Author: Rosamund Hodge
Genre: Young Adult, High Fantasy
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Source: Balzer + Bray via Edelweiss
Goodreads rating: 3.99 out of 5.00 (420+ ratings)
Goodreads | The Reading Room
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 by Nara
OH. MY. GOSH. This book. THIS BOOK.I was raised to marry a monster
A fusion of Greek mythology and fairy tale retelling- seriously, what's not to like? With beautiful, lyrical writing and incredibly complex characters and MYTHOLOGY, this debut has certainly put Rosamund Hodge on my list of authors to watch out for.
Cruel Beauty appears to be pitched as "Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast", but I'm not really sure how credible this claim is. There are certainly some aspects of it that take from the original fairy tale, but it really isn't much like Graceling at all. Maybe they just said that because the protagonist is a semi-assassin? I must say that Nyx isn't quite as badass as the protagonist from Graceling, but is flawed and multi-dimensional in quite an intriguing way. While she could get slightly annoying at times, it was quite interesting to see how she dealt with being having to be the sacrifice to appease the "Gentle Lord". Also rather interesting was the Nyx/Astraia dynamic. Astraia is Nyx' twin sister, and I suppose Nyx is quite resentful of the fact that she's the one to be sacrificed, whereas Astraia is able to live on. At first, Astraia definitely seems like a bit of a smiling airhead, but you do find out that there is perhaps a darkness behind the smile.
She smiles because she is safe. She is safe because I am going to die.Warning: there is a love triangle. But it perhaps isn't a conventional one. On the one hand we have Shade, Ignifex's slave/prisoner/whatever which was a bit instalovey, but I feel that was okay, because Nyx was expecting to die quite soon. I guess all sorts of decisions would be skewed if you're expecting to die in the next couple of days. I don't know, I feel like I never really shipped these two. I couldn't really see a proper connection- it was all just a bit bland.
Of course, on the other hand, we have Ignifex himself, who I LOVED. (Although I must admit, the title of "Gentle Lord" was just weird.)
If he had been human, I might have taken him for a gentleman.Even though the red eyes with cat pupils seems a bit weird/creepy. I loved the interactions between Ignifex and Nyx. Their first meeting literally had me laughing out loud (which I actually don't too often when reading books, to be quite honest. I mean, a lot of smiling, but not much actual laughing out loud.) What Nyx did was just so delightfully unexpected, and I think I just burst out laughing from complete shock. I don't want to spoil what she did, but just know that my reaction was HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
But his eyes had crimson irises, with cat-slit pupils.
The world building. *twirls* FLIPPING AWESOME. I guess in general, not much world building was done for the world outside of the castle, but the backstory about the castle and just the general background lore was GAHHHHHH SO GOOD! And the twist on the Greek mythology- I really love my mythology and to see it so deftly manipulated by Hodge practically had me squealing with delight.
The plot was slightly predictable- but I feel that this didn't take away from the story at all. It's quite character oriented, so while the plot was perhaps a bit shaky (and the ending was every so slightly disappointing- in the sense that I wanted more), overall, I'd definitely recommend reading this book.
Incredible
Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 4.5/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
I am glad to hear that you enjoyed this book! It looked really neat. :)
ReplyDeleteOh god, I love that cover. I'm definitely buying the hardcover when it comes out :D
Delete*Drools* I want this book so badly! Every part of it sounds awesome. I love the idea of the mythology behind it, and I like that the story is character oriented too. Nyx sounds like such a great character. I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on this one!
ReplyDelete-P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
It's SUCH a great book. The writing and the characters are just fantastic.
DeleteOhhh, is this based on Greek mythology? I would have thought that it'd be based on Norsk since Beauty and the Beast is based on the story of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. But I love Greek mythology all the same, and Graceling was also a superb book!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to give this a go, you've made it sound irresistible ;)
ahhhhh! The fusion of Greek mythology and fairy tale retelling was so awesome. GREEK MYTHOLOGY LAKS:DLAWDKLJ!
DeleteIt's actually not much like Graceling haha. But it's amazing all the same- I actually liked it a lot more than Graceling :P
Oh gosh, I want this one SO bad!! I've seen it going around the blogosphere...eeep. I love fairy tale retellings. They're so fun! I'm definitely not a fan of love-triangles, but if it's unconventional, I'm willing to overlook my usual dislike. I mean, gosh, if it's this good, I'll overlook anything!
