Tag Archives: beauty and the beast

Short Tuesday Returns! #43: “The Black Beast of Belterre” by Mary Jo Putney

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Short Tuesday makes a triumphant return this week–hurrah! Normally I reserve this spot for horror-tinged SFF, but I thought I’d do something a bit different this week, so actually turned to a novella by romance author Mary Jo Putney. It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling, which anyone who’s spent a little time around these parts will know is super interesting to me right now. You can buy it off Amazon for $1.99… (I receive no commission for this link.)

I really enjoyed this novella, which flew by for me in about an hour and a half. It’s branded as a Christmas novella, but Christmas has the smallest of influences on the story–I didn’t feel weird at all reading it in May. I didn’t much get along with the last work I read by Putney (strangely, also Christmas-themed), due to 3rd POV reasons, but I didn’t experience any of those frustrations here.

This is a tale as old as time (har har): a man with confidence problems reluctantly falls in love with a smart and charming beauty. It’s a retelling of the classic fairy tale, but sticks strictly to those bare roots of the story–the magic is in the budding romance between the MCs, rather than curses and talking teapots. I was definitely aching for these two MCs to get together; the male MC’s insta-love wasn’t off-putting to me at all. A fair warning that anyone looking for sex scenes won’t find them here–there is definitely romantic longing and tension, but the one sex scene is top down and detail-free. I wouldn’t have minded things to get a bit more X-rated, but I can understand from a pacing standpoint why Putney didn’t go there.

I’m really happy I read this short story–one, because I’m on a Beauty and the Beast tear, but also because it gave me a second chance to read this author. I think we might have gotten off on the wrong footing; I’ll probably give one of Putney’s full-fledged novels a chance some time. This novella definitely has a thumbs up from me. 🙂

The NaNoWriMo 20 Questions Tag!

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I saw this awesome tag over on Sophie’s blog, and since we’re almost into NaNo season I thought it would be a super fun tag to do! Thanks for putting this together, Sophie. 🙂

Rules

  1. Thank the awesome blogger who tagged you!
  2. Link back to the creator of this tag, Sophie @ Sophie’s Corner. (I want to hear about your NaNo novels!!)
  3. Feel free to use the NaNoWriMo 20 Questions Tag graphics!
  4. Answer the questions.
  5. Tag some friends who are also doing NaNo this year.
  6. And have fun!!!

Tell me about your NaNoWriMo project this year! Give me a blurb!

I’m mostly a discovery writer, which means writing a blurb is nigh on impossible since I don’t know most details of the story until I get to them, but I’ll give the briefest of hooks:

A girl takes her father’s place in an alien abduction gone awry, only to find that her surly extraterrestrial captor may not be the villain he at first appears.

What’s the genre?

Sci-fi fairy tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast!

Describe your MC in three words.

Intelligent, brave, beautiful (I mean, this is Beauty and the Beast lol)

Without spoilers, describe your villain in three words.

Manipulative, tenacious, handsome (can you all guess who I’m talking about? :P)

What is your goal? (the traditional 50K? 20K? 5K? or……. 100K?)

I think I’m going for 21k, which is 700 words/day. I’m a slow writer, for better or for worse. :/

Is this your first draft? Second? Third?

First draft! Ugh, drafting is the worst.

Are you starting a new project (or draft), or continuing an existing one?

I’m continuing an existing draft, which is about 14,000 words long at the moment.

What is your favourite time to write in the day?

Any time I can write with friends, whether that’s after work or in the morning. Having friends with me for “butt in chair” time makes it sooooo much easier to make progress.

Where are you going to write?

At home, at work, at NaNo meetups… Anywhere I can!

Computer or paper?

Computer, using the writing service Dabble. Oh my God, I could never draft on paper. I revise my sentences so much that the paper would be all scratched out scribbles.

NaNoWriMo is a huge commitment!! How are you going to make time to write?

I’m fortunate enough to have some downtime at work right now, so I’m able to write during the day. Also, I’ve actually taken a few days off of work in November to focus on NaNo!

Are you going to participate in local or online NaNoWriMo events? (e.g. kick-off parties in your city, write-ins, virtual writing sprints…)

Yes, absolutely! NaNo events are how I met most of my writer friends. This will be my fourth anniversary for some of my NaNo friendships! ❤

Do you write from beginning to end or skip around?

Beginning to end. I’m a super linear writer, mostly because I’m by-and-large a pantser.

Planner or pantser? (or plantser?)

Plantser, with an emphasis on the pants. I do my best to plan, but things always go awry, and I find my most creative ideas are spur-of-the-moment inventions!

What will be your go-to NaNoWriMo snack?

Hrmm, I mostly write in coffee shops where there are abundant, tempting baked goods. That is not what I need to be eating right now, so… string cheese? Haha, that’s my go-to if I’m at a Starbucks.

Choice of caffeine? (or no caffeine?)

Teaaaaaaaa. Doesn’t matter if there’s caffeine in it or not, just give me an infinite supply, preferably hot and loose-leaf.

Any rewards for milestone achievements? For finishing NaNoWriMo?

Maybe I’ll buy myself a nice pair of shoes; that’s what I did as a reward for finishing my first book. 🙂

Share a tip for other NaNo-ers!

Go to the events! The camaraderie makes it way easier to get words on the page.

Also, try to end each day in the middle of a scene, or even in the middle of a sentence. It makes it easier to start writing again the next day.

