C. M. Rosens

I’m currently revising my own darker, moderately spicy take on Beauty and the Beast, which has grown from novella to short novel, so I thought I would do an appreciation post for all the retellings and versions of it!

That led me to thinking I could do a series of blog posts on this tale, which I’ve started here with some film versions I really like, and why I love the story despite its problematic elements.

I’ve already posted about the original tale, links to criticism of the 2016 film and Disney versions in general, and some retelling inspiration ideas here.

This post is cross-posted from my newsletter, and it’s all about YOUR recommendations for books that reimagine or retell the classic story, and I’ve done my best to round up all the recs and include them here! (Spot the obligatory Welsh-set one…)

My Bsky post is here with all the replies so far: https://bsky.app/profile/cmrosens.substack.com/post/3kgnwayx7kf2y

People recommended a mix of trad, indie/self pubbed work, short stories and novels, and I’m going to start off with a note on my own TBR and some books that I’d like to highlight.

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On My TBR

Brendan & the Beast by Fox Beckman – Brendan just wants to save his sister. Their fool of a father promised her to some “fearsome beast” in a magic castle, but since there’s no such thing as magic or talking beasts, Brendan sets off to see this strange man for himself. Surely he’ll be reasonable.

Beast has been trapped for so long that he’s nearly given up all hope of ever undoing his curse. So when an unwelcome guest turns his life upside down, Beast can’t get rid of him soon enough. Too bad the castle has other ideas.

A spellbinding tale of magic, wit, and slow-burn passion, Brendan & the Beast is an M/M fairy tale that celebrates the redeeming power of love—and more importantly, self-acceptance.

Spotted on this list of new queer books, this one’s gone on my TBR. Looks like it’s YA so maybe one for my goddaughter but I’ll read it as well/first.

The Beauty of Curses: A Queer Fairytale Romance by Ilene Cavti – When tragedy strikes Belita’s family, she becomes an unwilling captive in the clutches of a mysterious beast famous for inspiring terror. To her surprise, her imprisonment takes an unexpected turn when she is set to work translating ancient texts amid the stone walls of the formidable castle.

As Belita delves into the mysterious depths of the texts, the daunting reality of the beast’s predicament becomes apparent. Decades of solitude and neglect have chiseled away its once-beating heart, leaving behind a husk hardened by bitterness. With time slipping away, can Belita’s tenacity break through the walls of the beast’s pain and provide the healing they both desperately need?

The Beauty of Curses is a F/nonbinary novella-length fairytale featuring a beautiful library and the redemptive power of love.

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani – I may get this for my godkids, but also it looks cute and I like fairytale retellings just because.

You think you know these stories, don’t you?

You are wrong.

You don’t know them at all.

Twelve tales, twelve dangerous tales of mystery, magic, and rebellious hearts. Each twists like a spindle to reveal truths full of warning and triumph, truths that capture hearts long kept tame and set them free, truths that explore life . . . and death.

A prince has a surprising awakening . . .                           

A beauty fights like a beast . . .

A boy refuses to become prey . . .

A path to happiness is lost. . . . then found again.

New York Times bestselling author Soman Chainani respins old stories into fresh fairy tales for a new era and creates a world like no other. These stories know you. They understand you. They reflect you. They are tales for our times. So read on, if you dare. 

The Story of the Hundred Promises by Neil Cochrane – A loose retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” that centers queer and trans characters

Trans sailor Darragh Thorn has made a comfortable life for himself among people who love and accept him. Ten years after his exile from home, though, his sister asks him to reconcile with their ailing father. Determined to resolve his feelings rather than just survive them, Darragh sets off on a quest to find the one person who can heal a half-dead man: the mysterious enchanter who once gave him the magic he needed to become his true self. But so far as anyone knows, no one but Darragh has seen the enchanter for a century, and the fairy tales that survive about em give more cause for fear than hope.

In lush and evocative prose, and populated with magical trees and a wise fox, The Story of the Hundred Promises is a big-hearted fantasy suffused with queer optimism.

