Brendan & the Beast

[lb_lee]

Miranda: Long ago, in the distant high school past, I read on fanfiction.net a queer Beauty and the Beast retelling called Brendan and the Beast. It was started in 2001. In 2011 (I think), the author completed it, but I had long since lost track of it by then.

A couple months ago, the author self-published it in ebook and paperback forms, and since Biff and I did all the packing and moving logistics, I declared myself deserving of a reward and bought a copy. If nothing else, I wanted to reward the author for plugging away for 20+ years and find out how it ended!

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, and for many a year, I have pursued a retelling that contained:

• No magical transformation at the end
• Romance as its primary goal
• Happy ending
• At least one good smooch

This proved surprisingly difficult to find! I could find stories with no magical transformation, but they either had tragic endings or a sad lack of romance. But now I can lay down my geas, for at long last, I have found my smoochy book.

Brendan & the Beast is one of those romances where you are there for the two main leads. That is where all its strengths lie, their chemistry and banter. If that doesn't please you, this book will not succeed, but it pleased me very much; I couldn't put it down. It has some rough copyediting that one associates with self-published books, but that doesn't bother me. If I want more polished Beauty and the Beast retellings that DON'T scratch my itch, I can easily name half a dozen. This book gave me exactly what I wanted, and I am very happy with it.

And now it is on my shelf, the sole fiction prose book we have that is over 300 pages.

Congratulations, Fox Beckwith, for finishing a book after twenty years! Well done on such a long-haul labor of love!

Comments

[numb3r_5ev3n]

That's awesome. I can think of a few fics from back in the day that I wish that would happen to.