Review: Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty
by Rosamund Hodge
YA Fantasy
Amazon  /  Goodreads

Plot Summary:

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:

Nyx was such a strangely compelling character.  For most of the book, her bitterness at being the one who must marry the demon Ignifex defines who she is.  It is very understandable that Nyx should feel so wronged, and bemoan how unfair it all is, but she does do it a lot. But those feelings do play an important part in how the author reimagines the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.  I can't say that I particularly like to read about main characters who accuse and grumble as much as Nyx does, but I was impressed with how well the author makes it integral to the story and to all of the characters' developments.

When it comes to the romance, I was a bit torn.  I thought that Nyx's attraction to Ignifex was believable, as was his attraction to her, but I found it a bit laughable how quickly Nyx would forget everything she knows about Ignifex when he shows her a little romantic interest.  But I did enjoy her relationship with him, and there were certain aspects to the couple's development that I found really satisfying.  Even though I wanted Nyx to show more sense when she was around him, I thought they made a great pair.

The world-building was very rich and I loved how Greek mythology was interwoven throughout.  The curse was complex, and unraveling the true nature of it was the great mystery that made me eager to read more.  There were times I thought I knew what was going to happen, or understood the purpose of something, only for the author to take it in a completely new direction.  I loved how unpredictable this story was for me.  The writing was also a highlight - very lush and descriptive - it contributed to the Gothic atmosphere of the story, and to the complexities of the characters.

This book is an imaginative and suspenseful take on Beauty and the Beast.   While I found the characters difficult to relate to sometimes, their dilemmas and motivations were always believable and worked so well in advancing the story.  And the author brought so much dimension to this fairy tale retelling with the addition of mythological and fantastical elements.