Unwanted Opinions of a YA Writer

I have written thirteen novels in the genres of YA fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary, and I still have no idea what I'm doing. I am a biology student and spend 6-8 hours of my day talking to flies, so don't take any advice from me.
Beastly - Alex Flinn As a retelling this was painfully literal, so much so that I half-expected the singing household items from the Disney version to pop up. A story like Beauty & the Beast in particular has so much metaphorical potential when placed into modern-day NYC, but instead the author played it very safe. The characters were not particularly nuanced or gripping and, while I don't even particularly like bad boy heroes, this one lost all of his edge and, along with it, anything that made the book stand out. Also I thought his constant obsessive thoughts about Lindy being "the one" to be a bit creepy and manipulative, and the way she ended up in his house was very contrived and--again--painfully literal to the original tale. I would have preferred a love story that felt more organic.