The Beast and the Bethany: Revenge of the Beast 

by Jack Meggitt-Phillips

I loved The Beast and the Bethany so was overjoyed to get the chance to join the blog tour for the sequel!

Book Summary

Once upon a very badly behaved time, 511-year-old Ebenezer kept a beast in his attic. He would feed the beast all manner of objects and creatures and in return the beast would vomit him up expensive presents. But then the Bethany arrived.

Now notorious prankster Bethany, along with her new feathery friend Claudette, is determined that she and Ebenezer are going to de-beast their lives and Do Good. But Bethany finds that being a former prankster makes it hard to get taken on for voluntary work. And Ebenezer secretly misses the beast’s vomity gifts. And neither of them are all that sure what “good people” do anyway.

Then there’s Claudette, who’s not been feeling herself recently. Has she eaten something that has disagreed with her?

Uh oh, is the Beast back??? 

At first it seems that Bethany is worse than ever, but then she and Ebenezer decide to attempt some do-gooding to change everyone's opinion of them. However, Ebenezer is distracted and worried about the mysterious Division, who were after him and the Beast many, many years ago. On top of all this, it looks like Bethany might actually have met someone worse than her, Gloria is the new terror of the orphanage. And what's going on with poor Claudette? She's not quite acting her usual sweet self. 

There are loads of laugh-out-loud funny sections, particularly when Ebenezer and Bethany try to learn how to be good. As you can imagine, it does not quite go to plan. The story of how Ebenezer met the Beast, back when he was actually just a young, innocent boy, finally gets revealed. You've got to feel sorry for Ebenezer, who can blame him for turning out as he did with the Beast's influence all those hundreds of years. Just like in book one, there are plenty of wonderful illustrations throughout the book, just watch out for the slime!

I thought this book really deserved its own special cocktail so I made a Beastly Purple Lemonade.

Shake up 40ml Blue Curacao, 20ml Chambord, 20ml Aperol and 40ml lemon juice with ice. Pour into a glass over ice and top up with tonic water. I also stirred in some pink shimmer to make it look all swirly. This actually turned out quite a bit sweeter than I was expecting but very delicious and refreshing. I'm hoping that if I throw a few of these cocktails at the Beast, then he won't eat me!