Kehwu and Jata by Yasmine Seidu – a short 16pg eBook version of the tale that is available on Amazon, and based in Ghana, West Africa. Bite size!

I’m putting some of the recs below on my TBR too.

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My Recs… Some BatB Adjacent

Mine first (the most recent thing I’ve read that I think does fall into the themes), playscript first, then novels/novellas/shorts:

Playscript

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1956) by Nicholas Stuart Grey (author, actor, cat enthusiast and trans man) is a charming play for kiddies in which a prince shows up at a wizard’s house, threatens to break his nephew’s neck and crush him with his boot (the wizard’s nephew is a small dragon called Mikey, let’s not question this part) and is turned into a Beast and cursed to only have shadow-servants who cannot talk (because they are literally shadows), but only for 20 years. Except the wizard doesn’t set an alarm or anything to remind him that he’s done this.

Fast-forward FIVE HUNDRED YEARS and the wizard has totally forgotten about the Prince, and then when he does remember, the Beast is so traumatised and isolated he has forgotten he was ever human to begin with. This is where the very competent and capable Jane (also known as ‘Beauty’) comes in. Jane, the youngest daughter of the wizard’s friend, is used to keeping her family in line and taking people in hand, so off she goes and sorts him out despite his multiple death threats, and manages to also sort out the unruly dragon Mikey as well, who finally learns to fly.

It’s essentially a tale about how you can traumatise and damage people completely by accident, and make them a whole lot worse than you intended to. For kids.

Prose

The Veiled Bride by Elizabeth Bailey (1999) is not a rec, more a confession that when I was about 14, I stole my great-grandmother’s copy of this book and read it, because I was madly in love with the Phantom of the Opera (I’d been taken to see the musical), and Nana said it was sort of like that but he got a HEA like BATB. She should have known better than to describe it like that and then say “it’s too old for you”.

Anyway, I took it, read it, fell in love with Anton, Lord Raith (obviously, this was in my pre-Wide Sargasso Sea era so I still fancied Rochester, and Anton was basically Rochester but a bit less shitty), discovered people WROTE SEX SCENES, took it to school, and passed it around the bus to show everyone. I was really popular that whole day and the lads all came up to me to ask if I had “that book” in my bag, and was it true what people on my bus said, and could they please read those pages if it was. People had memorised the page numbers to ask me. Just to see it. You know. And I was like, idk man, have you got 20p? [That was 2 whole Freddos back then.] Look, it was the Valleys, there wasn’t much else to do except various chapel youth groups and getting your drugs off the bloke at the bandstand in the park.

Anyway, Nana wasn’t happy I’d nicked her book as she’d been looking for it all day, and I wasn’t allowed to take it to school again, but whatever, I got some loose change and a bit of fleeting popularity, and whenever I think of BATB themes and how they show up in Regency Romance, I think fondly of The Veiled Bride.

(Another reason this isn’t really a rec is that it also has the cock tapping at the hymen trope, so I really thought that’s what happened until I was much older. I’d need to re-read it as an adult to see if it’s actually any good, but I’ll always have the nostalgia.)

This one, which is VERY VERY adjacent, I’m counting purely for the enchanted, cursed castle in the forest and the beastly goings-on within, although the book is not actually a BatB tale in the purest/purist sense. It is Jelena Dunato’s DARK WOODS, DEEP WATER. Inspired by the folklore and history of the Eastern Adriatic, this book has memorable characters, intertwining POVs, a non-linear narrative, and has at its core a sense of grief and loss. I enjoyed this a lot too.

In the depths of a remote forest, an enchanted castle preys on unwary travellers. The servants of the Goddess Morana sacrifice to their dark mistress every soul who crosses its threshold. One terrible night, three people who should never have met find themselves trapped there: a spoiled lady escaping an unwanted marriage, an aging warrior-prince on a deadly mission, and a resourceful rogue caught up in a botched heist. As their destinies entwine and the dawn approaches, the solution to the castle’s riddle becomes clear: if they want to escape, one of them must die.

