Author: Rosamund Hodge
Rating: 5/5 stars- a forever favourite and love and I would give it millions of stars if I could omg the feels I can't
Synopsis (as found on 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:
When I first watched the trailer for Cruel Beauty, I was intrigued and I knew. I KNEW. I had to get my hands on this book.
So I went and picked it up and due to certain things (a.k.a school UGH) I had to hold off on reading this until now.
I read this in parts (because again, SCHOOL) and I was dying to get home every day just so I could read more and more and more and more of this book because I couldn't stop devouring this book.
IT WAS LIKE CHEESECAKE AND CHOCOLATE AND I WAS SWIMMING IN HONEY IN BOOK HEAVEN
MY FANGIRLISM FOR THIS BOOK IS OFF THE CHARTS
The mythology, the fairytale, the fantasy elements, all weave together in such an intricating, dark, chillingly achingly beautiful tale. It's an amazing spin on the Beauty and Beast story (which was never a favourite of mine, but I certainly liked it better than say, the useless Snow White.) infused with Greek Mythology, a rich imaginative world, with a creative fantasy base of the elements of the world. THERE ARE NO WORDS TO EXPLAIN THE BEAUTY OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THIS NOVEL.
There are so many aspects that melt together perfectly in this book, that support and help enrich the complexity of the plot and the characters. omg.
The main character Nyx comes off as a person that you either love her or hate her, which I kind of self identify with. She's a little bipolar in the novel, because it was the way she grew up- with this burning hatred inside of her that she was being raised as demon fodder, but there was still human part of her telling her that kindness is possible, and it's like her own inner demon battling inside of her which is fascinating to watch. She wasn't the pure hearted heroine we all read about in fairy tales, the ones who overcome evil with their belief in justice blah blah. She was human in all aspects, with a devilish side of her, and it was refreshing and energizing to read.
Ignifex. OMG. MY HEART. He was like another Warner figure. (if you get that reference you are awesome) Mysterious, captivating, he swooped down and stole my heart away before I could even blink. How he turns from "evil incarnate I want you so dead omg" into "HOLY SHIT LET ME LOVE YOU" and just ahhhhh and just somehow sweepingly romantic. HOW. HOW.
and then Shade added complexity to the characters, depth, and just this whole trust issue within the book- he was an oxymoron within the character (slight spoiler), he represented good, yet his actions were bad, and just this whole "is he worth trusting, is he an ally, is he someone worthwhile?" just had me spinning, dizzy, and just racing through the book to find out.
Overall, I haven't had this much fun, this many feels in so so long. This is an intricate dark romantic debut that will sweep you off your feet, and I still haven't recovered totally from it yet. It will probably NEVER leave my shelf of favourites. YOU COMPLETE ME.
*P.S. Carmen apologizes for her crappy grammar/punctuation. Fangirling and English just doesn't mix.
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