C. M. Rosens

Extended Blurb:

ONCE UPON A TIME… In a rural corner of the Provinces simmering with civil unrest, Laundress Yelena’s village is plagued by a dangerous fungal rot oozing from the forest. When she is falsely accused of dark sorcery and evicted from her cottage so her landlord can sell up, Yelena is forced to leave her home and loved ones behind, and entrusts herself to the wind-borne voices of the restless dead to see where they lead her.

Yelen is a forgotten tyrant, turned into a monster hundreds of years ago after accepting a cursed flower, and left to stalk his enchanted castle all alone. Despite becoming a better person over the centuries, Yelen’s aromanticism means he can never fulfil the ‘mutual romantic love’ condition of the curse, and to his relief, he will never have to return to form of the power-hungry brute he once was… But he craves companionship and an end to his lonely existence.

When the wind leads Yelena to Yelen, she discovers a kindred spirit in the aromantic, bi-attracted monster, and their relationship quickly escalates. But being a guest in a cursed castle with a lonely, amorous Beast is not all fun and games – while exploring, Yelena makes a disturbing discovery about the source of the rot, and starts showing symptoms of infection herself.

Can Yelen and Yelena work together to find a lasting cure for the rot seeping beyond the castle walls, or will the curse claim another victim?

YELEN & YELENA is a standalone, monster-loving ‘tour de force’, perfect for fans of Beauty and the Beast re-imaginings, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, and T. Kingfisher’s What Moves The Dead. Look no further for a deeply atmospheric Dark Gothic Fantasy with a Hopepunk core, and a sapphic riff on Orpheus & Eurydice subplot.

Shop Options

All eBook platforms: buy.bookfunnel.com/yaeabwh8zw
Kindle – Apple – Nook – Kobo – Kobo Plus – Everand – Thalia – Smashwords – Vivilo – Fable

Print options: Amazon or Barnes & Noble

Direct from the author:
eBook from my website shop
eBook from itch.io
eBook from Ko-Fi
Signed paperbacks from Ko-Fi (coming soon)

Audio Options

The novel will be serialised weekly, unabridged, on Eldritch Girl podcast. You can join the £1.50 per month membership to support the podcast and access mp3 downloads of each episode/chapter, along with early access downloads so you get to catch up before anyone else.

Early access: out now via Ko-Fi
Audio serial begins: 19th Feb

Early Reception

I can’t thank everyone enough for embracing my queer, Gothic, Dark Fantasy.

Here are what readers are saying:

A fantastic aromance of Gothic beauty and fairytale horror. C.M. Rosens introduces a rich world as a playground for her Beauty and the Beast retelling. It’s perfect for those wondering why the curse had to be broken in the first place.

Vivian Valentine – author of the Amelia Temple series

a tour de force. incredible mycelial hope-punk-romance-adventure-mystery-fantasy. the writing is gorgeous and lush, creating full worlds in my imagination. the story was so interesting, the spice so spicy, and I loved how the story played out in unexpected ways. the slow pace was new for me and I loved it for the way it allowed time to nestle into the world and characters. 

GoodReads and Storygraph Review

Beautifully written, had me completely engrossed immediately.

Still processing this one.

My jaw was on the floor a few times, to say the least.

Gothic horror lovers, you will love this one. You do not want to miss it.
If you like monster smut, you will be very happy with this one.
If you like that combo, this might be your next favorite read.

GoodReads Review

This is a fascinating dark fantasy reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, with its own rich world-building and well-developed characters.

The internal worlds of the characters are vividly described, and I deeply resonated with Yelena’s feelings of dispossession and longing for a home that wasn’t hers anymore. The narrative is effective in showing the characters’ struggles to adapt to a changing society that isn’t kind to the working class, highlighting the inevitable nature of change and the universal human need for community and support.

I absolutely loved the author’s exploration of the consequences of an unbroken curse, the interplay of geopolitics, and the shifting dynamics of power in it all. And also the spice was good, so read on if you’re a monster lover. 

This was a fantastic one and I’m looking forward to the rest of the planned series by this author, all set within the same universe. 

Storygraph Review

This book blends fantasy re-telling and gothic horror impressively. I love how subversive it was, turning the beauty and the beast story on its head, with a self-assured protagonist eagerly seeking the beast out. The prose was beautiful and very T Kingfisher-esque and I loved the dark yet hopeful ending. And, of course, a lovely queer-normative world. 

Storygraph Review

I had 1000 eARCs to give away, and almost gave out all of them. I’m hoping for double-figures reviews, as of these claims on the eARC, there were around 600-700 downloads. Only ~10% of ARCs are read and reviewed, and sometimes less, so I’m hoping that I get (eventually) around 50 reviews for this book to help it gain visibility and traction. Amazon’s algorithm only starts pushing books with 50+ reviews organically, and I’m not sure about the algorithms on other platforms, but copy/pasting or rating will really help.

GoodReads and Storygraph are also excellent for visibility. I’m hoping some word of mouth will also push this book into the shelves and eReaders of readers!

I was nervous about giving away so many copies, so if you see this book pirated anywhere – my Ko-Fi link is here, you can thank me for writing it by buying me a coffee: ko-fi.com/cmrosens.

Rainbow Rep in Yelen & Yelena

Yelen & Yelena has aromantic and bisexual MCs, and a sapphic main secondary character with her own Orpheus & Eurydice subplot. The bisexual aromantics are both allosexual, and have had sexual partners of multiple genders. There is also an achillean pairing mentioned, which appears later on page as m/m/f.

The relationship structures depicted are often open or polyamorous in nature, but there are also monogamous relationships and cishet relationships (parents of MCs, background villagers, and so on).

Sex work is also depicted in a neutral way, as the main character is a sex worker by choice, for enjoyment and additional income, and as part of her personal faith practices. This does not mean her experiences of this work have been universally positive, or that her clients have always been respectful. Disrespect towards her is related to the power imbalance of the class system, not due to her occupation being seen as inherently ‘bad’.

The world itself is queernormative with theological reasons for accepting non-binary identities (and binary trans identities by extension).