Cruel Beauty

Author: Rosamund Hodge

Release Date:  January 28th, 2014

Publisher:  Balzer + Bray

Genre(s): YA Fantasy

Pages:  342

*Standalone, but there are other books in this universe*

~Spoiler Free~

Summary (Goodreads):

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.

Review:

This book was a big old ball of WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

It started off really strong; we had the world built, the setting set, and a heroine with internal conflicts.  Awesome. 

Then we meet Ignifex, and everything starts going downhill from here.  I kid you not, the moment she meets him-like not even a scene or two later- but the exact MOMENT she meets him, Nyx's actions become face-palm worthy.

There is insta-love with TWO guys.  (Double the trouble...) Not even going to go there. All I’m going to say is that it was BAD BAD BAD- and I was led to believe by the blurb that she was actually going to spend time with him (them?) as she fell in love. Tsk tsk. 

As for the characters-or more specifically, the love interests-it was raining pretty boy cardboard. The heroine, Nyx, had started off as a seemingly complex and multi-dimensional character, but I was wrong (so. wrong.), and she became a little annoying as the book went on.  I was also frustrated because she had potential to be such a great character: one rife with internal conflicts, but eventually overcoming them to become a stronger person. But alas, it was not so.   It also didn't help that the book started to really drag in the middle.  Nyx spends her time wandering the castle and kissing.  And I… do believe that’s all she does. Oh, and she eats dinner with the guy. But otherwise, this book is just her wandering around to find stuff.  By the end, a whole bunch of things suddenly happen- which was REALLY confusing- and the book ends in typical fairy tale style. WHAT?!

I was so disappointed with this book because I was really looking forward to it.   I absolutely love re-tellings of fairy tales, and that beginning really led me to think that this book was going to be one awesome retelling.

NOPE.

Thanks for reading! :)

Rating: 1.5 out of 5