Briarley

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A sweet, chaste m/m retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Zero steam. It's quite short – I was able to read it in a manner of hours. I don't think it needed to be any longer, either. There is minimal character development, but it isn't really needed for the type of story that this one is. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure that I'll ever pick it up again. It did what it needed to do, and there isn't much replay value for me here.

The romance itself was only minorly believable – it seems that one day they just sort of...decide to love each other? There was minimal courting, and almost no tension at all. As for the Beauty and the Beast bits – it has an enchanted manor, rose, invisible servants, and of course, the beast himself. This ‘beast' is actually a man cursed to be a dragon. That was very original, and I did enjoy that bit. There just wasn't much character to go on here. The parson had more to him, but by the end of the book we don't know much about Briarly at all.

Overall, this one was just sort of meh?

I had been eyeing this for a bit (wooed by the cover because I'm shallow like that) but sort of iffy because I'm not a giant fan of fairytales. Imagine my surprise at being gobsmacked by this clever retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Oddly enough it was Florence's review of a separate book that gave me the needed push. Thank you. The story takes the basic structure of B&B but [a:Aster Glenn Gray 18008035 Aster Glenn Gray https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png] makes it wholly original and her own. No Disney sugary sweetness in sight. Instead we get British stiff upper in the face of daunting odds. The author transfers the story to England in 1940, when the British were getting pummeled by the Nazis and there was no clear path out of the darkness, figurative and literal. The Beast's curse has turned him into a dragon, fire breathing, winged, and scaly skin included. The parson doesn't barter his daughter for his freedom, but remains himself and tries to puzzle out how to help this exasperating man. I loved everything about this, the writing, the clever plot twists, the way the characters held true to how people of their time would think while, at least as pertains the parson, being expansive enough in thought to encompass different ways of being. I loved that the women in the story were not hapless damsels but rather courageous, enterprising, and smart. My cold heart melted at how love was manifested in so many different iterations. The ending is bittersweet, the characters are still living in England during WWII, but I suspect that we wouldn't read romance if we weren't optimists at heart. Also for those interested there is no heat scorching smex and I was glad of it. Instead I was left dreaming of cottage in the English country side where two men, one older and one younger, could soothe each other's wounds after surviving a hundred year curse and WWII. Perhaps with some not-perfect puppies to boot.The image of a dragon-man with a puppy in his lap is the stuff dreams are made of

The only Beauty and the Beast I'm familiar with is the Disney film so that's all I can compare this to, but it seems an entirely different story. Instead of Belle we have Rose and she never meets the Beast - it's her parson father instead, English instead of French, who stays at the Beast's manor and meets the cursed staff (merely invisible instead of turned into furniture) and ends up falling in love with the Beast to break the curse despite his dragon-like appearance. I would be interested to know if this is more similar to the book because I feel the dragon features is an interesting choice, including the ability to fly and breathe fire but still having human eyes and body. The ending is really abrupt so it didn't feel very satisfying but I find that happens with most short stories. This is more a novella so we don't get a lot of time to parse out their relationship so it does seem forced or rushed but it's still an enjoyable read.

3.5 stars. Lovely story, and having the beast (dragon) be a gay man provides a new set of dynamics to a classic story, as does setting it right in the middle of WWII. Bonus points for an adorable dog who helps melt the beast's heart.

But (and this is a big caveat), I didn't feel a sense of romantic love or passion between Edward the parson and Briarley the beast/dragon. I could believe they would be great friends who could bring comfort and companionship to each other, but not that they would be soul mates. Also the ending is bittersweet, (the two MCs love each other but realize they must go their separate ways for the duration of the war and could easily be killed before they are able to reunite) which seems misplaced in a fairy tale re-telling.

Gave me a lot to think about, and I would definitely check out future releases by the author.