Cruel Beauty

Product Information

The attempt at a love triangle fell horribly short, and only made Nyx seem indecisive and unreliable. In Cruel Beauty, Nyx has been trained since birth to be an assassin so that she can fulfill her father's bargain to marry the demon lord, with the ultimately goal of killing him and bringing about the end of a 900-year-old curse that he had unleashed upon her town. Sounds promising, right? I love a good fairy tale retelling as much as the next person. But unfortunately, this story left me mostly confused.

Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge - Google Books

Betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, Nyx has always known that her fate was to marry him, kill him, and free her people from his tyranny. But on her seventeenth birthday when she moves into his castle high on the kingdom’s mountaintop, nothing is what she expected—particularly her charming and beguiling new husband. Nyx knows she must save her homeland at all costs, yet she can’t resist the pull of her sworn enemy—who’s gotten in her way by stealing her heart.”

Publication Order of Fairy Tales Books

But of course, all is not wondrous, and some corners of the castle is filled with horror. My fingers found cloth, then something soft and cold.

Cruel Beauty Quotes by Rosamund Hodge - Goodreads

This was a very enjoyable read, though not without its faults. It is supposed to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but I felt like it had hints of the fairy tales Rumpelstiltskin and Bluekbeard as well. I can go on for days about the plot, setting, grammatical structure blah blah blah, but let's be honest, what makes or breaks a book is its narrator. If you don't like the narrator, screw the rest of the book; I really liked this book's main character, Nyx. AND then comes the strong last few chapters and the end.. and what an ending... ONE OF THE BEST ENDINGS I've ever read. stars. Everyone was telling me I would hate this book, and I did not! While it did have its faults, I enjoyed what it was trying to do and the general theme, even if the execution failed at times. It is a Beauty and the Beast/Hades & Persephone hybrid with some folklore mixed in. I cannot hate it. Sibling Yin-Yang: Nyx is regal, resentful and sardonically sarcastic. Astraia is described as pretty, naive and very sociable.Balance Between Good and Evil: In the ending, the two pieces of Marcus Valerius Lux's soul reunite and the result is much kinder than either Shade or Ignifex. CRUEL BEAUTY was our October book of the month in the Unapologetic Romance Readers group - in fact, it won by a massive landslide. Not that I was surprised. CRUEL BEAUTY made quite a stir when it was first released; it seemed like everybody was singing its praises and mooning over Ignifex. On the surface, it sounded like a great story - love and death, revenge, magic, fairy-tales, demon lovers. That's Nenia to a T. But it was also YA. And I've been burned by the YA genre more times than I care to count. My heart couldn't take any more disappointment. So anyway, we started reading CRUEL BEAUTY in URR, and I was defensive and hopeful all at once as I prepared myself for the inevitable let-down... An Aesop: Nyx saves Arcadia not through destroying her nemesis, the Gentle Lord, but through saving the man she loves - prince Marcus.

Cruel Beauty (Literature) - TV Tropes Cruel Beauty (Literature) - TV Tropes

Readers can look at the ways this story is based on the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale. Also, this cut-off world worships Roman gods and goddesses and some of the lesser "peasant" gods called Hedge gods. Mythological stories are told throughout, especially those dealing with the Underworld and including older stories of Kronos and Typhon. Also, the writing. The writing is so dull. Gahhh, it’s monotone and Nyx and is a v terrible narrator. Plz, keep your day job. So, Nyx has to find out all of these clues to try to save her world. I'm not going to go into all of that, you can read the book, or read another review. :) She is finding... that she wants to save Ignifex because she knows he's really good inside. How does she know? She just does! Most of all, I wanted to forget my mission and lose myself in the embrace of the one person who had ever seen my heart and claimed to love me after.” The Characterization: I really liked Nyx. She was frustrating to me at times, but overall, I felt she was a really good, flawed character. Nyx is so, so very angry at the beginning of the novel, and I seethed with anger along with her. She has been dealt a crappy blow by the fates, and who can blame her for her bitterness? Nyx has been doomed since she was born, thanks to her parents' selfishness. I hate you [Mother], I prayed silently. Father only bargained for your sake. If you had not been so weak, so desperate, I would not be doomed. I hate you, Mother, forever and ever.I love a good depiction of sisterly relationships, and Nyx's relationship with her twin sister, Astraia, was so well done. There is absolutely no doubt that Nyx adores her sister while simultaneously hating her as well. Astraia has been adored by everyone since she was born, while her twin sister, Nyx, has been groomed to die. Nyx has lived her life in resentment, and who can blame her for that? Even so, she never, ever shows her bright, innocent sister any hate until she is overwhelmed by her emotions on the day of her wedding...which might as well have been a funeral. I had thought the words so often, they felt like nothing in my mouth, like no more than a breath of air, and as easily as breathing I went on:It's a dark tale that stabs you in the heart at every turn and constantly throws all new levels of craziness into the mix. HUH? There's time travel? ....Maybe, but not really. It's a SECRET that you'll never find out and/or stop caring about. She is supposed to be killed by her husband at some point in time, how is that for a honeymoon! But, and there is always a but, Ignifex is not what he seems. Yes, he has the corpses of his eight other brides in a dungeon all laid out, but I digress. He seems to be under some kind of evil spell and he's not like I said what he seems to be. And I still don’t know your name.” My hands trembled as I undid my belt, then started to unclasp the brooches. It seemed forever since that first day when I had ripped my bodice open so Really Royalty Reveal: Shade and Ignifex are two parts of the soul of prince Marcus, the last rightful heir to the throne of Arcadia.