by Rosamund Hodge
YA Fantasy
Beauty & the Beast Retellings
Link to 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.
My Review:
I almost put this boon down several times. It wasn't until around 70/80 pages that it actually got interesting and began to hold my attention. However, around 150 pages it started to lose me again; then around 250 I was done. But, with only 100 pages left I decided to push through and see how it ended. Part of me is glad that I stuck with it, but mostly I'm mad at myself for not putting it down around thee 70 page mark. It was just not worth the read.
The characters were flat and their actions made no sense to the overall story and what had already been established. Nyx was angry most of the time, yet in instances where she should be mad, she wasn't. She fell "in love" with Ignifex very quickly, but yet she still hated him. Oh... and if it wasn't confusing enough, let's just throw a love triangle in there.
Nyx's relationship with her sister was also very confusing. It was clear that she hated and resented her sister, yet she still wanted to save her and in the end made a deal with her - that made no sense.
Also, this was supposed to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but there was so much Greek mythology that the retelling did not make sense. It felt like the author couldn't decide what she wanted to do - nice retelling or Greek mythology retelling - so she didn't choose and decided to do both. It did not work. It make the book very confusing. What was even more confusing was that there really wasn't a "beast." Ignifex was a sworn enemy, but Nyx is attracted to him right away. There is no growth of love, or a long lost, lonely beast that captures her.
Overall, the book was very confusing and the ending made no sense. I would not recommend this book. 1 out of 5 Stars.
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