"As soon as you believe you are a monster is when you become one." After many years of war, the kingdom of Edria is finally in an era of peace--peace obtained by one thing and one thing only. A deal. King Regol has made a deal with the devil, or rather, a beast. A monster. Or so he claims. When he uses the deal for his own advantage, he threatens a girl named Zara, who has had everything but her family taken away. Zara is ordered to kill the beast Regol made a deal with, unbenownst to her that the deal even exists. When her attempt fails, she is left with two choices: to never go back home, or to learn from the beast so she can take back what is hers. She faces dangers on the castle grounds she thought were only stories; magic, creatures that kill a person in a single puff of air, and lastly, the beast, who can barely control the darkness that has buried itself in him for years. The longer she is on the castle grounds, however, the more she realizes everything is more than it seems... ...and that she has a power she could only dream about. **** A retelling of Beauty and the Beast Wonderful cover by @nicegirlsreadbooks Highest rank: #1 in Fantasy #4 in Adventure

Ari Callahan has no idea how to talk to boys -- or how to talk to anyone for that matter. Enter Zac, the cute new guy in town who won't stop texting her. But is his interest real, or does he have a hidden agenda? ***** Found as a young child washed up on the beach, 17-year-old Ari Callahan has never uttered a word out loud to anyone -- not even her adoptive family. Psychologists have diagnosed her with a condition called selective mutism, but Ari can't help identifying with her namesake character, Ariel, the little mermaid in the fairytale whose voice was stolen by a sea witch. Mermaid-obsession aside, Ari's silence makes socializing tough. She's never had a boyfriend or been asked out on a date. Not until Zac, the confident new arrival in town, asks for her number. But Zac has his own reasons for texting with Ari. He's part of a movement to sabotage the artificial music app called SirenSong, threatening to render human singing obsolete. Zac's collaborators have scoured the globe in search of a singing voice perfect enough to break the SirenSong spell, and their search has led them straight to Ari's beachside town. Will her relationship with Zac help Ari find her voice and unlock the secrets of her origins? Or will he use her and leave her high and dry? Title: Ari and Zac (formerly The Mermaid Hypothesis) Content Warning: This story contains references to selective mutism, suicidal thoughts, and early childhood trauma.