Thank you to NetGalley and to Tor Books for the ARC of Kill the Beast by Serra Swift.

I genuinely can't read the title without starting to sing the Beauty and the Beast "The Mob Song"...."Through a mist, through a wood/Where within a haunted castle/Something's lurking that you don't see every day!/It's a beast!...Kill the beast!" Singing this song actually ends up feeling appropriate to the story itself given that while our main character, Lyssa is like a Witcher, (and thank goodness this is much better written than the Witcher books which I have a personal angst toward) she is also like a reverse Belle. I would say the book description of comparisons to Howl's Moving Castle also matches.

Lyssa has spent significant time in poverty, and, ever since the loss of her brother she has been on a path toward revenge, eschewing friendship and relationships in search of vengeance. This all catches up to her when she meets Alderic and finally has a path to fulfill her oath to avenge her brother - who is she without this goal? Or is she just setting herself up for her own death?

Al provides both comic relief and serious contemplation as a character - his mentions of self harm and his own losses are dark as Lyssa's struggles. He somehow has held onto his kindness, even if he is more likely to be drowning himself in a pint some days.

Paired together by Lyssa's witch mentor, the two must combine the remaining articles needed for Lyssa to craft a weapon to kill the beast. In their adventures, they learn more about each other on multiple levels, and begin to form a real friendship.

Swift writes this more as a cozy fantasy, so the clues dropped about the plot twists were pretty obvious to everyone but Lyssa. I think the pacing slowed a bit in the midsection for Al and Lyssa to build more on their relationship, but there was a lot of action in the beginning and end tying everything together and making for an overall sweet story.

As a debut goes, this is solidly put together and fits very ideally into the cozy fantasy genre. It's a nice standalone, even though it could be open to further adventures -- in that way it's a bit like Emily Wilde -- there is no cliffhanger or expectation, but I would keep going with it if it headed that direction.