Book picks similar to
Kill the Beast by Michele Israel Harper


fantasy
beauty-and-the-beast
retellings
mystery-suspense

Blossom and the Beast


R.S. McCoy - 2016
    On her eighteenth birthday, she’ll find out her future branch of society and her totem, the animal form she’ll be able to take at will for the rest of her life. Like her brothers, she’s expected to be a brown bear of the religious branch known as Terra. In the Alderwood forests, Blossom’s bear blood is a valuable asset. Any day now, a rival clan leader will step forward and offer her father a hefty bounty in exchange for her hand in marriage. Blossom can do nothing more than sit back and wait to be traded to the highest bidder.Determined to spend her last weeks exploring the Alderwood, Blossom sneaks away and manages to find Kaide Landel, a rising political star of the Pyro branch. Known for his violence and disregard for the religious teachings of the Terra branch, he’s all wrong for the bear clan’s prized daughter. But when the politician uses his wealth and influence to secure her hand, Blossom has no choice but to leave her family and marry him—if she lives that long. A new paranormal romance from RS McCoy, author of The Sparks Saga, The Luminary Chronicles, and The Extraction Files series. Book One of The Alder Tales.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely


Brigid Kemmerer - 2019
    But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets of Washington, DC, she's pulled into a magical world.Break the curse, save the kingdom.Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. A prince? A curse? A monster? As she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

Ice


Sarah Beth Durst - 2009
    Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back — if Cassie will agree to be his bride.That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her — until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.

Red Riding Hood


Sarah Blakley-Cartwright - 2011
    Now she is dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith, tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers Valerie another life far from home.After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, the Wolf has been kept at bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them--it could be anyone in town.It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says she must surrender herself before the blood moon wanes...or everyone she loves will die.Based on a screenplay written by David Leslie Johnson

Beast


Donna Jo Napoli - 2000
    His religion fills his heart and his mind, and he strives for the knowledge and leadership his father demonstrates. But on the day of the Feast of Sacrifices, Orasmyn makes a foolish choice that results in a fairy's wretched punishment: He is turned into a beast, a curse to be undone only by the love of a woman. Thus begins Orasmyn's journey through the exotic Middle East and sensuous France as he struggles to learn the way of the beast, while also preserving the mind of the man. This is the story of his search, not only for a woman courageous enough to love him, but also for his own redemption.

The Rose Kiss: Beauty and the Beast Retold


Esme Rome - 2021
    Running from destiny. Can their bond bloom in the face of a sinister enchantment?Provincial France, 1700. Lana Moreau, beautiful daughter of a bankrupt nobleman, is desperate for a suitor with a brain. But things don’t go as planned when her father takes her to the local prophet, looking for insight into her many failed courtships. When the seer names her as the Belmorta, a woman doomed to love a beast and bring famine and destruction, Lana flees in hopes of reversing her dark fortune.Escaping the wrath of the frightened villagers, she finds salvation in a seemingly empty magical castle. Entranced by the estate’s mystical marvels, she discovers choosing to stay may mean giving her heart to the monstrous owner and fulfilling the evil curse…Can Lana survive her wicked destiny and claim her happily-ever-after?The Rose Kiss is the mesmerizing first novel in the Fairy Tale Love Stories YA fantasy series. If you like plucky heroines, enchanted romance, and riveting retellings, then you’ll adore Esme Rome’s captivating story.

Beauty and the Beast


K.M. Shea - 2013
    A small miscalculation sends her through the roof of an enchanted chateau. Stranded until her broken leg mends, Elle is forced to rely on the good will of the sour chateau owner —the cursed Prince Severin. Prince Severin—the commanding general and staunch supporter of his brother the crown prince—is cursed to look like a beast until a maiden falls in love with him. However, he has given up all hope of shattering the curse after several painful and failed attempts to break it. As such he has only disdain for Elle, leaving her to the devices of his bossy servants. This suits Elle perfectly as she dislikes the entire royal family, Severin included. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting pair, the chateau servants are determined to break the curse and spend the majority of their time pushing Elle and Severin together. After bonding over gardens, animals, and terrifying squirrels Elle and Severin show signs of friendship, and perhaps something more… But not all love stories can end that easily. After all, Elle is not what she seems, and Severin’s life is placed in danger when hostilities flare between his brother and the monarchs of a neighboring country. If they really want the love of a lifetime Elle, a loyal liar, and Severin, an indifferent beast, will have to use every trick they know to survive.

Roses


G.R. Mannering - 2013
    Her silvery appearance is freakish to the numerous inhabitants of Sago, the cosmopolitan capital of Pevorocco in a fantasy realm. With her mother vanishing at the instance of her birth, she is sent to live with the cruel, rich Ma Dane, where she is punished daily for something, though she knows not what. Tauntingly named Beauty, she flees Sago in a violent uprising that sets out to massacre all Magics and journeys to the furthest point of the country. But Beauty cannot hide in the grassy Hillands forever. Before long, the State officials find her and threaten to take her back to war-torn Sago where death surely awaits. In a midnight blizzard she escapes them, running into a deep, enchanted forest to a great and terrible beast who will bargain for her life. But can Beauty accept Beast? Eternity is a long time.

