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. (Goodreads summary)
Nyx’s world is wrong. The island of Arcadia has been supernaturally isolated from the rest of the known world, the sky is not real, ravenous demons live in the shadows, and Nyx herself is to be a sacrifice to Ignifex, the Gentle Lord — the monster whose power imprisons her people. Her life and future the price for a father’s selfish and short-sighted bargain, Nyx has known since childhood that she will one day marry Ignifex… whom she will then betray and kill in order to break the enchantment and free her island.
“Lovely” but not exactly “pure of heart,”1 Nyx makes for a great heroine as she’s torn between doing her duty — killing her new husband and saving her people – or surrendering to her darker urges – the anger, resentment and vengeful feelings that have long- festered as a result of growing up unloved and being stripped of her choices. But now, out from under her father’s controlling thumb, she has the ability to make her own decisions and her constant struggle between her conscience and her desire for retribution is possibly my favorite part of the novel.
Ignifex is an equally fascinating character. Master of Demons, trickster, jailer, murderer, there’s so much about Ignifex that is and should be repellant. And yet, there’s something almost… charming about him. Cruel, yet kind. Terrifying, yet humorous. Intimidating, yet vulnerable. Ignifex is complex and contradictory. Not in a ridiculously-inconsistent-hot-‘n-cold sort of way, but more in a way that strangely makes sense while it really doesn’t. Intrigued? Anyway he’s, as I previously stated, absolutely fascinating.
Also fascinating? Hodge’s world. It’s a surreal, unsettling, yet utterly enticing dreamscape, brilliantly brought to life, and brimming with magic, mystery, and danger. It’s gorgeously imagined and well-rendered.
Actually, the whole novel is gorgeously imagined and well-rendered. Drawing from fairy tales and Greek mythology with touches of pagan and fey-inspired influences, Hodge puts her own intriguing spin on the Persephone/Beauty and the Beast tale resulting in an edgy, thrilling, suspenseful, darkly romantic, thoroughly captivating mash-up rife with conflict and deeply flawed, magnetic characters. And as Nyx navigates and wars with obstacles both internal and external — unraveling the mysteries of the Gentle Lord while also unraveling the mystery of who she herself is and who she wants to be – I just couldn’t put this book down.
Overall. A deliciously dark and bewitching page-turner.
1 Wikipedia (Article: Beauty and the Beast)
Title: Cruel Beauty
Series: Cruel Beauty Universe (Book #1)
Published: January 28th 2014 by Balzer & Bray
Format: 352 pages; Hardcover; Ebook
Website: www.rosamundhodge.net
Source: Review copy via NetGalley
My rating:
Happy Reading!
This book looks awesome for so many reasons to me! 1) I love mythology 2) it has been getting rave reviews and 3) I love how detailed and fascinating you say the world is.
This is one book that I just KNOW I will enjoy.
I am happy you loved it too. Great review Dani 😉
Thanks Michelle!
And yes, this book ticked all sorts of boxes for me too. I hope you enjoy it!