I developed an interest in classical literature while at university, folklore in particular. It’s fascinating how fairy tales originated in oral form before being written and rewritten all over the world for generations, and as such, many of them don’t have a single founding author. But each adaption generally maintains the basic plot points of the original tale, and it’s interesting to see how time, culture, and perspective affect a retelling. There’s always room for interpretation, especially when the traditional narratives often involve exhausted themes and stereotypes, and so with my latest novel, I didn’t hold back when it came to the creative possibilities of more than one fairy tale.
Spoonerincorporates a classic Russian fairy tale into her rendition of Beauty and the Beast, creating a rich narrative set in an enchanted forest, both mysterious and dangerous. Though the framework of the original tales is there, this novel does a great job redressing the mannequin (figuratively speaking) so that we get a fresh and enjoyable exploration into the duality of human nature—among other things. I loved the tenacious heroine, who’s a skilled archer and feels more at home in the woods, and it’s her desire for revenge that sparks the chain of events that follow. The author’s version of the beast goes beyond the archetypal motif of “bad guy with good heart,” and the pacing of the book allows for a more authentic delivery (and transformation) of emotion between the characters.
New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner spins a thoroughly thrilling Beauty and the Beast story for the modern age, expertly woven with spellbinding romance, intrigue, and suspense that readers won't soon be able to forget.
Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones-and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who's ever come close to discovering its secrets.
So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there's…
I’ve been reading and writing romance for most of my life, and I found the stories I was truly drawn to were the ones where I got to know the characters deeply and personally before they got their hard-earned happily ever after. I want to feel like not only the main characters are my new best friends, but also their friends and families. I want to live beside them as they go through this wild ride called life. So, those are the books I set out to write...stories telling about life’s ups and downs, dreams cast aside and remade, and families found along the way. Achingly heartfelt romance with resilient characters readers will adore.
Amy Harmon is another author who you can read anything and love it! The emotions drip from her pages in the full range of laughter to anger to tears. It’s an incredible journey! Even though I read this book years ago, I still feel like I know these characters personally. They are, quite literally, part of the fabric of my life.
Ambrose Young was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She'd been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have...until he wasn't beautiful anymore
Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl's love for a broken…
Intense action, desperate revenge, animal-like dragons,
and a battle-hardened heroine? YES PLEASE!
The world of Court of Dragons is simply
mesmerizing. I loved how the author took a mythological creature that has been
used over and over again and gave it a new, animalistic twist.
Between the
constant danger, the fiery heroine, and the tension-riddled romance, I could not
put this book down.
As a daughter of the Dragon Court, Wren knows three truths: never show weakness, pay the tithe, and never trust the elves.
When the enemy strikes on the eve of her wedding, Wren has no choice but to fight. Captured, she's dragged before the elvish king and given two choices.
Death or marriage.
She submits, biding her time as she plots and spies, determined to strike at the heart of the elvish royalty and take back her family's throne once more. But the more time she spends with her dangerous and achingly handsome husband, she finds herself wavering.
I’ve been writing queer historical romances/murder mysteries since the third grade when I accidentally wrote a pretty homoerotic Sherlock Holmes fanfiction despite being too young to know what any of those words meant. I’m now both a writer and reader of the genre and while I’m delighted that so many other people love gay historical romance as much as I do, I feel like I always see the same few books recommended. I wanted to share some of my lesser-known favorites so that they can get the love they richly deserve and so that there are more people who can geek-out about them with me!
Honestly, I could recommend all of Bonnie Dee’s back catalog, but this one in particular has always stuck with me. I think what I love most is that the setup seems like a standard Beauty and the Beast type tale, but instead, a thoughtful (and incredibly hot!) novel that doesn’t shy away from the fact that one of the characters is far from traditionally handsome, but embraces it.
I really cheered him on as he began to see himself in a new light, the way the man who loves him sees him.
Creating love from darkness is the greatest art…Living a bohemian lifestyle in Paris is wonderful for Teddy Dandridge, but disastrous for his finances. His unconventional artistic creations find few buyers. After a year of failure, he returns to England to fulfill a portrait commission for a wealthy family, but he finds a different, source of inspiration secreted away in their sprawling house. Isolated and rejected by his family, Phineas Abernathy haunts the west wing like a ghost. A physical deformity has locked him away from society for all his life. Filling his days with reading and drawing, he dreams of…
I am a writer and performer born and raised in New York City. In my previous life, I was an Emmy-nominated journalist and digital media producer, covering sexual and reproductive health. In addition to writing, I love musical improv, opera, Olympic weightlifting, and spending time with my wife and dog.
The first time Rowan and the Huntress kissed, I half expected Rowan’s lips to stick to the Huntress’ face like a tongue on a light pole in winter.
Luckily, Rowan—the Belle in this Beauty and the Beast retelling—is a thawing influence, and the kiss progresses as kisses should. And thank goodness, as the Huntress desperately needs to be kissed. Isolated, cursed, and haunted by her own callousness, the lonely Huntress is separated from the world by her own past and a literal mile of frozen water.
But in the Huntress’ fortress of ice, love grows like the petals of a winter rose, and little kisses, like hope, spring eternal.
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…
I’m a book nerd and YA novel lover. While I do enjoy the occasional mystery or thriller, I unerringly find my way to the young adult aisle each and every time I go searching for my new guilty pleasure. I especially enjoy fantasy books with a touch of romance. I find that these types of books are escapism at their very finest. It should come as no surprise that when I wrote my own book, I did not stray from my favorite genre.
