This is supposed to be McKinley's more considered and mature take on the Beauty and the Beast story, but I think it's clearly lacking something poignant that Beauty captured perfectly. I do like the characters of the sisters, and the way they build their new lives entirely on their own, without the help of any men. But I don't buy that the kind of love this story requires can be built in a week (even an enchanted week), most of which Beauty spends gardening; I think the story of exactly who the Beast is and how he became that way is extremely murky and unconvincing; and there's way too much minutia about growing roses -- and that's even before we get to the part about unicorn dung compost. ( )

I didn't like this as much as McKinley's Beauty, her earlier retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale. But she ended Rose Daughter as I always wanted this tale to end. ( )

Summary: In this retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, Beauty is the youngest of three daughters who move with their father into a small cottage surrounded by roses. When their father gets lost in a blizzard and takes shelter in a mysterious castle, the Beast that lives there demands that his daughter return to the castle in exchange for the rose that the father inadvertantly stole. Because the Beast's roses are dying, and it appears that only Beauty can save the roses - and thereby the Beast.

Review: I had a serious case of mistaken identity for the first twenty pages or so of this book. I read McKinley's retelling of "Beauty and the Beast", Beauty, about a year ago, and clearly she wasn't just going to tell the same story over again, so I was under the impression that Rose Daughter was a sequel - presumably following the story of Beauty's daughter. Wrong! So wrong! Rose Daughter really is just another retelling, with some elements obviously reworked, but following the same basic story lines we all already know.

I made this point in my review of Beauty, but I think there's a distinction to be made between retellings of fairy tales, and reinterpretations of fairy tales. Rose Daughter is clearly the former, but I think I much prefer the latter - if I'm going to read a story I know by heart, there needs to be some unique twist, some new perspective, some kind of hook to catch my attention (done effectively with the Beauty and the Beast tale in Mercedes Lackey's The Fire Rose). In Rose Daughter, however, the only distinguishing feature for most of the book is a preponderance of roses, and rose petals, and rose interior decorating, and rose smell, and rose gardening, ad nauseum.

The writing is lush and descriptive, and (if you'll pardon the somewhat obvious pun) enchanting - it effectively put me into the dream-like feeling of being in a darkly magical castle. Unfortunately, all of that lush description is gets somewhat wearing after a while. Beauty is alone with the invisible magic "helpers" for most of the story, so there is little dialogue in most chapters, and we all know how the basic thread of the story runs, so there's not enough action to break up yet more paragraphs about the scent of roses. I wasn't particularly interested or involved with any of the characters either, so sadly I wound up skimming large swaths of description. Because the roses? Are symbolic roses. And are described at great lengths. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Fans of McKinley's prose style will probably have a different reaction, but there wasn't enough that was new here to hold my attention through all of the rose talk. ( )

I like her first retelling of Beauty and the Beast better, but this one is worthy in its own right. Like the book. ( )

Basic Reason for Beginning: The first book I read by McKinley was Deerskin and while I liked the story, I had an enormous difficulty with the prose. Convinced that this was an issue with my personality, not the writing, I wanted to give another book by her a chance. I forgot why exactly I picked this one, though.
Basic Reason for Finishing: Reading fodder for on the train! And I seem to be fond of fairytale retellings.

Full review here. ( )