15839984Title: Cruel Beauty

Author: Rosamund Hodge

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication Date: January 2014

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Fantasy

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received a copy of this book from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

Nyx has known all along she is to be sacrificed. She is to be married to the Gentle Lord, a demon who rules over their land making deals with people. Deals that cost them lives, money, love and more. She is to avenge her mother. She is to save the kingdom. But nothing goes as planned.

But Ignifex, the Gentle Lord, is not what she expects. Cruel and mean, warm and thoughtful, Ignifex confuses Nyx and now she’s not sure what her plan is. Not when she thinks she might love him. But Nyx can’t wait any longer. She must choose to betray her husband, her captor, her love and save the city, or sacrifice everything and everyone she has ever loved.

Loved.

I purposefully read this slowly, savoring each word. While the structure may remind reader’s of Beauty & The Beast, that’s where most of the similarities end. This tale is dark with traces of evil and malice laced between the words. I love Nyx. I love her bravery, and her sharp tongue. But I especially love that darkness inside of her. Her shameful thoughts and mean words that she keeps pressed to her heart. She is such a human, filled with regrets and torn between selfishness and duty. Characters like this, mixed and neither too good nor too bad, but just with that sharp bite of hunger and rage, are so interesting, bringing the book to another level.

Ignifex is equally intriguing. Yeah, he’s evil. But his back story and circumstances are not understood until the last remaining pages. And until then, he’s this shifting shadow, someone who you may grasp but then quickly vanishes out of your fingers. I like not being able to pinpoint exactly who he is and what his motivations are. Made him even more untrustworthy, but like Nyx, I so wanted to trust him.

The story itself is fun, opening slowly with a gorgeous setting and the past that keeps these characters in its grasp. As I got to know Nyx and Ignifex more, I read for longer and longer, immersing myself in this dark fairy tale of love, revenge and cruelty. There are lots of twists, sometimes falling closely to Beauty & The Beast, and other times shooting straight into those dark shadows in everyone’s hearts. I love all the grey area, the descriptive language of the evil demon shadows that claw at the characters, driving them to madness. The urgency of the threat is real, it’s there, it’s looming over you with every page turn.

Solid debut. Creative and mesmerizing story. Human characters and a believable romance.
What else could I ask for?
In fact, I may have bought a hardcover as soon as I was done with it. I loved it that much.

I can’t wait to see what Ms. Hodge writes next!

Rating 9 Ridiculously Awesome like Cookies and Ice Cream