Rose of the Oath: A Beauty and the Beast Novella


Hope Ann - 2022
    But there’s no arguing with the strange, scarred host of a hidden valley who’s taken her brother captive. Without the resources to mount a rescue, Elissa desperately settles for the next best thing: exchanging her freedom for her brother.But the longer she stays in the valley, the more Elissa realizes it isn’t just her prison. It holds secrets that her host jealously guards. Secrets that could hold the key to her escape. Except maybe the curse isn’t a curse at all. And maybe secrets are the only thing keeping her alive. A Beauty and the Beast retelling, Rose of the Oath weaves the timeless elements of roses and captors and beauties with deeper shades of betrayal, sorrow, and sacrifice.The first novella in the Legends of Light series, this short novel is a stand-alone story and contains a handful of allegorical themes.

The Beast and the Enchantress


Camille Peters - 2021
    But when an egocentric prince breaks her sister’s heart, Astrid’s only focus is revenge, and what better way to enact it than with a well-chosen curse? A simple incantation is all it takes to transform the arrogant prince's appearance to match the state of his heart. But something goes wrong, causing the spell to affect not only the prince, but its caster as well. As the curse begins to change her appearance to reflect the state of her own vengeful heart, Astrid becomes desperate to break it at all costs, even if it means entering the castle in disguise and interacting with the prince she loathes.To her surprise, Astrid encounters not a conceited prince, but one very different from the one she cursed. She soon finds her heart softening, but not in the way she expects—she’s losing it to the cursed prince she has vowed to hate. The closer they become, the more desperate Astrid is to free the prince, and herself, from the curse. But in so doing, she may lose the man she loves forever. For how could a prince ever love the woman who turned him into a beast? The Beast and the Enchantress is one of twelve short novels in A Villain's Ever After, a collection of stand-alone stories featuring villainous twists on some of your favorite classic fairy tales. Read the series in any order for magical adventures . . . and fall in love with villains as you've never seen them before. Who said villains can't have happily-ever-afters?

Gilded Rose


Emma Hamm - 2019
    The world is plagued by creatures called the Dread, and the monster who's captured me is their king. But no matter how hard I try to get away, there's no escaping him. Not when he's magically bound to turn me into one of his creatures. When I discover he wasn’t supposed to destroy cities—that he’s one of the Celestials meant to save humanity—I realize my only hope of survival is breaking his curse. The one that turned him into a beast. But as I uncover the truth to break his curse, I begin to wonder if I’ve lost myself in the process... Can I still escape him? Or has he taken my heart forever? Fans of Robin McKinley and Grimm will fall in love with this twisted fairytale retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Bryony and Roses


T. Kingfisher - 2015
    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? Armed only with gardening shears and her wits, Bryony must untangle the secrets of the house before she—or the Beast—are swallowed by them.

A Happily Ever After of Her Own


Nadia Lee - 2009
    They offer her a deal: Find Beauty, who left the story when Melinda trespassed into it, or be charged with the ultimate crime -- Fairy Tale Killer. If that's not bad enough the Beast tags along in search of his true love, and Melinda starts falling for the fairy tale prince. She must choose between doing the right thing and having her own happily ever after.Warning: This title contains the following: Fairy Godmother, the Wicked Witch, dysfunctional fairy tale families, ax-wielding executioners and a happily ever after (or two).

Coiled


H.L. Burke - 2017
    A hideous face. A looming curse. As the ugly twin to a perfect sister, Princess Laidra lives her life in the shadows—until her parents offer her as bait for a giant serpent. Her escape attempt leaves her shipwrecked on a secluded island with only one inhabitant: Prince Calen, who lives under a curse. If anyone looks upon him, he turns into a giant serpent. Speaking to him in the darkness, Laidra sees past the monster to Calen’s lonely soul, and she determines to free him from the magic’s hold. But if Laidra can’t break the curse in time, Calen will become a mindless creature of scales and fangs forever. A YA mythology/romance that retells the myth of Eros and Psyche with adventure, magic, and true love.

All for a Rose


Jennifer Blackstream - 2015
    May contain spoilers for books in the Blood Prince series. A Man Becoming a Beast..The naga lord Daman is trapped between forms, half man half wyvern. Once the savior of enslaved changelings all over the kingdom of Sanguenay, Daman is now a danger to everyone around him. The curse that holds him prisoner in his own skin and scales keeps him in a constant state of imbalance, his altruistic nature fighting with the quick and violent temper of his more bestial side. When his plan to capture the witch who cursed him fails and leaves him with a sweet and beautiful changeling, Daman finds himself with the perfect opportunity to prove to himself that he is more man than beast. But hope dies a little more every day, and with every passing sunset, Daman finds his temper growing more and more out of control… A changeling searching for freedom... Guilt is eating Gigi alive. Since her family lost their fortune and had to move out of their mansion to a poor farm, Gigi has never felt better--and her sister has never felt worse. It seems that every time Gigi digs her hands into the earth to work the farm, she feels stronger, and every time her sister even thinks about working the land, she grows weaker. Gigi’s existence is about easing her sister’s pain, and the guilt over wanting freedom from that responsibility is killing her. What does it say about her loyalty when she leaps at a chance to be the prisoner of a monster just to get away from being her sister’s keeper? And what does it say about her that this monster makes her feel more alive than she ever imagined? A tale as old as time… An enchanted rose. A witch’s curse. A beast’s temper. A maiden who can see the potential for good even beneath the scales of a monster. It’s amazing what can transpire… all for a Rose.