A dark fantasy tale inspired by Slavic folklore, Dark Woods, Deep Water is the debut novel by Croatian author Jelena Dunato. Set in an intricately imagined world that staggers the line between fairytale and brutality, this novel will appeal to fans of Katherine Arden and Naomi Novik, as well as lovers of classic Gothic fiction.

The Inheritance of Dust and Leather by Jenny Rae Rappaport – a short story published in Lightspeed Magazine, Sept 2022 (Issue 148) and free to read via the link.

It’s a beautiful and sad reimagining of the story, TW for domestic abuse, and has real emotional weight.

Highly recommend checking this one out. This was also a recommendation on Bsky, so it’s not just me.

I’m including I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME by Jamison Shea, as, although it’s more YA Black Swan X Suspiria, there’s kissing the poisonous monsterboi in the Paris catacombs, a pulsating eldritch blood river, and some great body horror transformations.

It’s a villain origin story, described as Ace of Spades meets House of Hollow. I very much enjoyed it. If you want to support angry, ambitious girls making bad choices for power, becoming both beauty and beast, this one is it.

Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood.

The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she’s dreamed of and worked toward. With retribution on her mind, she surpasses her bitter and privileged peers, leaving broken bodies behind her on her climb to stardom.

But even as undeniable as she is, Laure is not the only monster around. And her vicious desires make her a perfect target for slaughter. As she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her, she is faced with the ultimate choice: continue to break herself for scraps of validation or succumb to the darkness that wants her exactly as she is—monstrous heart and all. That is, if the god-killer doesn’t catch her first.

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Your Recs… BatB Reimaginings & Retellings

A-Z by Author

The genres here range from Erotic Romance to Horror, so be warned this is a very mixed bag! I absolutely love how versatile this story is (how most fairy tales are) and the wide range of ways they can be retold and reimagined by so many different people. I put out a general call for recommendations and this is what you all came up with (and I bet there’s a ton more).

In fact, you can check out this GoodReads List for more! It has 329 books on it so far and you can add your fave to it if it’s not on there!

I probably have missed books out, but there were A LOT.

Let’s go!

A Thorn Among Roses by Hayley Anderton – At seventeen, Alana single-handedly defeated the biggest army that Thornwood had ever seen. By sunrise the very next day, she’d been shunned by her own people, forced to become a recluse and reside in the castle where she was supposed to rule over them. Now, with both her parents gone, she suffers alone, bearing a curse bestowed upon her by the village witch, making her resentful heart as twisted as a vine.

But when she finds trespassers on her land, she seizes an opportunity to break the curse from a travelling sorceress. Alana was never looking for company, and she has little faith that the sorceress can change her fate, but years of loneliness have left her craving connection, and unfamiliar emotions begin to surface in the presence of her new companion.

But love isn’t the only thing on her mind. The kingdom is plagued with whispers of dark forces creeping their way across Thornwood’s borders. Jaded by her past, can Alana save her kingdom from evil once more…or will she become the monster her people believe her to be?

A sapphic retelling of Beauty & the Beast which explores body image, self acceptance and the magic of love.

In The Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard – From the award-winning author of the Dominion of the Fallen series comes a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land…

A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.

A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.

When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.

But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yê she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets…

Thorn by Anna Burke – On a cold day deep in the heart of winter, Rowan’s father returns from an ill-fated hunting trip bearing a single, white rose.

The rose is followed by the Huntress, a figure out of legend. Tall, cruel, and achingly beautiful, she brings Rowan back with her to a mountain fastness populated solely by the creatures of the hunt.

Rowan, who once scorned the villagers for their superstitions, now finds herself at the heart of a curse with roots as deep as the mountains, ruled by an old magic that is as insidious as the touch of the winter rose. Torn between her family loyalties, her guilty relief at escaping her betrothal to the charming but arrogant Avery Lockland, and her complicated feelings for the Huntress, Rowan must find a way to break the curse before it destroys everything she loves.

There is only one problem―if she can find a way to lift the curse, she will have to return to the life she left behind. And the only thing more unbearable than endless winter is facing a lifetime of springs without the Huntress.

