"Beauty and the Vampire, Book 1 (A Paranormal Retelling of Beauty and the Beast)" by Demelza Brown, Em Brown

Current Tags

vampire romance, dark romance, fairy tale, historical romance, adult paranormal romance, bwwm interracial romance

Categories

Romance / Paranormal

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Beauty and the Vampire, Book 1

Author's Description

This vampire is worse than a beast... Daliyah, an oppressed indentured servant, yearns only for her freedom. When she finds herself trapped at Castle Blackbourne, it's not just her freedom that's in peril. If she succumbs to Lord Blackbourne's thirst for blood and flesh, her body will be his to ravage and her life his to drain. If you like your fairy tales dark and steamy, enter the darkness of Beauty and the Vampire today.

Why I Chose it

I know, I know, this is at least the third retelling of Beauty and the Beast I've featured, and each time I've sworn I don't like fairy tale retellings.

But hear me out — the characters introduced in the first episode here are so well drawn, who cares if it's a retelling? By the end of the first episode, I care about what happens to the main character. Other characters have made bad choices, but I understand why they did and I even sort of agree with those choices, even while I hate the character (as I'm meant to).

I guess what I'm saying is that the writing on this one is excellent and you should give it a try.

[22 episodes, 22 in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

If a retelling of Beauty & the Beast with vampires and themes of class and race sounds like a great mix (and it should!), check this one out!

Unrelated Griping

What I've learned from the "Humor" category on Vella is a whole lot of people think they're funnier than they are. So... kind of like life.

"The Vampire's Courtesan" by Sami Valentine

Current Tags

witches, vampires, time travel, paranormal, urban fantasy, dark, historical

Categories

Paranormal / Historical Fiction

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The Vampire's Courtesan

Author's Description

In 1899, the dead rule the night. Juniper is a courtesan, claimed by Lucas Crawford and forced to serve his infamous vampire family. Ordered to Prague, she must recruit their latest victims. Friendship with the handsome butler, Kristoff Novak, is dangerous to her plans. He's fated to die. Her future depends on it. Can she fight destiny? The Vampire's Courtesan is a dark urban fantasy. Think Outlander meets Trueblood. This is a prequel to the book series "the Red Witch Chronicles."

Why I Chose it

This one starts with a vampire killing a human, so it's clear right from the start that these aren't cuddly misunderstood vamps just waiting to fall in love with the right human. No. These are predators, and not particularly nice ones at that. But they own Juniper and she's on a short leash. Worse, she's responsible for setting up a household in Prague, complete with staff who will be prey for her masters when they arrive. But Juniper has plans...

Anyhow, the writing is solid and it's clear the author has done their homework on the world building.

[33 episodes so far, with 2 updates in the last 30 days. (I believe this is a complete season.)]

Who Might Like This

Fans of historical urban fantasy should check this out!

Unrelated Griping

I was listening to a podcast from earlier this year in which one of the authors whose story has consistently been at or near the top slot for months was talking about how great Vella was. And after half an hour she said something about how she was only making $100 from episode reads in a month...

Now I understand why they are doing monthly bonuses. If the person getting the highest number of episodes read on the entire application is only making $100 from the coins used, there's no hope of making a living wage aside from bonuses.

Update: My new story (published five days ago) still isn't showing up in the "Recently Added Stories" section.