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.
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 love Beauty and the Beast retellings. I always have and I always will. Now add in the fact that Cruel Beauty has elements of Rumplestiltskin and Greek mythology and I'm ten thousand percent sold. It's like a hodgepodge of beautiful storytelling.
What I liked: This book is not for the faint at heart- it's complicated and convoluted in all the best ways. Nyx is an intriguing character because she's not actually that good. She accepts the little parts of darkness in her heart and soul, and while she might hate herself every once in a while for it, she still tries to be her best. She accepts a mission that's basically a death sentence and refuses to give up. Even when love is involved. She also has some of the best comebacks that had me laughing out loud. Ignifex as a love interested and character is multi-dimensional, and just as sexy as you wanted him to be. The world is...well, it's almost hard to wrap your mind around it. It's an enigma, a gothic, mystical enigma. But the mythology is really where this book captured my heart. The history around the kingdom and its Gentle Lord was well thought out and beautifully written.
What I didn't like: My only problem with this book was that for the first half, the narration relies so much on showing rather than telling, which makes it a bit repetitive. I'm pretty sure Nix repeated her mission every other paragraph and that was a little annoying. It also didn't help the banter between her and Ignifex because it was a constant "I love you but I'm still going to kill you" thing. At times, that was cute, but then it got old. I also didn't really like how the end was executed because it was suddenly so confusing and different, and it was hard to understand and get a feel for what was actually happening.
I still have to give this book 4 stars because it instantly captured me and was so beautifully written at times I couldn't put it down. Even though I had my problems with it, I still loved the story and characters so much. Definitely worth checking out.
-Annie
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