Short stories by Angela Carter – specifically, The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tiger’s Bride in the collection The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories.

Beast by Marian Churchland – Graphic Novel. The first full-length solo work of Marian Churchland, artist of Conan: Trophy.

Colette, a young sculptor looking for work, finds a job with a mysterious client who wants her to carve his portrait out of marble. The client turns out to be a shadowy creature, and the block of marble, she discovers, has a long history that threatens to engulf her entirely.

Given To The Beast by Magen Cubed – In the wild gray mountains that surrounded the village Aurel lived an animal far older than the stones that housed the humans below…

An ageless mountain beast, a tenacious human maiden, and a tale as old as time. This mature retelling of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST reimagines the fairytale from the perspective of the beast. Can a wild beast allow himself to fall for his human bride? Can a woman turn her back on humanity and embrace her desires?

At 7700 words, GIVEN TO THE BEAST is an erotic romance that contains a consensual M/F relationship.

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare – When girl meets Duke, their marriage breaks all the rules…

Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury’s to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne’er-do-wells by night. Now there’s a new item on the list. He needs an heir—which means he needs a wife. When Emma Gladstone, a vicar’s daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she’ll do.

His terms are simple:
– They will be husband and wife by night only.
– No lights, no kissing.
– No questions about his battle scars.
– Last, and most importantly… Once she’s pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again.

But Emma is no pushover. She has a few rules of her own:
– They will have dinner together every evening.
– With conversation.
– And unlimited teasing.
– Last, and most importantly… Once she’s seen the man beneath the scars, he can’t stop her from falling in love…

Velvet by Friction Press is NSFW, and you can support them via their Patreon and on Itch.io where you can download a free 13K word sample of the novel.

Velvet youth, velvet bodies, velvet words. 

How can a boy want for nothing and yet hunger for everything? Headstrong, beautiful, sparkling like the first glass of champagne in the evening—Kolt Lagos is a dazzling disaster. With a natural aptitude for the art of tuning, he is the sole heir to the Lagos criminal empire.  Mere hours into adulthood, Kolt finds himself exiled from his family’s main estate and shipped off to live in their gorgeous, isolated second home with no explanation, and no communication with the outside world. His only companion now is the groundskeeper who lives on the island.

Xavier Weaver has many roles. Groundskeeper, grave tender, tinkerer, and now: warden to the only child of his employer. Xavier has enough smoke in his lung to know when he is being led by the nose. He has no patience for Kolt’s cloying words, or his desperate magic. Xavier knows better than to trust a tuner, let alone a Lagos. 

Theirs is a legacy that grows and grows and grows…

Stats: 114,000 words | Book One | Explicit | BL: Cis Male & Futa Male

Genre: A base blend of crime and fairy-tale, with bottom notes of horror and a slight sci-fi aftertaste. Modern Gothic.

This work contains dark and potentially upsetting themes. Enter at your own risk.

Five Tales of the Rose Palace by Ephiny Gale – direct link to read online in The Future Fire Magazine (2018.46), with Martin Hanford’s illustrations! Gorgeous non-linear narrative and merfolk! Also, free to read!

Undergrounder by J. E. Glass – Drowned by men. Saved by a monster.

The last place Alexandra Bailey expects her routine life of domestic journalism to lead is being sucked into icy floodwaters below New York City. Headlines like this happen to other people, but it’s real, and she knows she’s dead. Which makes the circumstances of her survival as impossible as the woman who drags her from the water.

Saved but hardly safe, Alex wakes in the Underground, a world of misfits and monsters thriving below the streets. It’s a journalism goldmine. One Alex can’t resist digging into after learning her beastly savior is Leanna Farrow, adopted daughter of an infamous and “presumed dead” scientist. But Alex’s curiosity, coupled with her rapidly developing feelings for Leanna, put both women in danger when Alex’s inquiries pique the interest of a powerful family with bloody connections to the Underground’s origins.

If Alex wants to unravel the secrets of the world below, she’ll have to walk the razor’s edge, but some mysteries are better left buried.

