I’m not sure how many Beauty and the Beast retellings I’ve read by this point but baby, I am ALWAYS ready for another one. I can’t even remember how I stumbled across Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge but it magically appeared on my bookshelf and here we are. I wouldn’t say this is one of the best ever but it was good. This review will be spoiler free.

Synopsis:

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.

My Thoughts:

• Rating- ⭐⭐⭐

This is one of those books that while I had fun reading it, I can’t say that I find it to be memorable. It was released in 2014 and it reads like most YA fantasy from that time. It is a pretty unique retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It’s very Greek inspired and mythology plays a huge role throughout. I really enjoyed that but I can’t say that the characters were that special.

I liked them but they were pretty standard for a YA fantasy. There’s the sassy and brave heroine, Nyx, and the dark and mysterious enemy turned lover, Ignifex. There was nothing I disliked about either but again, they were just very typical YA fantasy main characters.

The romance was very sweet and I enjoyed the development of it. However, I was slightly disappointed by the overall mystery. I found it fairly easy to guess early on what was happening and the ending was a bit lackluster. It wasn’t bad but it’s very much a “and then they lived happily ever after” kind of ending without much conflict to get to that point.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I don’t regret reading this book and I think lovers of Beauty and the Beast retellings would enjoy it but I just want a little something more from my fantasies. If you’ve read this one, let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and have a great day!