Title: Beauty and Beastly
Author: Melanie Karsak
Publication Date: Dec. 6, 2017
Find: Amazon | Goodreads
In this tale as old as time, Isabelle Hawking must tinker a solution to a heartbreaking mystery.
When Isabelle Hawking and her papa set out from London on a sea voyage, Isabelle is thrilled. Visiting foreign courts, learning from master tinkers, and studying mechanicals is her dream. And it doesn’t hurt that the trip also offers Isabelle an escape from her overbearing and unwanted suitor, Gerard LeBoeuf.
But Isabelle never arrives. Swept up in a tempest, her ship is lost.
Isabelle survives the storm only to be shipwrecked on a seemingly-deserted island. The magical place, dotted with standing stones, faerie mounds, and a crumbling castle, hints of an ancient past. Isabelle may be an unwilling guest, but her arrival marks a new beginning for the beastly residents of this forgotten land.
See how NY Times bestselling author Melanie Karsak puts a steampunk spin on the classic Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Melanie Karsak is the author of The Airship Racing Chronicles, The Harvesting Series, The Burnt Earth Series, The Celtic Blood Series and Steampunk Fairy Tales. A steampunk connoisseur, zombie whisperer, and heir to the iron throne, the author currently lives in Florida with her husband and two children. She is an Instructor of English at Eastern Florida State College.
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Clockwork Island
“She’s coming around,” a soft, feminine voice said. “Go tell him.”
A pair of feet clomped heavily across the floor followed by the sound of a door opening and closing.
My head ached miserably, and I felt ill. I was lying in a warm and comfortable bed. I hated to open my eyes, but it wouldn’t due to leave my hosts worrying about me after I fainted at the doorstep.
I opened my eyes and sat up slowly. I sat nestled in a massive poster bed. Sheer drapes had been drawn to mute the sunlight.
“Awake, mistress?” a soft voice called.
“Yes, thank you.”
“You gave us a fright. You’ve been out for two days. You had a very nasty bump on the back of your head.”
“I was shipwrecked.”
“Indeed?”
“Are there any other survivors here? My father… We were separated in the wreck. Any of the other passengers or sailors wash ashore?”
“I have a pot of tea ready for you and a bite to eat,” the woman said. “Let me bring your tray.”
I sat up, adjusting myself in bed and coaching myself to be patient. I was a guest here, after all.
The woman pulled the drape aside. “You need to eat, mistress. You’ll need to get your strength back. Mistress… My name is Missus Silver. Please, don’t be frightened.”
“Frightened?”
I stopped fluffing the pillows and looked up at the woman. My breath caught in my chest. Standing at my bedside holding a breakfast tray was an automaton. My mind flung back to the night I’d arrived and the hulking creature I’d seen in the hall. I hadn’t hallucinated it. It was real, and so was the creature standing before me.
She looked every bit like a woman. She even had a mop of curls frozen in bronze, but her face had been made of porcelain. Where she should have had eyes, there were bright blue optics. Her mouth was jointed so it could open and close. She wore the gown of a maid with a long white apron and cap, but the dress was out of fashion, worn, and ripped at the seams. Her movements told me her entire body was machine.