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely say it's unconventional. I mean, I can't really say that much about it because spoilers, but yes. Unconventional. lol
DeleteYou just made me want to read this book more! Seriously. Mentioning how much you loved and laughed at their first meeting just about did me over. This book was on the back seat of my TBR, but I might just need to change that. I also really love retellings so I'm pretty excited about this one.
ReplyDeleteYes! We must put this book at the forefront of everyone's TBRs. IT'S SO GOOD :D
DeleteI love greek mythology. I love fairy tale retellings. I love kick ass heroines. And I'm on that supposed year long buying ban *sobs*
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I need this book. Your review just convinced me I'm probably going to love it. It sounds like the type of story I won't care about predictability in, I'll be too absorbed in the world and the characters and aslkhfjkf
haha are you going to break the ban? DO ITTTTTT
DeleteSounds freaking amazing, I was first surprised to hear that greek mythology was mixed in with it but I love the sound of it! Thanks for the review :)
ReplyDeleteJeann @ Happy Indulgence
I was really surprised as well! I didn't realise it had any Greek mythology- but it was definitely a good surprise. I love Greek mythology :D
DeleteWeee. Glad to find another who loved this book too. Cruel Beauty is one of the few Beauty and the Beast retellings that is quite unique. And I am so thankful that Nyx didn't become a full blown Belle who just sit around and doing house chores with the animated kitchen utensils.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I really can't see this book's connection with Graceling. If truth be told, I enjoyed Cruel Beauty more than the latter.
Great review, Nara!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed this book too. Such a beautifully written book :D
DeleteMe too! I loved Cruel Beauty a lot more than Graceling. I mean, Graceling was good, but this book. THIS BOOK! *flail*
Ahh this book. So AMAZING! I have no other words.
ReplyDeleteFantastic review, Nara! <33
I KNOW RIGHT. It was so hard to write the review without excessive flailage haha
DeleteI just finished this one last week and I really enjoyed it. I did feel like it was a little insta lovey but other than that I loved it :)
ReplyDeleteYeah definitely a bit of instalove, but honestly, I didn't really mind too much :)
DeleteAh, I love this book!
I am SOO happy to see that you loved Cruel Beauty because I did too! I love how there was a love triangle, but with a TWIST. I also like all the other twists in the book. It was also interesting to read Nyx's relationship with her family. Really sad, but I like how Hodge didn't make it similar to Beauty and the Beast. The Greek mythology stuff worked out so well in the book, too! I seriously can go on and on in this book! One thing I didn't like though is how I was left confused in like the last 4 chapters at the end. It took me like a week to realize what happened, and had to ask 4 people to explain it for me. Lol. I also didn't like how Nyx did not even attempt to kill Ignifex. Stabbing him with a fork does not count -_-. Other than that, it was well done!
ReplyDeleteThe twists were a little bit predictable on the whole, I feel, but I still loved the book overall :)
Deletehaha I know right, this book was just so amazing, it was difficult to write the review without gushing excessively :P
I think I did like the ending, but it was unsatisfying in the sense that I was all GIMME MORE lol
HAHAHA yeah so true. More assassination attempts would have been fun.
I really liked this book! I didn't like the whole Shade thing though. I just never felt anything between him and Nyx and thought his character was pretty bland. And Nyx thinking that she loved him felt like a bit much. I LOVED Ignifex though. He was so bad in the best way possible. Cocky and sarcastic. Powerful and intelligent. He was sexy. :) I loved the dynamic between him and Nyx and their back and forth banter. They were quite the entertaining pair.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree, I didn't really like Shade that much either and loved Ignifex (which is kind of ironic now that I think about it lol)
DeleteOh man, after reading all these comments I really feel like rereading the book. I've already pre-ordered it haha. It's going to look so awesome on my shelf :D
I'm so glad you loved it!!! I just got myself a copy ordered. Cannot wait to read it!!
ReplyDeleteomg it's such a great book. I really hope you enjoy it too :D
DeleteInteresting about the eye thing
ReplyDeleteInteresting indeed!
DeleteI am dying to read this book.I've checked out a lot of reviews for this book, and I am already fascinated with the characters, world and story even before I've read it.
ReplyDeleteomg it's so good :D
DeleteI really hope you enjoy it when you get around to reading it!