Beauty and the Werewolf is from the Tales of the 500 Kingdoms by Mercedes Lackey. All the books in this series so far have been enjoyable, easy to read and loosely based on a fairy tale.
Mercedes Lackey cleverly developed The Tradition, a sort of mindless force that wants to mold people into the traditional motifs: evil stepmothers, foolish older brothers, Cinderella, Snow White, so on and on. The Godmothers each handle one or more of the 500 Kingdoms, keep the peace and try to foil the worst of The Tradition’s impact on those step sisters, older brothers, step mothers.
I wasn’t immediately sure which fairy tale Beauty and the Werewolf was based on. True, the character Bella’s father is a rich merchant, and the title implies Sleeping Beauty. But Bella wore her father’s red riding coat with a hood to visit the local Granny when she ran into the unpleasant Woodsman and was attacked by a wolf. This is Little Red Riding Hood. There are liberal doses of Red Riding Hood but with a twist, plus Sleeping Beauty, but the story is unique and stands on its own.
Characters
The wolf that attacked Bella turns out to be Duke Sebastian, a werewolf, and Bella must spend 90 days confined to Sebastian’s castle to ensure that the bite she got does not turn her into a werewolf too. The book spends a bit too much time showing Bella as a somewhat self-centered, smug young lady, rather too sure of herself. She’s convinced that no one – not her step mother nor step sisters nor housekeeper – can run her family’s home in her absence. And she’s angry at Sebastian for biting her and at the king for imprisoning her.
What helps Bella develop a personality and us to enjoy the book is the Woodsman / Gamekeeper, Sebastian’s illegitimate half brother Eric. Eric takes Bella out with him to look for poachers (and for his own reasons) and Bella is glad to go out. She realizes that Eric is too likely to see her as fair pickings and she decides to act more like a boy, dress in Sebastian’s old clothes and act as Eric’s assistant.
The other change is Sebastian asks Bella to help him with his magic and (of course) Bella discovers she has a talent for wizardry. She helps Sebastian find a way to keep his wolf instincts under control and everything ends happily for all except the villain.
Summary
Overall I liked this among the best of the 500 Kingdoms novels. The people were real, although I wanted to yell at Bella a few times when she was being particularly self righteous. The villain was all too easy to spot, the magic was understated and more or less normal, the Godmother was there but not the omnipotent power. The romance had time to develop and was a bit obvious but still fun and a reasonable part of the plot.
Like all the 500 Kingdoms novels this was a fun, fast read. Take an evening and enjoy!
Leave a Reply