The Beast and the Beauty: A Literary Retelling (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798218534899)

A lyrical retelling honors the classic themes of Beauty and The Beast through a memorably original place and time...

In bustling 1920's London, recently unemployed and ambitious Meg Stewart cannot curb a certain interest when a genial, and perhaps just mildly eccentric man of the law proposes a most extraordinary offer. He has been charged in all haste to seek a new acting president for a burgeoning coastal vineyard and what's more, find a buyer for the accompanying cliff-house that overlooks Italy's unparalleled Amalfi Coast. Greatly to Meg's astonishment, she learns both prizes can become instantly and permanently hers...all she need do is agree to three little requests which sound more mundane and easier to manage than watching her enigmatic Siamese cat slip out of sight!

Yet there are reasons behind why her new cottage, despite all its charms, has stood vacant for so long...

There is a reason why so many of the previous owner's family heirlooms yet watch over every room...

There is a reason this modest house carries the singular name "Kyōi", wondrous thing...

For Meg is about to discover that in ways unfathomable, her home is entwined like the vines of roses to the heart of a man Meg has never met, but who is about to ask the impossible of her...