Rating: 
Summary: It's where the roses are at
Review: This book is another Beauty and the Beast retelling by Robin McKinley. Although I liked Beauty's character better in McKinley's first novel I prefer this book to the original. Both books are wonderful but the plot and most of the characters are far more fleshed out in this book. Beauty's sisters have a lot of personality compared to the first book, when they were just nice and pretty. I also like the Beast better. His history is interesting and he even has a cute little hobby. The plot focuses on the magic as much at if focuses on the characters and the romance which makes for much more exciting reading than the original. I really love the ending of this book for a change. The one thing that's always annoyed me about the Beauty and the Beast tale is the ending but that's all I'm going to say about that. I don't want to give the ending away. I'm sure this is a book I'm going to read many times. Buy this book people!
Rating: 
Summary: Still trying to finish it three years later!
Review: I'm very disappointed with Rose Daughter. It's "visually" stunning, but I find myself tripping over the dense imagry McKinley drips from every sentence. "Beauty" is my favorite book, and I'd hoped "Rose Daughter" could measure up. Three years later, I'm still trying to finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Fantatically written, but the heart of the classic is gone
Review: I love the classic story of Beauty and the Beast. McKinley's Beauty was great. Rose Daughter is so interesting to read and her descriptions are so beautiful and vivid it was difficult to put down. Yet the characters were two dimensional and the love story was almost nonexistant, you didn't see Beauty grow to love the Beast. Yes, the artistic and poetic aspects of the book were nice but the spirit of the story was lost when too many other details were mixed in.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written, But Adds Little to The Tale
Review: Robin Mckinley's Rose Daughter goes to great lengths to establish a setting for the tale it is based on, but it lacks a degree of fresh insight and depth needed to make the book truly great.Based on The French Fairy Tale of Beauty and The Beast, Rose Daughter follows the struggle of Beauty, her three sisters and her merchant father, from wealth to finincial ruin to the courtship of the Beast. Mckinley handles the story with a grace that belies true talent, and she creates a magical world full of detail and imagination that will entertain readers throughout the book. But while Mckinley pays special attention to lavishness of setting, and goes to great lengths to give Beast a backstory and Beauty a family, she seems outright negligent on other aspects of storytelling. Her novel ends abruptly, as though she simply decided she'd had enough, and she seems uninterested in exploring what happens after the traditional fairy tale ends. The novel's supposed "allegorical resonances" ring hollow, and in my mind it fails to address some of the more complex process of learning to love a beast. McKinley seems to preoccupied with detail to address other areas of the narrative. All in All, Mckinley has crafted an extraordinarily well-written book filled with imagination and delightful prose. It's well worth reading for those who simply wish to immerse themselves in a grand fantasy world and see Beauty and the Beast in far more detail than previously imagined. But for those looking to see a deeper approach that develops characters and conflict in a way the original tale never did, this book falls short of a solid delivery. Rose Daughter is an enjoyable book, but not an earth-shaking one.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutly Beautiful!
Review: I had picked this book up first when I was in 3rd grade at my school's library. I had been peering at the shelves and to be honost, the cover was what made me intrested. So, I tried to read all of it (and in my fantasies, I thought I could at the time) but I put it back later, the first chapter burned into my mind. Later, in 6th grade, I was at a book fair and I found the same author- Robin McKinley- in SPINDLE'S END. Halfway into that book, I realized it was the same author. A few weeks later, I went to a book store and found ROSE DAUGHTER, which made my heart soar. The profound lovce story is complex and charming.
Beauty is one of the three lovely daughters in her home. Her sisters are as kind and more or less, as talented. One of Beauty's sisters can train horses and the other is intelligent with her tongue. Beauty can do nothing but make the finest roses in her mother's garden. One day, their father is sorrow-struck when his wife dies and they loose their income. But the mother's will states that they have a small cottage- Rose Cottage. So they leave to that home. Biut when their father gets lost in a wood and comes to the haven of a stranger, he takes a rose and is met by the beast. Beauty feels it is her fault and gladly takes the dying place of her father. Soon, the beast and Beauty befriend each other, but Beauty starts to be home-sick. Beast lets her leave, telling her to visit and if she doesn't, he will die. But something detains her and when she returns, the beast is near death. She crys out to him and he gets better and comes wih him home and it ends happily.
This story is portrayed wonderfully and the nature descriptions are astounding. Robin McKinley does it yet again....
Rating:
Summary: A revision of a classic.
Review: I read "Beauty" when I was about thirteen and I absolutely loved it! I was thrilled when I found out that Robin McKinley had written a book that was elaborating on the same story. It's impossible for me to compare the two. They have similar beginnings but "Rose Daughter" takes a slightly different turn. It's a little darker and more mature. Also, it ends with an interesting twist. I'm glad I read this book because now I have two different perspectives of one of my favorite fairy tales!
Rating:
Summary: Just ok
Review: This was an ok book (please see title!) and I don't mean to say that is sucks by only giving it three stars, it was an ok book. Beauty was sensitive and caring, just like she should be, but she had this passion for the roses which really got to me. Sure she can like roses, but I think Robin McKinley went a little overboad on the topic. Also, the Beast stayed a Beast! That was just wrong! The Beast can't stay a Beast because that ruins the entire story! Sorry if I ruined anything for people out there, but I really didn't like that part. I personally liked McKinley's other book, Beauty, better.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing! Intriguing
Review: This has to be one of Mckinelys best. I read her first beauty and the beast but this is the superior by far. Its totally in depth. This is a book for the type of people who like intricite characters not superficial. All her books are great. Woman really are protrayed as the superior beings. My favorite part is when the beast stays the beast. I always thought that was the best!
Rating:
Summary: Different in a good way
Review: This book in my opinion was great, but not what I expected. This was the 4th Mckinley book I read (Spindle's End, The Hero and the Crown, and the Blue Sword) and I was surprised at how frail this heroine was. There was no real adventure in this book and only a few places to go. The author however, has done a wonderful job of retelling what I always thought was a boring fairy tale. Compared to her earlier book, Beauty, this book was unusually dull. Beauty and Rose Daughter both have a lot of the same details. I think Robin should have cut the length of this book for reading some of it was a real drag. But the interesting parts were capturing. I especially loved the ending because it isn't the one you expected and not one you are happy with but makes the book less of a fairy tale. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous, rich, engaging
Review: I found this a very enjoyable book and one I return to when I am in a contemplative mood. The aspect a former reviewer mentioned hating, the fact that the Beast stays a Beast at the end, was one of my favorite aspects of the book. It was always a pet peeve of mine that the story of Beauty and the Beast contradicts itself. I feel that having the beast turn into a handsome prince at the end negates the notion that people should be loved for what's inside, not their appearance. I was so happy when Robin McKinley broke this trend and gave the book what was, in my opinion, a better ending.
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