Review : Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Cruel Beauty
Author : Rosamund Hodge
Publication Date : January 28th 2014
Publisher : Balzer + Bray
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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.

Personal Thoughts

Ever since I read and loved Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay, I've been wanting to read more Beauty and the Beast retellings, so I was quite excited about Cruel Beauty. The book, for the most part, managed to keep me entertained throughout, but I did have a few issues with it that made it difficult for me to rate this book higher.

Cruel Beauty's heroine, Nyx, isn't a character a lot of people are going to love wholeheartedly. For me though, she worked perfectly well. Since her birth, Nyx has been raised for one goal : to go kill the ruler of her kingdom. Because of that she's bitter and full of contempt towards her family, especially her father and her sister. She's angry at them and rightfully so for having been chosen for the deadly task instead of her sister. Nyx's anger though, didn't bother me one bit. In fact, I found it refreshing that she refused to behave like everything was okay and that she was fine being a sacrificial goat. Nyx was also strong-willed, feisty and didn't mince her words one bit. Ignifex, the evil ruler, was who got me completely invested in Cruel Beauty. He was wonderfully crafted, with his deep character. I could tell that the author had made sure that he was well-fleshed out. Ignifex was a complex, deeply flawed character that just reeled me into the story, making me want to unravel him and just figure out who he really was underneath the guise of an evil ruler. Overall, I thought the characters were quite brilliant they are what kept me so interested in the novel.

The plot too, like the characters, was highly complex, at times, a bit too much in my opinion. Often, I would find myself being confused and slightly disoriented with what was actually going on, especially when it came to the mythology. Even when I tried re-reading the paragraphs I had a hard time grasping, I would still feel utterly lost. The ending of the book was probably the most baffling aspect and I've discussed it with a few readers on Goodreads and they were confused by it too. That was one of the major flaws of Cruel Beauty for me. The romance was going well for me until Ignifex and Nyx mentioned the "L" word too fast. I enjoyed the banter between Ignifex and Nyx at the beginning of the book, but eventually I was a bit disappointed at how quickly they had fallen for each other. There was also a bit of a strange love triangle involved, which also really puzzled me. Depsite everything, Rosamund Hodge should most definitely be praised for her lovely writing style and her creativity in making an already told story her own.

I might have had issues with Cruel Beauty, but in the end I think it's a book that had an entertaining quality to it that makes it worth the read. Romantic, creative and utterly captivating, Cruel Beauty is a book for fans of the original Beauty and the Beast.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 3/5

Thank you to Edelweiss and Balzer + Bray for the e-ARC of Cruel Beauty.