Briarley by Aster Glenn Gray – An m/m World War II-era retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

During a chance summer shower, an English country parson takes refuge in a country house. The house seems deserted, yet the table is laid with a sumptuous banquet such as the parson has not seen since before war rationing.

Unnerved by the uncanny house, he flees, but stops to pluck a single perfect rose from the garden for his daughter – only for the master of the house to appear, breathing fire with rage. Literally.

At first, the parson can’t stand this dragon-man. But slowly, he begins to feel the injustice of the curse that holds the dragon captive. What can break this vengeful curse?

Ophelia and the Beast by Elad Haber – free to read in Truancy Magazine, another watery version (see Ephiny Gale’s merfolk version, above). In this version, Ophelia (from Shakespeare’s Hamlet) is saved from drowning, and given a new chance at life by the Beast who saves her, merging the two stories into a short, bittersweet piece. Quick read, too!

His Beauty by Jack Harbon – An act of sacrifice and the consequences that follow.

When Isla’s father doesn’t return home on time, she’s certain something is wrong. A deft pickpocket his whole life, it’s unlike him to take so long on a run. It isn’t until her sister informs her of where he went that Isla understands just how much danger he’s put himself in.

Highburn Hold.

The castle no man or woman dare enter on their own. Ruled by a bloodthirsty abomination with a cruel streak and penchant for imprisonment. Finding her sickly father locked in one of the cells in Highburn’s dungeon, she knows in order to save him, she must offer the beast something else.

Something her father cannot.

Something the beast is hungry for.

Return the Rose by Joachim Heijndermans – Once, she was a prisoner and slave to the beastly creature’s lust. But when lust turned to love, the monster’s curse was lifted and he became king once more, making the beauty a queen. Their lives returned to normal, they live in peace…

…but the spark is gone.

All the queen wants now is the return of her beast. To have her desires fulfilled, she must enter a bargain that could grant her wish…or doom her love forever.

From author Joachim Heijndermans comes the first instalment of Beautiful Beasts, a series of erotic fantasy, horror and science fiction novellas.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge – Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard – Lord Nathaniel Harte, the disagreeable Duke of Beswick, spends his days smashing porcelain, antagonizing his servants, and snarling at anyone who gets too close. With a ruined face like his, it’s hard to like much about the world. Especially smart-mouthed harpies—with lips better suited to kissing than speaking—who brave his castle with indecent proposals.

But Lady Astrid Everleigh will stop at nothing to see her younger sister safe from a notorious scoundrel, even if it means offering herself up on a silver platter to the forbidding Beast of Beswick himself. And by offer, she means what no highborn lady of sound and sensible mind would ever dream of—a tender of marriage with her as his bride.

Burning Roses by S. L. Huang – the rec here says that it’s “a mashup and more of an aftermath dissection but you do get the basic Beauty and the Beast narrative in flashback form”, so I’m counting it!

When Rosa (aka Red Riding Hood) and Hou Yi the Archer join forces to stop the deadly sunbirds from ravaging the countryside, their quest will take the two women, now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, into a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality.

When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James – Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty . . . Naturally, she’s betrothed to a Beast.

Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman.

Linnet is not just any woman.

She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks.

Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return.

If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?

The Language of Roses by Hannah Rose Jones – A Beauty. A Beast. A Curse. This is not the story you know.

Join author Heather Rose Jones on a new and magical journey into the heart of a familiar fairytale. Meet Alys, eldest daughter of a merchant, a merchant who foolishly plucks a rose from a briar as he flees from the home of a terrifying fay Beast and his seemingly icy sister. Now Alys must pay the price to save his life and allow the Beast, the once handsome Philippe, to pay court to her.

But Alys has never fallen in love with anyone; how can she love a Beast? The fairy Peronelle, waiting in the woods to see the culmination of her curse, is sure that she will fail. Yet, if she does, Philippe’s sister Grace and her beloved Eglantine, trapped in an enchanted briar in the garden, will pay a terrible price. Unless Alys can find another way…

Briony and Roses by T. Kingfisher – Bryony and her sisters have come down in the world. Their merchant father died trying to reclaim his fortune and left them to eke out a living in a village far from their home in the city.

