very cute, slow burning romance that also contains very interesting, extraordinary sci-fi and especially fantasy elements. Blind seventeen-year-old Isra is the future queen in the city of Yuan which is protected by a dome from the desert outside, but to keep that protection up every once in a while the current queen must be sacrificed to the roses containing the dark magic that feeds and isolates the city. Isra, however, will find out that nothing in Yuan is as she has been raised to believe and is the first to ever question the way things work. Outside the city in the rough and cruel desert, the so-called Monstrous people live in starvation and hopelessness being banished from the city to their mutations giving them claws and a wild, uncivilized behaviour - or so has Isra always believed. Bu then, one day, one of the Monstrous, Gem, is capture and being held Isra's prisoner. Isra's hope to find a cure to the minor mutations she knows her and a few other citizens have brings her and Gem together. The chemistry between Isra and Gem is so unbelievably touching to me and feels so real. They start they work together being rather hateful towards each other and totally blinded by the stereo types their people have held against each other for centuries. It's amazing that it really takes both a lot of time and a huge amount of consideration for the two of them to let go of these stereo types and slowly but gradually get to know the other one. I like the slow pace of that development that is kept up for quite a time, but then there's this moment that sort of screws the slow pace up and from then on, I literally couldn't put the novel down any longer. Unfortunately, though, it is not like Isra and Gem had all the time in the world to just spend time with each other. Isra's advisor Junjie and his son Bo, who wants to marry her, feel like Gem is a threat to the city and would love to dispose of him, while they also want to keep Isra from ruling her city. They are both awesome villainous characters and naturally add a lot of tension to the story, as well as being an obstacle to everything Isra and Gem are trying to do. The cast of side characters is completed by Needle, Isra's silent maid, whose loyalty and help are both essential and heart warming. The ending is fantastic, too. Everything comes crashing down - in the literal sense, actually - and not only Isra's and Gem's lives are at stake, but moreover the one of both their people. Because I can't not include it, I will also mention the absolutely perfect prologue and epilogue the author has enriched the story with. They are both magical and very fairy-tale-ish. My conclusion is: I want everyone to read this book. I think fairy tales can warm up everyone's heart and since this novel has so many other awesome aspects about it, it just adds up to a magical and deeply touching, whereas also thrilling, reading experience I would want nobody to miss.