Beauty In The Beast by Tea Spangsberg

What if Beast never found his true love before the rose died? What if he wandered the earth for hundreds of years? What if Belle wasn’t taken to the castle to pay off her father’s debt? What if the curse was not quite what we imagined? Beast was cursed by a witch on his fifteenth birthday. Five years to find true love. A rose to count the time. But Beast didn’t find his one true love. Maddened by anger, he hunted the witch and fought in wars. A year passed, then another. Five years. Ten. Fifty. A hundred. Now he roams the country, hunting monsters, mostly forgotten except as the tale about the lost prince. Belle is an outcast. Taken by a monster as a child, she wears the scars on her body and face. Rumors follow her around, and people she once called friends cross the street to avoid being near her. A prisoner in her own life, she dreams of escaping to a place where scars and her past won’t haunt her, but knowing that will never happen. But a chance encounter in the forest will change their lives forever. Can true love really break a curse? Or will they both have to learn to see the beauty in the beast?

Adult • Fantasy/Mythic, Retelling, and Folklore