But when Bryony is caught in a snowstorm and takes refuge in an abandoned manor, she stumbles into a house full of dark enchantments. Is the Beast that lives there her captor, or a fellow prisoner? Is the house her enemy or her ally? And why are roses blooming out of season in the courtyard?

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey – Beauty Meets Beast in San Francisco

Accepting employment as a governess after hard times hit her family, medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins is surprised when she learns that her mysterious employer has no children, no wife, and she is not to meet with him face to face. Instead, her duties are to read to him, through a speaking tube, from ancient manuscripts in obscure, nearly-forgotten dialects.

A requirement for the job was skill in translating medieval French, and she now understands the reason for that requirement, and assumes her unseen employer’s interest in the descriptions of medieval spells and sorcery is that of an eccentric antiquary. What she does not realize is that his interest is anything but academic. He has a terrible secret and is desperately searching for something that can reverse the effects of the misfired spell which created his predicament.

The Book of the Beast by Tanith Lee –In a city imbued with dark fantasy and gothic horror, an ancient curse transforms the lives of all it touches

The city known by three names—Paradys, Paradise, and Paradis—conceals many strange stories. In the second volume of the Secret Books of Paradys, young scholar Raoulin has just moved to Paradys to study at the university. He lodges at the once noble, now decrepit House d’Uscaret, a place he knows is haunted from the moment he arrives. There, Raoulin is frequented by the mysterious and beautiful phantom of a young bride with wide-set emerald eyes, and as he is drawn toward her, he realizes that his every action skirts the border of reality and dream. Soon, the voluptuous ghost has infected him with the curse of the Beast—a horrific amalgam of bird, lizard, and man that has preyed on the city’s inhabitants for centuries.
 
Past and present are irrevocably intertwined in this horrifyingly lush tome, in which author Tanith Lee plunges the reader into the lore and monstrosities of an alternate Paris: the lurid and infamous Paradys.

The Night Library of Sternendach by Jessica Lévai – Kunigunde is destined to become the next in a long line of Heller clan vampire hunters—but her soul is drawn to books, poetry, and the vampire Graf. Set in 1960s Europe, The Night Library of Sternendach is an unabashedly melodramatic opera-in-sonnets that weaves a sweeping, suspenseful tale readers won’t be able to put down.

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier – Whistling Tor is a place of secrets, a mysterious, wooded hill housing the crumbling fortress of a chieftain whose name is spoken throughout the district in tones of revulsion and bitterness. A curse lies over Anluan’s family and his people; those woods hold a perilous force whose every whisper threatens doom.

For young scribe Caitrin it is a safe haven. This place where nobody else is prepared to go seems exactly what she needs, for Caitrin is fleeing her own demons. As Caitrin comes to know Anluan and his home in more depth she realizes that it is only through her love and determination that the curse can be broken and Anluan and his people set free.

Curses by Lish McBride – Merit Cravan refused to fulfill her obligation to marry a prince, leading to a fairy godling’s curse. She will be forced to live as a beast forever, unless she agrees to marry a man of her mother’s choosing before her eighteenth birthday.

Tevin Dumont has always been a pawn in his family’s cons. The prettiest boy in a big family, his job is to tempt naïve rich girls to abandon their engagements, unless their parents agree to pay him off. But after his mother runs afoul of the beast, she decides to trade Tevin for her own freedom.

Now, Tevin and Merit have agreed that he can pay off his mother’s debt by using his con-artist skills to help Merit find the best match . . . but what if the best match is Tevin himself?

Chalice by Robin McKinley – The earthlines speak to Mirasol, but her family has lived in the demesne for centuries, and many of the old families can hear the land.

She knows that the violent deaths of the last Master and Chalice have thrown Willowlands into turmoil; but she is only a beekeeper, and the problems of the Circle that govern Willowlands have nothing to do with her—although she wonders what will become of her demesne, because the Master and Chalice left no heirs to carry on their crucial duties.

