Beauty and the Horrid Beast

In the quiet village of Oakhaven, Serafina, the pragmatic daughter of a master baker, grows weary of the superstitious whispers surrounding the derelict Blackwood Manor. While the villagers fear the scarred groundskeeper Lucian, known as 'the Beast, ' Serafina finds a man burdened by an ancient, rotting duty. The manor is not merely a ruin; it is a sentient, parasitic entity that feeds on life, kept in a fitful slumber by a garden of magical roses. When Serafina unintentionally feeds the estate a piece of fruit, the house begins to awaken with a terrifying, primal hunger. Lucian reveals he is the last of the Blackwood lineage, bound by blood to serve as the house's final meal. As the manor starts to shift its walls and consume the surrounding forest, Serafina realizes that her knowledge of yeast and fermentation might be the key to subduing the monster. She proposes a desperate plan to create a 'poisoned' sourdough starter, fermented with Lucian's ancient blood, to induce a permanent coma in the house's central root system. Together, they must navigate the treacherous, changing corridors of the manor to reach its beating wooden heart. Their journey is a race against time, as the house attempts to digest them both while the village mob gathers at the gates with torches. In the end, Serafina and Lucian must sacrifice the estate's history to secure their own future and silence the beast within the walls forever. It is a tale of how the simplest of trades-baking-can overcome the most complex of curses.

Pagina's: 80, Paperback, Independently published