Welcome to part 2 of my series on fairy tale retellings!

Other parts in this series:
Fairy Tale Retellings: Cinderella
Fairy Tale Retellings; Beauty & the Beast
MORE COMING SOON!

Along with Cinderella, Beauty & the Beast is one of the most popular fairy tales. This is totally shown in how VAST an array of retellings there are! If you want to learn more about this fairy tale, check out the Beauty & the Beast page on SurLaLune for the full annotated tale, a history of the Cinderella tale, a gallery of beautiful illustrations, examples of this story across many different cultures, and more. Beauty & the Beast is really interesting because, unlike many popular fairy tales, we can actually trace the origins of this tale!

There are a LOT of Beauty & The Beast retellings out there, so I’ve tried to sort them into some rough categories: Contemporary Romance, Historical Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi/Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/Steampunk, YA Fantasy, YA Contemporary & Historical. I’ve also included retellings of East of the Sun and West of the Moon here because it’s a variation on this tale type (and I love this variation!) Also, some of these are fairly loose retellings, especially the historicals. Are you ready? Let’s go!

Contemporary Romance

In Contemporary Romance, the Beast character seems to usually be some variation on a giant asshole, and usually one with a fair amount of power either because he’s super rich or he’s in some sort of position of leadership. I suppose that’s one way to translate a character who is secretly a prince into the modern day?

• Beauty and the Biker by Jamila Jasper
• The Troll Whisperer by Sera Trevor
• Beauty and the Billionaire by Jessica Clare
• The Vixen and the Vet by Katy Regnery
• Beast by Pepper Pace
• Mistress to the Beast by Eve Vaughn
• Stealing Beauty by Jessica Collins

Historical Romance

Historical Romance as a genre seems to embrace the Beast character as a man who is heavily scarred or disfigured in some way, and is typically grumpy but not always as much of an outright asshole as Contemporary Romance seems to cast him. Sometimes he’s reclusive because he has a disability that makes him less accepted by the ton.

• When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James
• The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
• Beast by Judith Ivory
• With This Kiss by Victoria Lynne
• A Duke Changes Everything by Christy Carlyle
• Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros
• The Bride and the Beast by Teresa Medeiros
• He’s No Prince Charming by Elle Daniels
• Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
• Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare
• Ravished by Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz
• To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt
• The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley
• When She Said I Do by Celeste Bradley
• He’s No Prince Charming by Elle Daniels

Fantasy

The Fantasy setting opens the storyline back up for the Beast character to be an ACTUAL beast, or under some type of magical curse.

• The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey
• Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey
• Beauty & The Beast & The Enchantress by Finley Aaron
• A Tale of Beauty and Beast by Melanie Cellier
• Shadow and Thorn by Kenley Davidson
• The Winter King by C.L. Wilson
• The Hob’s Bargain by Patricia Briggs
• Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher
• Dragon Rose by Christine Pope
• Beauty and the Goblin King by Lidiya Foxglove
• Taming the Beast by Heather Grothaus

Sci-Fi/Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/Steampunk

Paranormal Romance has a fun time casting shifters of various stripes in the role of the Beast, which I suppose is fitting. Like Contemporary Romance, there are also a lot of grumpy and alphahole heroes in these subgenres as well. Sci-fi also opens it up for the story to be on of alien abduction – fun!! A lot of these ones are on Kindle Unlimited, so I wonder what’s up with that?

• The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro
• Shadow Fires by Catherine Spangler
• Completely Smitten by Kristine Grayson
• Cursed by Nila Young
• Beauty and the Alien Beast by Zara Zenia
• Demon From The Dark by Kresley Cole
• Firelight by Kristen Callihan
• Goddess of the Rose by P.C. Cast
• A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole
• Beast in Shining Armor by Cassandra Gannon
• The Beast’s Bride by Jill Myles
• Loving an Ugly Beast by Danielle Monsch
• Ensnared by Rita Stradling
• Bellamy and The Brute by Alicia Michaels

YA Fantasy

Like adult Fantasy, the YA Fantasy spectrum is where we see the most straightforward retellings.

• Belle by Cameron Dokey
• Twisted by Kaylin Lee
• A Bear’s Bride by Shari L. Tapscott
• Beauty and the Beast by K. M. Shea
• Troll Magic by J.M. Ney-Grimm
• Before Beauty by Brittany Fichter
• Beast by Donna Jo Napoli
• Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
• Beauty by Robin McKinley
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
• Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
• Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• East by Edith Pattou
• Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George
• A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
• Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen

YA Contemporary & Historical

For whatever reason, I couldn’t find a lot of YA retellings that weren’t pretty heavily fantasy. Maybe because it’s hard to put a beast character in a jr. high or high school setting? These guys haven’t grown into their alphahole-ness yet? I’m not sure…

• Beastly by Alex Flinn
• Spirited by Nancy Holder

So there you have it – my massive list of Beauty & the Beast retellings! What’s your favorite version of this story? Did I miss any great ones? And what is it about this story that makes it so immensely popular?
Let me know in the comments!