Book Review - Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Series: Cruel Beauty Universe
Genres: Mythology | Young Adult
Release Date: January 28th 2014
Publishers: Balzer + Bray
No. Pages: 342
Source: Review Copy - Balzer + Bray
Rating:
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Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

Cruel Beauty was a book that I honestly didn't expect to like, where as I might not have loved it , I cant say that I hated it. Cruel Beauty has a lot of similarities to Beauty and The Beast, but Rosamund Hodge took the best bits and made it completely her own.

Eveyone knows the story of Beauty and The Beast right?  Young girl agrees to stay in a castle with a hideous beast in her fathers place? Well in Cruel Beauty, Nyx unlike Belle, has always knows that she would end up with Ignifex for a husband.  Ignifex is known as the Gentle Lord, the price of demons and  Nyx has been training since birth to kill the Gentle Lord and free  Aracdia from the curse that was put on the town decades ago.  Nyx's mother and father, like so many others, went to Igifex for  a favour and came away with much more than they bargained for, leaving Nyx's mother dead and Nyx betrothed to someone before she could even walk.

Once they are married, Nyx starts to see another side to him. Yes he is as cruel as everyone thinks, yes he doesn't seem to have any remorse for the pain he causes people but Nyx  finds a piece or her self that connects with the cruelty we see in  Ignifex. As we get a little bit deeper into the story we see that Cruel Beauty also has similarities to Rumpelstiltskin, which we see as  Ignifex ask his wife every night after dinner before bed, to guess his real name. And in doing so he will be free of his job role of Gentle Lord.  At first it seems like just another game, as guessing wrong would leave her dead, but soon we realise that he is just of a prisoner as the rest.

During the day Nyx spends her time with the mysterious Shade, searching for clues to who her husband is, any help to kill him, and the secrets behind the doors that were once looked before she stole the keys. As she comes closer and closer to not only the truth, but the new men in her life, she tries to come to terms with the fact that things aren't how the seem and will never be the same again.

Want to know why I liked it? I guess part of the reason was because I expected to dislike it, I know its bad of me to judge a book before I've even read it but honestly, I don't know what else to tell you.  I also loved Ignifex, his character at times was a little bit tiring, but as a whole I really liked him. I didn't like Shade much, or Nyx, I mean don't get me wrong, their character's were well written but at times I just couldn't connect to  them.  I would have liked if the story was dragged out over maybe 3 books. Towards the end I found the story to be a bit rushed but everything else seems to be spot on, the character development and world building were perfect. I just myself really enjoyed the story and I'm glad I had the chance to read it :)