How are you feeling about NaNoWriMo? (Excited?! Nervous!? Terrified?!)

Excited and scared, since this book is much more vague in my mind than previous projects. I need to do whatever planning I can prior to November 1st!

Share an aesthetic for your NaNoWriMo novel!

Since I’m not sure who’s doing NaNo, I tag everybody!! 😀 Thanks again to Sophie for creating the tag!

Leave a line down below if you’re doing NaNo this year! What’s your project about?

The Shape of Water by Daniel Kraus and Guillermo del Toro

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Man, it must be kind of a strange spot to be in for an author to 1) be really good at writing and storytelling; 2) sit down for breakfast with a famous director; 3) have said director broker a deal where he crafts your unformed book idea into a movie that wins Best Picture, while you get to write the book at the same time; 4) understand (because you’re really good at writing and storytelling) that the movie is actually total crap and didn’t deserve Best Picture, while your awesome book gets sidelined by the stigma that it’s a lame movie adaptation.

Imagine me, reading Kraus’s fantastic book, then finishing it and heading to YouTube immediately to rent the movie. (I should have learned my lesson from Bird Box that this will always result in disappointment.) I can’t wait to see the opening bit in the rainforest! I thought to myself as I punched in my credit card information. In my mind, I was conjuring up gritty, surreal jungle scenes à la Apocalypse Now. Which is a fucking great movie, by the way. I am not a movie hater, I swear!

I don’t care how many awards the Academy threw at The Shape of Water; the movie is garbage from start to finish. The characterizations are the definition of surface level. Characters make bizarre choices, such as making out with a chimp-like creature that just devoured a cat, or giving up crucial information that will kill others when they themselves are about to die, so why not take your secrets to the grave and die a hero?

And while watching all of this horror unfold, I had to wonder, how many of these awful story choices did Kraus have to write into his book because he knew the movie was coming out? How much better could the book have been if he hadn’t been dealing with the movie deal? As things are, I can only give this book four stars, because some of the questionable aspects of the movie are also part of the book.

But it’s still very, very good. Kraus has such a unique voice that makes each scene absolutely transportive. It was so refreshing to read a book by an author with a wiiiiiiiide vocabulary; I had my dictionary app in hand many a time while reading! And the characters that are so surface level in the movie are allowed to unfurl to a full-fledged form in the book. I particularly enjoyed Strickland’s character, detestable as he is.

Perhaps most importantly, what felt like bestiality in the movie was a much more nuanced relationship in the book. I’m in full Beauty and the Beast research mode for my current work-in-progress—that was the whole point of reading the book in the first place—and it delivered in spades.

So basically, I will definitely be picking up more work by Kraus (he has a YA book about aliens coming out next year, which is soooo up my alley right now!), but del Toro and I are officially done.

Fairy Tale Romance: My Passionate Love Affair With Eloisa James’s Books

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Those of you who have been around a while might know that I’m on a quest of sorts to get to know the romance genre better. I was pretty sure that Eloisa James would be an author whose style I’d like, so with that in mind, I picked up some of her fairy tale-inspired romances.

Oh. My. God. I can’t get enough of them. I never used to really understand the addictive nature of the romance genre, but I get it now. So I thought I’d give some quick reviews for the three I’ve read so far. I will undoubtedly be reading more from James in the near future, and I recommend her books for anyone who is interested in the genre but isn’t exactly sure where to start. Just so you know, these are all very loose fairy tale retellings—they have a fairly whimsical tone and are not at all fantasy.

The Duke Is Mine is inspired by “The Princess and the Pea.” Just like in the original tale, the heroine arrives at a manor one stormy night soaked through to the bone. In James’s version, her destined duke greets her at the door and is immediately wildly attracted to her—a sodden gown clinging to every curve will do that. 😉 Too bad she’s engaged to a simpleton and is really only visiting the duke’s estate as her sister’s chaperone; it’s the sister who is being tested as the possible duchess-to-be.

I really liked this book; the female MC is sassy yet honorable. I’m a sucker for sister relationships in stories, and this one is really cute. It also handles neurological disorders in a sensitive, sensible matter. The duke love interest has an Asperger’s-like disorder, and the MC’s betrothed, who is mentally handicapped due to a temporary loss of oxygen at birth, is depicted respectfully. Out of the three here, I’d say this book is great for a first impression of James’s work.

Once Upon a Tower is of course inspired by the tale of Rapunzel. Of the three books of James that I’ve read, this one is the most “realistic.” The female and male MC are both quite young and sexually inexperienced. The chemistry between them is very strong, but when they get married, their inexperience in the bedroom introduces major tension into the relationship; I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more realistic and raw depiction of a young couple’s sexual struggles. I even read their first unfortunate sexcapade out loud to my husband. His response? “Oh, damn.“

So this is a more serious read than the other two here, and it will really pull at your heart strings. I’d also recommend it to any classical music fans out there; the female MC is an expert cellist, and James has really done her homework in this department.

I’m not sure exactly how to put this in a blog-appropriate manner. Umm… When Beauty Tamed the Beast threw me into a strong romantic tizzy. I knew, in a clinical sort of way, that romance books had the ability to do that—but didn’t ever really expect it to happen to me.

Well, we all get proven wrong sometimes. This is a book that will please female readers and indirectly please their romantic partners. You catch my drift? ;D I’d give this ten out of five stars if I could.

Have you read any great romance books lately? Do you tend more towards contemporary, historical, or paranormal? Leave your recommendations down below!