Cruel Beauty

• Author: Rosamund Hodge
• Publisher: HarperCollins 
• Published: 2014
• Rating: 5/5

Since birth NYX has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, all because of a reckless bargain her father struck.  And since birth, NYX has been training to kill him

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My Thoughts ~ Spoilers Alert ~ 

I picked up this book because I heard it was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast (which is my favorite of all time)  and I had to have it of course!  But let me tell you that even thou you see a small amount of similarities I believe this is a whole other story!  And I loved it!  Keep reading for more!

The story is a about a girl named NYX, and she was betrothed to marry the Gentle Lord name Ignifex on her 17th birthday.  Before she was born her father had made a bargain with the Gentle Lord and in order for him to get what he wanted the Gentle Lord had told him that in returned for it he will have to give up one of his daughters in marriage to him.  Here comes the spoilers!!!  The father had agreed to the bargain and by agreeing his wife and him will have children actually they will have twin daughters Astraia and NYX .  Astraia was described as looking like her mother and the father’s favorite and NYX took after her father.  NYX knew about the bargain from the beginning and resented her family ever since she was told about her destiny.  She trained almost all her life to free her homeland and banish the Gentle Lord, once she gets to the castle and meets the Gentle Lord, she quickly try to find ways to kill him and save her homeland, but instead she  ends up falling love with him and a shadow name Shade, who ends up betraying her and once she learns the real truth about Ignifex and Shade she wants to save them both, but once she goes back home to visit her sister she is reminded of her duty for her homeland and her family and decides to  keep on with her plan with the help of her sister Astaia, make her loose both Ignifex and Shade and learning the real truth aboth them. About a year or so later she gets reunited with Ignifex who was a real Prince!

The characters were all likable NYX was dark, wicked and exactly what Ignifex needed.  Ignifex was dark but sort of charming at the same time he was after all a great guy (at last in my opinion).

The world was kind of weird, because I felt the story didn’t give enough description of it and it was placed inside the castle 900 years ago. The castle was a maze and each day it changed.  There was magic but never really explained but it didn’t bother me much.  I really enjoyed this story!

Here is a link to my youtube video discussing #cruelbeauty on booktube – https://youtu.be/OmdfHFeHhtQ