Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

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Synopsis from Goodreads: 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.

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My Review

This was my first audio-book and I have to say, I think I am a fan of audio-books now. It was a new experience for me and I am glad I took the chance and gave the book a listen. Unfortunately, it is no longer a free audio-book, but SYNC has two new ones up so go check them out!

My favourite Disney princess is Belle from Beauty and the Beast and that is why I wanted to read this book. However, I had seen some bad reviews of the book so I was hesitant to buy it. When I saw it was free as an audio-book I got it straight away, I needed some Beauty and the Beast in my life. At first, it was weird. I couldn’t tell if someone else other than the main character was speaking, but then I got used to it. I will have to buy the book now in regular format as I did get a little distracted when I was listening to it so I missed some key parts. Overall though, I really liked it. I’m not only a huge fan of fairy tale re-tellings but I am a fan of any type of Mythology, and this book had a ton of Greek Mythology in it, which I was surprised to hear as I didn’t know of it before. This book surprised me as well with all the twists and turns the author pulled. I found I loved Shade and Ignifex both equally and by the end, well if you read the book, you’d know how I felt.

Some people may say that the book will go off and there is a lot of unnecessary scenes, but for the book to work out and to make it a satisfying book, every scene was important, they are character building and necessary to tell this story. So, if you find you are stuck and thinking ‘ how is this important ‘ just remember later on, it will all make sense.

This book deserved it’s four stars, it was compelling in every matter and maybe after a second read it could become five stars, the only thing missing was that I wasn’t compelled to continue reading it into the night. (It may have been that I was a little scared of it).

Let me know any other Fairy tale re-tellings I should read in the comments, bonus points if it is Beauty and the Beast! Also, if you read the book let me know what you thought of it or link me to your review.