Beauty and the Lesbian Beast: A Dark Fairytale

by Kitty Jones

A dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Eloise wants nothing more than to sit around town with her nose in a book. She's constantly avoiding the advances of the handsome men - and beautiful women - in town. She doesn't have time for love. She's too busy taking care of her aging father to take notice of anyone else, but when she's abducted on her way home from the library, everything changes.

She's taken to a castle where the normal rules of society don't seem to apply. She's told that she can never leave, that she can never escape, and that's been taken as a way to pay her father's debt to the most feared and vicious creature in all of Southaven: Genevieve.

Genevieve is a monster. At least, that's what Eloise has always heard, but when she's face to face with the beautiful princess, Eloise isn't quite so sure.

Genevieve is hiding something, and Eloise intends to find out.

Why isn't she allowed in the west wing?

Why are all of the servants so hesitant to talk to Eloise?

Worst of all, why does Eloise think there's more to the story regarding her abduction?

When Eloise has a chance to escape, she's faced with an impossible choice. Should she risk her life and run back to her father? Or should she stay with Genevieve to find out what she's hiding?

Author's note: this is an erotic lesbian romance with dubious consent, spankings, and kidnapping. Bring your tears - and maybe your vibrators - for this one.

Genres: Romance, Lesbian, Retellings, Adult, Erotica, BDSM, Fairy Tales

124 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 17, 2020

Reviews

[emily]

hm.. this wasn't for me. it's a bummer bc i actually think a modern bdsm relationship COULD rlly work to explore this fairytale as a retelling, but this just was super short, super surface level, not rlly interested in exloring the dynamics or the retelling much, and... tbh not even rlly just a fun erotica. like... it had the potential but it just didn't do anything with it.

[lauraღ]

Sadly, I didn't like this very much. I remember reading a short story by this author and really liking it, but all of her longer works that I've tried haven't really been for me. This is a dark Beauty and the Beast retelling. Genevieve holds Eloise captive as payment of a debt, and bends her to her will. I was completely on board for all of that, but the writing just... ooof. I felt like no one here had an actual personality, and there was really no believable build-up or romance. I won't devolve into listing nit-picks, but there were so many things I got irritated at. Even the scarred heroine (a trope I LOVE!!) wasn't even to make up for how flimsy the writing was. The smut was good, but otherwise this was a total miss.

Content warnings: captor/captive, dubious consent, BDSM elements, spanking 

[rie]

i desperately want an ADULT lesbian beauty and the beast retelling, unfortunately, this was just not good. like bafflingly badly written. as in this read like a zero draft that did not get worked on any further. the smut wasn’t even good either, they were typically two paragraphs of the same repetitive thing. but it was a quick read (because it didn’t require much of you) and was definitely entertaining.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader)]

2 stars. I already wasn’t enjoying this but then Genevieve slapped Eloise and bitch I was DONE! This was awful. Terribly written, plot holes galore, and unlikable characters. I've never seen someone fuck up a Beauty and the Beast retelling this bad.

[usha✿—]

“You’re hurting me.”
“Darling, I haven’t begun to hurt you.”

The cover is really pretty (I recognise the cover lady from Her Lady to Love!) BUT it doesn't match the general ambience of the story. Beauty and the Lesbian Beast is a modern lesbian retelling of the “Beauty and The Beast”—and Kitty Jones is as straightforward with the story as she is with her book title.

Eloise (Bella) comes from a small town which still has flip-phones and works in a library to support her father through his sickness and the loss of her mother. One night, she is kidnapped and delivered to Castle Blood, the house of the monstress—thats Mistress for you *wink*—Genevieve. While I have rated this book two stars (as in, I'm okay/neutral about the book/slight dislike), I really did find the overall story to be a refreshing take on the Beauty and the Beast story. The deceit of Eloise’s father and the story behind the “beast” makes the story work together really well—better than any other adaptation I've seen/read so far. It just fits so well together!

However, this is not a fantasy story. It is a modern/contemporary (not urban fantasy) romance. It lacks the two elements which are at the core of the B&B story: 1. Falling in love with a beast and, 2. The imminent death of the beast. Genevieve, the lesbian beast, is a human with a badly scarred face that she keeps hidden.

I have other issues with the story. First of all, despite the creativity of the storyline, the writing feels lazy—as if the author were trying to keep it as short as possible. If that was the agenda then kudos, there's hardly anything superfluous in the story. But I do believe that certain details and incidents could have been better fleshed out.

Then there's the language. I don't like to pick on grammar but the descriptions in the story could be better written than just: “There was a window. It was big.”

Then we come to the romance. It was appropriately “dark” because of the kidnapping and captivity, but there are no other trigger warnings here. However, considering that this was meant to be an erotica and a BDSM one on top of that, it fell too short. What is it with these BDSM books that claim to be all hot, raunchy and painfully erotic but turn out to be surprisingly vanilla and banal. Genevieve is supposed to be a villain and a Mistress but a bit of spanking is as far as she goes.