I discovered this book as it was a finalist in the 2021 Rone Awards along with my own debut novel. I really enjoyed the imaginative premise of this book. The Zodia are real. Clawing their way from a long-forgotten tomb, they emerge, ravenous to claim everyone born under their star signs. What an inventive idea! When young Larken starts to fall for the powerful Aries, you know you’re in for quite the ride. I absolutely enjoyed this book and would recommend it to lovers of YA fantasy romances.
Some destinies are written in the stars. Others must be bought with blood…
The Zodia are real. Clawing their way from a long-forgotten tomb, they emerge, ravenous to claim everyone born under their star signs. Plotting to resurrect kingdoms no human knew existed, they are driven by a hunger for vengeance against the one who buried them: Aries.
Larken is a natural born sprinter, but even she can’t outrun the darkness closing in. A shelter-in-place order has been issued, causing widespread panic. Some brush the alarm off as a drill, until people begin to disappear... vanishing without a trace. Left…
I didn’t want to write about this world whenI could submerse myself in a magical one! I’ve always had a passion for Sci-fi and Fantasy books and movies. With these genres, you canpush your mind to limits that can’t be explored in the normal world. You can investigateimaginary places and fall in love with someone who can throw fire from their hands or teleport toanother time. You can slay monsters and swim with merfolk; you can marry an alien and joinyour two kingdoms. You can even perform science experiments on someone and turn them intoa hulk-like creature who runs around town naked! How fun!
A fantasy romance where a marriage arrangement is made in hopes of bringing peace to warring nations. Medieval-type vibes and aliens (not the traditional kind) are nicely combined. Shannen and Daarik are both strong-willed and noble main characters.
I fell in love with Daarik, who is the alien in this story. He’s sweet, protective, respectful, and strong. At the beginning the flowery smell of Shannen made him gag, but that changed once he started falling for her.
This story reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, except this maiden wasn’t so innocent. I liked her.
This opened my eyes to how much I have the hots for aliens...
Two races fight for what remains of a dying planet. For generations, the Maarlai, an alien race who fled the destruction of their own home world, have lived silently, hidden, exiled on Earth. They watched, year by year, as humanity destroyed what was once a planet full of hope and promise. Unable to idly watch as the planet dipped further into destruction, the Maarlai left their hidden villages and went to war with what was left of humanity. With the death of the last great human king, the Maarlai found themselves victorious and vowed to protect and restore the planet…
This was described to me as a Beauty and the Beast portal fantasy, and that sounded too awesome for me to pass up. I'm so glad I read it because it was as enchanting and mystical as I wanted it to be.
It also had some darkness, and the characters' resiliency against that darkness was inspiring. I loved how the female lead's disability was both a strength and an obstacle. I loved how the male lead needed to understand he was his own worst enemy.
This book taught me about myself through the characters' struggles, and that's always worthwhile.
A New York Times bestseller!
"Has everything you'd want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale." - Jodi Picoult
In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.
Fall in love, break the curse.
It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the…
I’ve always loved reading young adult fantasy books with forbidden romance and lush worldbuilding and classic fairytale elements like princesses, dancing, pretty clothes, and delicious food spreads. All these books offer fresh takes and twists, and tug at your heartstrings with the angst, the betrayals, the secrets, and the love. These are all immersive stories that transport you far away, to a different time, to a different land, which is exactly what you need sometimes to get away from this world and its craziness.
Nyx will do anything to save her people, including marrying the terrible Ignifex, the evil ruler of her kingdom. But there is more to Ignifex than she initially imagined, and as Nyx falls in love with him, she fights to find a way to save both her people and her love. This book portrays such fun banter between Nyx and Ignifex and poses a truly difficult riddle that is bound to break your heart.
If you're excited about the upcoming Disney film Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson, don't miss Cruel Beauty. The romance of Beauty and the Beast meets the adventure of Graceling in this dazzling fantasy novel about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. Perfect for fans of bestselling An Ember in the Ashes and A Court of Thorns and Roses, this gorgeously written debut infuses the classic fairy tale with glittering magic, a feisty heroine, and a romance sure to take your breath away. Betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, Nyx has always known…
I have always had a fondness for the quirky heroine because I find her so relatable! As a child, I was overly sensitive and obsessed with animals. I liked to read and draw, but was dreadful at organized sports, and for the most part I didn't feel as if I fit in with the expected social norms of my peers. The quirky heroines in books and literature comforted me, and showed me that first, I wasn't alone, and second, that I could find love and acceptance in a world with which I often felt out-of-step.
Beauty is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast which gives us a practical, irregular heroine who redefines beauty. I’ve reread this book multiple times because the magical setting, colorful descriptions, and character development are heartwarming and unique. This is a story of transcendent love between two people (some more human than others!) who come to know each other's thoughts and quirks thoroughly—and to love each other for them.
When the family business collapses, Beauty and her two sisters are forced to leave the city and begin a new life in the countryside. However, when their father accepts hospitality from the elusive and magical Beast, he is forced to make a terrible promise - to send one daughter to the Beast's castle, with no guarantee that she will be seen again. Beauty accepts the challenge, and there begins an extraordinary story of magic and love that overcomes all boundaries. This is another spellbinding and emotional tale embroidered around a fairytale from Robin McKinley, an award-winning American author.
