Short Synopsis
A fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a flipped script in which the Beauty becomes the Beast.

Full Synopsis
It's pointless. Hopeless. Even if she weren't afraid of me, we'll always be enemies at the core . . .

In the city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra is raised to be a human sacrifice. Her death will ensure her city's vitality.

In the desert, a mutant beast named Gem fights to save his people, known as the Monstrous, from starvation.

Neither dreams that, together, they can return balance to their worlds. When Gem is captured for trying to steal Yuan's enchanted roses, he becomes a prisoner of the city. Isra enlists his help, and soon begins to care for him—and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

She's a queen; I'm her prisoner. I am her monster and she is mine.

"There is a personal, romantic side to their struggle, but it's the ideological, cultural, and cosmic perils that threaten to overwhelm them." ---Publishers Weekly

"A satisfying read for fans of romantic fantasy." ---School Library Journal

"Between the author's imaginative blending of ideology and romance, and Whelan's evocation of true humanity in both Isra and Gem, this should reel in young idealists and cynics alike." ---AudioFile

AudioFile Earphones Award Winner