To put it shortly and simply, there wasn't enough sex. The sex wasn't hot. In the Amazon blurb the author tells us to bring tears and a vibrator. I did bring the latter, forgot about the former but I shouldn't have bothered since I didn't have any need for either of those. And it's definitely a problem when the main character’s interlude with a side character is hotter than that with the love interest.

I'd recommend it since there is a distinct dearth of lesbian retellings.

[Grendaycita Segovia]

2.7

[Gail]

First read of Ms. Jones and her clever retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast had enough twists and hooks to keep me happily entertained to the end. Eloise - book-loving and oblivious to her father's duplicity and Genevieve - mean, cruel and marred Beast are the leads in this dark tale with steamy scenes and the hope for a HEA. I look forward to more from this author.

I rec'd an ARC through Booksprout and this is an unbiased and voluntary review.

[Mx Phoebe]

Fairy-tale retellings have been a big thing this year and Kitty Jones adds their flavor to Beauty and the Beast. The tale is basically the same except there are no curses or magic involved. Jones does add some spanking, Domme/submission, and there is some fun, but not so much that I would label it erotica as it was tagged when I got it. To me, it was pretty tame especially when it comes to Eloise’s actions and Eloise and Genevieve’s actions together.

Beauty and the Lesbian Beast is a pretty tame retelling with no real change in characters or stories other than it is sapphic and there is some spanking involved. Jones does not really delve into the emotional aspects of BDSM.

Jones tells a tale as old as time with a sweet and tame happy-ending. If you are looking for a lesbian version of this tale, Jones supplies it in Beauty and the Lesbian Beast.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

[Edward Jackson]

A retelling of a fairy tale with a lesbian twist.

With a variation on the fairy tale, “Beauty and the Beast”, Genevieve and Eloise’s story make an entertaining pleasant read. Eloise , a bookish reserved girl is kidnapped and held captive by the hateful. mean. and cruel Genevieve. Their relationship grows into affection, and after finding the reality of her kidnapping, true satisfying love develops between them. I highly recommend the book.
I received this ARC of the book from the author for offering an honest review.

[Melanie]

This is the 3rd book I’ve read from this author and each book was progressively worse than the last. I feel like I gave this more leeway than I normally would’ve because it was sapphic and not a hetero retelling but this story was just such a letdown. The premise sounded solid and I feel like it had so much potential but the writing fell flat. Also the writer used wildly to describe everything! It was so repetitive it became a game whenever a new sentence was describing something or someone I knew it would be described as wildly itself

[Tammy]

A dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Eloise would rather keep her nose stuck in a book and care for her father than look for love. When she is abducted on her way home from the library, that all changes. She is taken to a castle where she can never leave to pay her father’s debt. Genevieve was supposed to be a beast instead she is beautiful, but what is she hiding? Fast-paced dark read with lots of steam and twists and turns. An entertaining story. I liked it.

[Douglas Williamson]

This is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale with a FF romance as the kicker. The story is well written and easy to read, with a lot of familiar elements as well as a few that are not. The story is good, as was the original. If there is any fault with it, it is that the story may not have gone far enough from the original. Nevertheless, it was a fun read and definitely worth it for anyone that enjoyed fairy tale retellings.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout for review purposes.

[Holli Eller]

This was a surprisingly easy read. The author does a good job of using the original source story as a way for both Eloise and Genevieve explore what it means to be together and in relationships. The smut scenes are spicy and in general, I found it to be a quick easy read.

[Alecto]

Dos estrellas por el esfuerzo, su intento de hacer sexy el Síndrome de Estocolmo funcionó un 2/10, pero la escritura me atrapó lo suficiente como para querer terminarlo y una estrella más para que la autora siga mejorando su trabajo.

[Minday Harris]

A nice smutty spin on beauty and the beast. It was a lesbian version, but you could tell by the title. It was different and good. I enjoyed it.

[Dalyall]

It was.. okay fell pretty flat for me

[Jay]

Beauty

Betrayed by her father but not trusting if that's the truth Eloise fights tooth and nail to get back to him all the while falling for the beast

[Lonely Witch]

Puntuación: ♡♡♡.5
Motivo de lectura: Recomendación sáfica de Goodreads.
Lectura/Relectura: lectura.
Biblioteca: Digital.

Me la pasé realmente bien. Una lectura ágil y sin complicaciones. Amor poco creíble, un desarrollo que pudo ser más amplio y detallitos por ahí, pero ameno a final de cuentas.

Además, a mí me ganan fácilmente los personajes como Genevieve: pasado oscuro, un amor que no se olvida, una historia de autocompasión mezclado con odio, dinámica dominante en la relación... ¡Ufff!

[katrina✨️]

1.5⭐️
girl i think it's time for a diary to put all your horny kinky fantasies in instead of publishing a book about it