Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Published by Harper Teen on January 28, 2014
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 342
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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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, Rosamund Hodge’s debut novel, is one of the best retellings I’ve read. Really it’s just one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time. I was hooked from the very beginning and I stayed up late into the night finishing it because I needed to know how it ended!

Everything about Cruel Beauty was fabulous but I have to draw attention to the characters. Nyx, Astraia, Shade, Ignifex, and even the minor characters were fleshed out. Nyx and Astraia are twins that couldn’t be more different. Nyx is our protagonist but to be honest, you may not like her to begin with. She’s a little cruel. She knows she has hatred and darkness in her heart and she’s not sure she can live like that but she doesn’t know how to change that. Astraia is the sweet daughter who is doted on and never has to face the truth. Both of them have a lot more to them though. Shade and Ignifex share some similar qualities but they are also two very different guys. Shade is sweet and caring whereas Ignifex is cruel, a little malicious, but oh so sexy. Oh and did I mention they look exactly alike? It’s only the personalities that cause the differences. And as I said earlier, even the minor characters, such as The Kindly Ones and Nyx’s family, are fleshed out.

The romance was a major focus of the story but it didn’t detract from the rest of the story. There is not instalove here. There is instant attraction but Nyx knows that she can’t possibly love either Shade or Ignifex immediately. She gets to know them both before she makes any sort of decision regarding her romantic feelings. The guys are both very different love interests though. Shade is a captive, just like Nyx. There is a sort of camaraderie between them. They have things in common and she knows that Shade is the guy she should love. Ignifex is her captor but he’s not as cruel and malicious as he seems. Sure he strikes bargains with people that usually lead to death but that’s not all there is to him. However, Nyx knows she should never love him because of what he did to her family. The romance really is twisted and I was torn between Shade and Ignifex for quite some time. (Ignifex won out in the end.)

The story is not your typical Beauty and the Beast retelling and I loved that. This time the beast isn’t so much a beast on the outside but instead he’s a bit beastly on the inside. What a twisted way to play things and I adored it. There’s also so much more going on. The beast is cursed in ways that I never saw coming. The creatures in charge have left Ignifex with very little actual power. It’s up to him and Nyx to figure out how to defeat them and save Arcadia without having to kill Ignifex. There were so many twists and turns with this story. I had no clue how things were going to play out in the end and I was on the edge of my seat.

Overall, Cruel Beauty is a must read for everyone. I dare you not to love it!