Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

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Book 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.

          I've been ask many times why do I stay away from retellings and while every time my answer is the same - I don't want to ruin my ideals from the childhood and they are part of what I've become, I think that the truth is a bit different. I think I've been reading the wrong ones this whole time.

          Creating something new. That's the key my friends. Not only when talking about retellings, but writing stories in general. You could say that this one will be unique just by reading the blurb, the clash of Beauty and the Beast and Greek mythology is not something you see every day. But it's not just that, at the same time this story has Nyx, a unique female protagonist who is at the same time brave girl who wants to save her people but she, too, is a living creature who wants to live. Then there is Ignifex, our beast. The Gentle Lord who is dark and powerful. And then there is Shade, who might be someone truly important. But most of all they're shades of gray. Not good not bad, but something we all are - imperfect.

          Like my girl Glass said in her review - this is not a story where beauty fights everything. Cruel Beauty is a dark story which shows dark shadows and the castle full of dark places at the same time full of magic and secrets. Where you never know what the next door might lead to. At the same time the characters are dark and full of mischief but also vulnerable. Nyx is girl you can easily relate to, in a story where fighting for her family and those she loves meaning destroying everything she discovers.

         While this was an amazing world to meet and live in for a while I'm glad that this story has got its ending, but at the same time I cannot wait to read Glided Ashes and hear Maia's story.

Rating: 5 stars. 

Until the next time,