SOLVED. YA (I think?) Fantasy series. Vaguely Beauty and the Beast Retelling. Girl is forced to live/work in castle where a guy is cursed, has wings, and is not very nice. Read around 2008-2013. [s]

[Grace]

Hi! I feel like this book was a fever dream and I've spent the last five hours trying to find it :')

Here are the details I remember:

1. It's a very vague Beauty and the Beast retelling from what I can recall. It's set in a medieval fantasy kind of setting (I believe) and a girl is forced to work/live in some castle where a monster/beast lives. From my recollection, he's basically just some guy with wings. For some reason, the words "pale" and "bloodless" pop into my head a lot when I think of him.
2. It's a series of at least two books (could be more), though I know I never read the second. I believe the first ends with the girl leaving somehow on a boat (perhaps with the help of someone, not sure) and the winged guy does try to stop her but he can't for some reason. I feel like I remember her telling him that she would be back.
3. I remember the girl's personality being kind of meek and I think she mended clothes at one point? The guy was mean lol. I think there was a subtle slow burn between them
4. I believe she leaves at the end to break some kind of curse involving the guy/castle, but not 100% sure on why she leaves
5. I honestly can't remember if this YA or not, I'm so sorry! I read it quite a while ago in 2008-2013 when I was doing a mix of YA and Adult fiction. It was definitely published no later than 2016.
6. I seem to remember the cover being brown and black tones, possibly with a person with wings on it.

I honestly can't even remember if it was a good book, but I feel like I'm going to go insane if I can't find it

[SBC]

Could it be The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce?

[Eskana]

Definitely sounding like The Darkangel, as mentioned above

[Sue]

I agree. She leaves on a boat to cross the Sea of Dust in the second book; A Gathering of Gargoyles.

[Grace]

YES!! Thank you so much that is definitely the book! No wonder I couldn’t find it since I was misremembering so much and wasn’t looking far enough back 😭

[SBC]

Great, I'm glad you found your book :)