The only Beauty and the Beast I'm familiar with is the Disney film so that's all I can compare this to, but it seems an entirely different story. Instead of Belle we have Rose and she never meets the Beast - it's her parson father instead, English instead of French, who stays at the Beast's manor and meets the cursed staff (merely invisible instead of turned into furniture) and ends up falling in love with the Beast to break the curse despite his dragon-like appearance. I would be interested to know if this is more similar to the book because I feel the dragon features is an interesting choice, including the ability to fly and breathe fire but still having human eyes and body. The ending is really abrupt so it didn't feel very satisfying but I find that happens with most short stories. This is more a novella so we don't get a lot of time to parse out their relationship so it does seem forced or rushed but it's still an enjoyable read. ( )

A parson waylaid by a rainstorm seeks refuge at a massive yet seemingly deserted estate in the English countryside. A fire is lit and a meal is set, but neither owner nor servants are to be found. Fully aware of the lore concerning tempting tables and curses, the parson abstains from feasting and decides to leave the property immediately. He discovers that the weather has since cleared and he sets out for home, but not before snipping a single rose from a thorny bush on his way out. As anyone who has read a fairy tale can tell you, this was an unwise move, and the parson finds himself suddenly trapped and at the mercy of the master of the estate, a fierce dragon under a curse.

I have a tendency to approach self-published books with hesitation and a degree of skepticism, as there are just so many terribly written ones out there, but I have to say this book was pretty delightful. It was witty and smart with snappy dialogue, and it deftly skirted nearly all of the tropes and crutches I was dreading. I had to deduct one star for relatively simple text and the sheer number of sentence fragments, but the retelling was done cleverly and with feeling. Recommended. ( )

The Publisher Says: 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?

I KINDLE-BORROWED THIS BOOK FROM MY FRIEND TEAL. THANK YOU!

My Review: One thing no one tells you about being an adult is that there are no unmixed emotions.

None.

The world is so much harder to navigate without Certainty as your guide, either that you...or your leaders...are Right, Correct, Blessed By Gawd; or that you are damned, doomed!, hopeless and irredeemable! because that is also freedom from the murk and misery of figuring it out step by step, bit by bit, holding as much of a candle as you possess to illuminate annihilating blackness.

What They also fail to mention is: that blackness, the awful weight of it, the airless suffocating relentless gravity? That is the presence and substance of Them, the expectations and blames and angers and recriminations...black is the presence of all colors, weight is the sensation of gravity from so much mass, like a black hole.

White is what you see when there is nothing there. When you scrub off, slip out from under, refuse to pick up their shitty, rotten-souled, stinking cruelty, you lose their weight and your eyes clear the darkness...but unrelieved white is blinding no less than pure black.

So learn this, grasp it, hold it up in front of yourself like a sword: There is no purity in the real, honest world. There are no unmixed emotions. And that is how you learn to navigate and identify the places you are safe. They have your mix of black and white, they match or enhance the colors you've chosen and blended, the ones that give your eyes the right shine and your heart the right lift. Drop the purity filters, learn how to see in as many shades between black and white as you can find.

When you will dare anything, anything at all, for someone else, to save them and create the world they want, you are closer to that clarity than at any other time.

You'll never be so brave, so sure, so certain of your actions, as when you rise to serve the ones you love. Nothing, literally no thing, can stop that purity...except nasty old Reality. And that's why we need stories like this one.

Why, I suppose, we need all stories...they provide endings when dank, dismal Reality insists on hauling up the fucking Sun again to glare at you and highlight your crow's feet and shine blindingly on your bald patch.

But sometimes, in the gray place your shadow makes, comes that voice: "did you make the coffee?"

So do it again, Hero. ( )

3.5 stars
This is a fascinating beauty and the beast retelling. My only real complaint is that the ending was quite abrupt; I would have liked it to go a bit further or have an epilogue. ( )

3.5 rounded up ( )