Title: Cruel Beauty (Cruel Bueaty Universe #1)
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Release Date/Publisher: January 28th 2014 by Balzer + Bray
Finished: February 23rd 2014
Pages: 352- ARC won in a giveaway
Series:
1. Cruel Beauty
2. Unknown
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.
What I Thought:
I won this in a giveaway from another book blogger, and I was so excited to get it! When I heard it was similar to Beauty and the Beast I couldn’t wait to read it since I love that Disney movie.
While this did have some similarities like her being locked away in a castle with a creature, the story was also different and had more to it. For instance she has to marry him and she’s tasked with destroying him and his castle. They mention a lot of the Greek gods too and how their stories and tales were in their past. Then they add magic and a kind of complicated system right near the beginning of the book. I understood it more as the book went on but I wasn’t expecting any of that in this.
I liked Nyx throughout the book even though sometimes she couldn’t make up her mind what to do and I kind of wanted to yell at her. But it’s hard to know what’s right with secrets everywhere. She has a lot of anger and bitterness towards people, especially her father because he chose her to go away to possibly die, and her sister to live safely. I really liked Ignifex and the romance that does happen between him and Nyx was complicated but fun too. The ending was so good, even if it confused me at first.
I did really like reading this book and I think a lot of people would have a great time with it!
Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf 
Yes, I am so looking forward to this book. I loved Greek mythology AND retellings, so I have pretty high hopes–I glad you liked it (even if it wasn’t what you were expecting).
I wasn’t expecting the mythology stuff, so that was awesome! I think you’ll like it 🙂
I can NOT wait to get into my copy of this one; reading your review just got me super pumped since I’m planning on reading it soon(-ish) The sound of the new elements woven into the classic story sound especially awesome now – I didn’t know there’d be Greek Mythology mixed in there!!! Eeeep! Thanks for the fantastic review Kelsey, glad you enjoyed this ^^
Thank you, I really hope you love it!!
I love the book cover! I like the idea of Beauty and the Beast being re-told so this sounds like a fun story to read. Plus, anything including magic is usually a win for me. Great review 🙂
It’s pretty eh? 😀 You can borrow it anytime, although it is an advanced review copy, not the final print.
Yes, it really is! Sweet, I’d love to borrow it and I don’t mind that it’s not the final print 😛
Glad you enjoyed it! I really did too, but I did have a lot of mixed feelings about it. It was definitely interesting and I think I was thrown off that it wasn’t what I was excepting but it was definitely unique!