A CURSE OF BEASTS AND MAGIC cover, excerpt, giveaway, and more!

I’m thrilled to reveal the cover for A CURSE OF BEASTS AND MAGIC, book one in my Beautiful & Beastly series, releasing May 26th, 2026!

DELUXE EDITION―featuring beautiful sprayed edges, a map, and illustrated endpapers!

New York Times bestselling author of The Night Huntress series Jeaniene Frost returns with a brand-new series! It’s Beauty and the Beast meets The Witcher, except Beauty IS the Beast, and he’s the Warden keeping mythical beings in check in our world and beyond.

Raine Stone is living a nightmare. Ever since she survived the attack that killed her family, she’s been hiding a terrible secret–and a Beast inside her. It feeds on violence and chaos, but she restrains its urges by playing vigilante on the city streets. Until one night, Raine uses the Beast’s energy to heal an elderly gentleman from a seemingly random attack and discovers a new world of danger―literally.

Remington “Remy” Byrne knows the wall between a realm of deadly mythic creatures and our own world is very fragile. After all, he’s the Warden who guards the gateways between them. Raine’s Beast contains power that could tip the scales in a sinister plot against Remy’s rule―if she allies with him.

Will they be friends or foes…or will their dangerous attraction turn into something else? And can our world be saved by their explosive alliance?

You can preorder your special limited edition hardcover at #AD Amazon, Barnes&Noble, BooksAMillion, IndieBound, Bookshop, Target, or your favorite book store. You can also preorder your ebook or audio book at these or other fine retailers. All formats will release simultaneously on May 26th, 2026.

A CURSE OF BEASTS AND MAGIC was originally called WHAT BEASTS THE NIGHT DREAMS, but the title changed. It is a Romantasy series featuring various supernatural creatures, such as our heroine’s Beast (NOT a werewolf, is all I’ll say), sorcerer-like Wardens, human/dragon hybrids, the Tuatha Dé Danann (commonly known as Fae), and more. See below for some of the tropes and themes you can expect.

And to celebrate this upcoming release, I’m holding a giveaway!

Author Charlaine Harris once said, “Here’s to books, the cheapest vacation you can buy.” I so agree with that sentiment! Let’s make it even more fun. If you could magically vacation in any BOOK WORLD, where would you go? Tell me for your chance to win one of these prizes!

THE RULES:

1. Send an email to  jfrostcontest AT gmail DOT com (obviously replace the “AT” with an “@” and the “DOT” with a “.” in your email) and tell me where you’d magically vacation if you could enter any author’s book world.

2. Include your name, the email address you want to be contacted at if you win (if it’s not the email you’re sending your entry from) AND YOUR COUNTRY so I know which prize you’re eligible for.

3. You can only enter ONCE. Duplicate entries will be deleted.

THE PRIZES:

1. Any available book from my backlist, winner’s choice which. This part is open to international readers as well as US readers.

2. A $50 Amazon egift card (open to US readers only.)

Contest starts NOW and ends Tuesday, November 4th at 11:59pm. Winners will be announced on my blog the next day, plus contacted through their emailed entry. Good luck, everyone!

And now, to the except!

This snippet below is taken from Chapter Two, where our heroine, Raine, meets our hero, Remy, for the first time. Enjoy!

Copyright Jeaniene Frost. All rights reserved.

I didn’t open my eyes when I regained consciousness. I tested my wrists and feet. No restraints. No gag, either, and I was lying on something that felt bigger than the back seat. I didn’t sense any motion, so we must be out of the car. I also didn’t have any head pain, so I’d either been drugged or Tasered . . . and that was twice that someone had snuck up on me.

Damn, I normally had better reflexes.

“I know you’re awake.”

I tensed. And I knew that smooth baritone voice.

I opened my eyes and sat up. I was on a couch in a large room with soft gold lighting, brown leather furniture, bronze drapes over windows twice my height, and strange boxed walls.

Not boxed, I corrected as my eyes adjusted to the low light. Bookshelves. I’d been kidnapped and brought to a library?

A man sat in the corner of the room, the sides of his chair rising around him like a throne. He was in his early thirties, and his black suit was the same color as his raven hair. His golden-bronze skin was a perfect backdrop for thick black brows, a straight nose, high cheekbones, and a hint of darkness that shadowed his clean-shaven jaw.

He didn’t make a threatening move, but suddenly, the Beast’s gaze overtook mine. Light exploded around the man, haloing his vermilion aura. The deep red shade indicating violence should have devoured that light, but it continued to burst within his aura like a lightning storm against a setting sun. I’d never seen such duality before. Usually the red overcame the light, or at least washed it out into ashy maroon, yet his aura was scarlet, fathomless . . . and impossibly bright and beautiful.

“Stunning,” I breathed out.

“Flattery is wasted on me, Miss Stone.”

“I didn’t mean your looks.” Sure, those were remarkable, too, but I could barely see his now with his aura still flashing like diamonds against a sea of crimson.

