Publication: January 28th 2014 by Balzer + Bray
Source: Purchased
Goodreads description:
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.
I went into this book not having read too many positive reviews, but the synopsis still really interested me so I decided to read it anyway and I am very glad I did. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did.
This was a very dark and twisted book, much darker than I had expected it to be. It started off just okay for me, but that was partly due to the fact that the world was very confusing and not explained very well at all. The author incorporates aspects of Greek mythology into this fairytale retelling and while it was definitely a unique and interesting concept, it just did not work for this book as it made everything more complicated and confusing than it needed to be.
However it definitely got much better as I started to make sense of what was actually happening in this strange world. This book was filled with mystery, betrayal and crazy plot twists, some of which were very unexpected.
I really liked the romance between Nyx and the “Gentle Lord”, despite the fact that he was the evil demon that she had been sacrificed to since birth in order to save Arcadia. I liked how his character evolved and changed as his relationship with Nyx progressed.
Unfortunately, Nyx and the “Gentle Lord” were about the only two characters I actually liked in this book. I hated Nyx’s family and only disliked them more as the book went on. Astraia (Nyx’s twin sister) was just plain annoying and I did not like how devious she turned out to be. Nyx’s father was a stubborn fool and I absolutely hated the fact that he was romantically involved with Telomache. She was actually the character that I loathed the most as she was just cruel and manipulative.
Overall, this was a very dark and creepy fairytale retelling set in a strange and somewhat confusing universe. I ended up really liking this book and found that I didn’t want to put it down. I gave it a rating of 4.5 out of 5 and I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment