Cruel Beauty

I clenched my hand until I felt the bones of his fingers.
Then I let go and forced a smile. “I wasn’t born to be saved.”

Title: Cruel Beauty
Series: Cruel Beauty Universe, #1
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Published: January 28, 2014
Edition: ebook
Pages: 342
Goodreads page

ATTENTION: This review is spoiler-free.

Looking at the overall rating of this book on Goodreads, I wasn’t expecting anything mind blowing, but I hoped it would be at least decent.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t horrible. It was just an average retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

In the beginning Nyx, the main character, is going to marry Ignifex, the Gentle Lord who makes bargains. Nyx’s father made a bargain with the Gentle Lord because his wife wanted kids but was unable to. The Gentle Lord accepted the bargain with the price of the mother’s death during childbirth and their first child. Which happened to be Nyx. She despises the Gentle Lord with all her heart.

And bada bing bada boom, certain things happen and she starts to fall in love with Ignifex. Of course, this relationship was complicated. VERY complicated. And then there was Shade, a prisoner-ish demon/ghost thing of Ignifex. So it was kinda a love triangle but not really not really.

Throughout the first half of the book, Nyx was bitter with everyone. She hated her father for not caring about her. She hated her mother. She hated her aunt because she was sleep with her father. She hated her twin sister because she had everything. She was also bitter because she was supposed to be the one to sacrifice her life to kill the Gentle Lord. The fate of her land was in her hands.

Except you can’t have a fairy tale without its complications.

The middle of the book was repetitive, in my opinion. Nyx did the almost did the same exact thing every single day, and it got old really quick.

Other than that, the story wasn’t bad. It didn’t have the climax that I was expecting, though, and that was disappointing.

The characters were okay. Nyx was super bitter in the beginning but she developed and started to care for other people. Shade was… shady, if you will. Ignifex was like Rhysand from A Court of Thorns and Roses. Or Khalid from The Wrath and the Dawn. He seems evil on the outside but is actually a nice, caring guy in the inside. As for Nyx’s family, they just suck. No offense, but I would not like a family like hers.

I rate this book 3.5 / 5 BBC Sherlock characters.

 

Until next time….