I caught a glimpse of white teeth amidst that brilliance. “Insults won’t help you, either.”

The Beast twisted inside me, hungry for the violence in the man. I forced it back. I didn’t need it to survive . . . yet. After several moments, Remy’s incredible aura faded. Instead, I just saw him, and I raked him with my most authoritative gaze.

“I want to leave now, Remy.”

“Remington,” he responded instantly. “‘Remy’ is for family or friends who are like family. You’re neither.”

And he was dead if I let the Beast out. “I’ll care about your name preference when I’m not being held against my will, Remy. I’d think the CEO of a Fortune 500 company would have better things to do than kidnap a nurse, but I suppose everyone gets bored sometimes.”

His head cocked. “You’ve been taken to an unfamiliar place by a stranger, but you’re not afraid. Why?”

“I’m only afraid of one thing, pal, and it isn’t you.”

“That’s a mistake.”

Something in his stare made gooseflesh race over me. The Beast wasn’t the only one reacting as though Remy was unusually dangerous. My human senses warned me of that, too.

Then again, the thing inside me was the most dangerous of us all. “So was kidnapping me. I’d rethink that if I were you.”

His brow arched. “My door’s not locked. You are free to go . . .right after you tell me what the hell you did to Brendan.”

I was off the couch before that part made me pause. “Do? I helped him get away from the guys who tried to kill him—”

“Not that.” His voice was so sharp my skin actually tingled. “He called you a beithíoch—”

A vicious inner slash almost made me scream. Oh God, the Beast was trying to get out.

“—and he shouldn’t know that word,” Remy continued. “Beithíoch isn’t in your everyday vocabulary—”

“Stop!” I clutched my torso, trying to force the Beast back. Somehow, Remy saying “beithíoch” activated the Beast like the threat of imminent death. My skin burned as if about to burst apart and my breath came in painful pants.

Remy’s gaze tracked every movement. “What’s wrong?”

Sweat trickled down my face while my heart hammered with fierce inner blows. “Don’t say the B-word again.”

It was taking everything I had to fight the Beast, though I didn’t understand why. Brendan had called me a beithíoch and I’d been fine. But if Remy said that word again, he was dead.

“Miss Stone.” Remy’s voice now washed over me like a refreshing stream. My scalding skin suddenly cooled. “You don’t have to worry. I won’t say that word again. Now, sit back down.”

I was back on the couch before I realized it. More startling, the Beast was now curling back into whatever corner it retreated to when it wasn’t trying to eat someone. Remy wasn’t talking anymore, but somehow, I could still feel the vibrations from his voice like hands massaging my tension away.

That wasn’t possible. Neither was the Beast suddenly chilling as if it had smoked a supernatural bong.

“What are you?” I whispered.

His smile made me sure I was right to say “what” and not “who.” No normal person could make a simple facial change look so threatening and yet so . . . sensual.

“You first.”

At the words, another wave of that strange languidness rolled me, threatening to pull me under. “Whatever you’re doing, stop it!” I managed to snap.

He did, so abruptly I shivered with a sort of instant withdrawal. Damn, that was good stuff, whatever it was.

Remy leaned forward, his aquamarine gaze now piercing. “Stop pretending you don’t know what I am. You’re on my lands, but you entered without my permission.”

He was speaking English, but I still had no idea what he was talking about. “Why would I need your permission?”

“You’re not human,” he replied in a silky tone. “At least now I know who’s been trespassing on my territory. I knew someone supernatural had to be. There was a sudden drop in violent crimes in a specific section of the city over the past year. The criminals didn’t die, get arrested, or disappear, either. They just had an inexplicable change of behavior.”

My heart skipped a beat. You’re not human. After eleven years, someone had finally realized that. Furthermore, Remy didn’t look the slightest bit surprised by it. That made no sense, unless I wasn’t the only one with supernatural secrets.

“So?”

His smile was exactly like his aura; dazzling and deadly all at once. “‘So’? That’s the entirety of your defense?”

Was I on trial? “I don’t know what rules you think I broke, but I’d let it go if I were you. Bad things happen to people who attack me, as Brendan’s dead kidnappers can prove.”

“Are you threatening me?” An amused sort of menace radiated from him.

“The opposite,” I said with all seriousness. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”

His laughter soaked into me with subtle vibrations that felt like claws caressing my skin. Worse, I liked the sensation. “Stop that,” I gritted out.

“My mistake,” he said with another chuckle that thankfully didn’t feel tangible this time. “You caught me off guard, which is rare for a Warden.”

“A Warden?” I said in a careful tone. “Is that what you think I am?”

The air filled with tension so palpable, it was like lightning were about to strike. “No, Miss Stone. I am a Warden, but as I said, call me Remington.”

***

Once again, preorder your special limited edition hardcover at #AD Amazon, Barnes&Noble, BooksAMillion, IndieBound, Bookshop, or your favorite book store. You can also preorder your ebook or audio book at these or other fine retailers. All formats will release simultaneously on May 26th, 2026.

#As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases through this link.