And then the Circle come to Mirasol, to tell her that she has been chosen to be the new Chalice; and the Master she must learn to work with is a Priest of Fire, a man no longer quite human, whose touch can burn human flesh to the bone.

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley – It is the heart of this place, and it is dying, says the Beast. And it is true; the center of the Beast’s palace, the glittering glasshouse that brings Beauty both comfort and delight in her strange new environment, is filled with leafless brown rosebushes. But deep within this enchanted world, new life, at once subtle and strong, is about to awaken.

Twenty years ago, Robin McKinley dazzled readers with the power of her novel Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist returns to the story of Beauty and the Beast with a fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight. With Rose Daughter, she presents her finest and most deeply felt work–a compelling, richly imagined, and haunting exploration of the transformative power of love.

Beast by Lindz McLeod – After the noble adults have been dragged away and guillotined, Le Majordome—the castle butler— finds himself the sole protector of the castle’s young heir. Hiding the teenager had seemed like a good idea, but the other servants don’t agree; if the army return and discover they’ve been protecting a member of the aristocracy, all their lives will be forfeit.

To make matters worse, the heir’s now-dead elder brother left behind a bastard baby, calling the heir’s inheritance into question. As tensions rise, Le Majordome must quell a murderous mutiny and rein in the heir’s worst impulses if any of them are to survive. To add to his mounting troubles, it’s rumoured that a local enchantress has been looking for her stolen child, and will stop at nothing to rescue him. To Le Majordome’s horror, the bastard baby starts displaying magical powers, proving his parentage beyond a doubt.

Le Majordome has no idea which dilemma will reach the castle first—the army or the witch—or what the hell he’s going to do about either, but perhaps help is closer than he realises.

Roses in Amber by C.E. Murphy – A Beauty and the Beast story

There is a story of a beast, and a merchant’s daughter, and a curse that must be broken.
This is not—quite—that story.

Amber Gryce believes in magic the way anyone does: as a thing of the past, marked now only by the long reign of an ancient queen sworn to live until her stolen son is returned to her. Such stories are romantic but distant for Amber, surrounded by family and wealth.

But like magic, wealth can disappear. Left destitute, Amber’s family retreats to a forest holding far from their city home, where Amber’s love of roses leads her into the heart of enchantment, and draws her into a retelling of the tale as old as time….

Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin by Tabitha O’Connell – A queer, Beauty-and-the-Beast-inspired novella

Heron thought ey wanted to be with handsome, charming Tiel—but the relationship hasn’t quite lived up to eir expectations. With Tiel’s confidence comes a tendency to be overbearing, and now he wants Heron to leave eir farm life behind and move to town with him. And Heron can’t figure out how to explain to him that ey doesn’t want that.

When an accident strands Heron’s mother at a castle rumored to belong to a family of mages, Heron rushes off to make sure she’s all right—only to find the castle occupied by a single man who isn’t a mage at all. Prone to hiding behind his long mess of hair, the mysterious Theomer possesses a long-neglected, semi-magical garden. A job tending it is Heron’s perfect opportunity for some time away from Tiel while ey decides what to tell him.

Heron did not plan to be drawn in by Theomer’s attentive gaze and understated sense of humor. But as an undeniable bond forms between them, ey’s soon going to have a much bigger choice to make…

Blood-Bound by Kaija Raine (#Book 1 of the Ace Assassin series) – described by the author as modern retellings/reimaginings of the Mabinogi tales, but with a lot of Beauty and the Beast elements.

Rhian is content in her life. As a pwca, a Welsh shapeshifter, she is bound to the Dark God Arawn as an assassin. So when he assigns her as ambassador to oversee Ontario for him, it’s a shock.

Her new job? To find out who murdered her predecessor and bring them to justice, as well as to oversee the otherkin and clean up their messes before the humans find them—all to preserve the illusion that magic and supernatural creatures do not exist.

The problem? One of the otherkin she’s supposed to oversee is her estranged husband, Kai, the only person Rhian never regretted having sex with, and the only one she can’t forgive.

The Beast by Katee Robert – Once upon a time, I fell in love with two men. Their feelings for me were matched only by their hatred for each other.

Gaeton, with his brash charm and casual cruelty.

Beast, his lust equal to his penchant for violence.

Being with them was sinful and perfect in different ways. In the end, I couldn’t choose, and I lost them both.

Now, my sisters have tasked me with securing our power base, no matter the cost. I will do anything for my family—even if it means agreeing to the terms set by Gaeton and Beast.

The three of us. Together. But only for as long as it takes me to choose one of them once and for all.

When playing games of power, happily ever after isn’t a priority. Not even for me.

Especially not for me.

Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft – He saw the darkness in her magic. She saw the magic in his darkness.

Wren Southerland’s reckless use of magic has cost her everything: she’s been dismissed from the Queen’s Guard and separated from her best friend–the girl she loves. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate, Colwick Hall, to cure his servant from a mysterious illness, she seizes her chance to redeem herself.

The mansion is crumbling, icy winds haunt the caved-in halls, and her eccentric host forbids her from leaving her room after dark. Worse, Wren’s patient isn’t a servant at all but Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and her kingdom’s sworn enemy. Hal also came to Colwick Hall for redemption, but the secrets in the estate may lead to both of their deaths.

With sinister forces at work, Wren and Hal realize they’ll have to join together if they have any hope of saving their kingdoms. But as Wren circles closer to the nefarious truth behind Hal’s illness, they realize they have no escape from the monsters within the mansion. All they have is each other, and a startling desire that could be their downfall.

The Beast That Never Was by Caren J. Werlinger – What if Beauty was the Beast?

Lise’s father is dead, and the life of plenty and freedom that she has known as the daughter of the King’s Huntsman is gone. She must now live a life of duty to her mother and sisters, helping them to cope in their altered circumstances. But where her mother would have her wed a childhood friend to secure their future, Lise knows that is not what she longs for. When she meets a mysterious woman in the forest, Lise feels the stirrings of emotions she cannot give voice to, but with this woman, she doesn’t have to say anything—Senna knows.

Cursed, hunted, and feared, Senna has been forced to wander from place to place for more years than she cares to remember. She gave up hope long ago that there could ever be an end to her isolation. Odd sightings in the forest—monsters of legend come to life, old enemies back from the past, fearsome beasts on the prowl—begin to frighten the people of Lise’s village. Somehow, all of these things are connected to Senna.

As the villagers’ fear grows, so does their hatred. Senna prepares to flee, accepting what has become her fate, but Lise isn’t ready to give up her one chance for happiness. Soon, only Lise stands between the villagers and the woman she has grown to love.

For The Wolf by Hannah Whitten – The first daughter is for the Throne. The second daughter is for the Wolf.

As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose—to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he’ll return the world’s captured gods.

Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can’t control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can’t hurt those she loves. Again.

But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn’t learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood—and her world—whole.

Roses and Thorns by Chris Anne Wolfe – originally published in 1994 as Bitter Thorns, ‘Roses and Thorns’ is the re-release version. This is a sapphic retelling.

Beauty and the Beast Retold

A greedy father.
A beautiful daughter.
A faceless noble.

With a word, Aloysius bargains away Angelique’s future for a hefty bride-price, and no one, not even Angelique’s beloved mother can save her.

Angelique is taken to a strange and marvelous estate where she is befriended by Culdun, her Liege’s fey companion. And though Culdun hints at darker forces, Angelique is drawn to her host and ever so slowly, she wins Drew’s trust.

But old fears and an older curse resurface, threatening to drive them apart and banish Drew into an eternity of loneliness. Will Angelique’s growing love be strong enough to save her Liege? Or will she flee once the secret is revealed?

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And that’s a wrap!

There are a lot more – stay tuned to cmrosens.com where I’ll be thinking a bit more about these and doing a blog series on BATB stories and how they’ve been used over time. Or something. And maybe BATB themes in horror films as well as books! Who knows what rabbit holes I will fall into. Until next time!