Saturday 13 January 2018

"Cruel Beauty" by Rosamund Hodge

Title: Cruel Beauty
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Genre: Fantasy
Overall: 7/10


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. 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.

Jo's review:
I flew through this book, started in the morning and finished in the evening. The first half was really mysterious and intriguing, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough because of the promising plot. But here comes the disappointed. It turned out to be a swoony romance which is not exactly my kind of thing. The moments of revelations were weird and unexpected. But I did love the characters though. They were extremely flawed, not heroines with hearts of gold but true people who get selfish and who have moments of weakness. Nyx is strong but also a bit dark and vicious, she hurts people she loves and makes mistake after mistake. There are many elements of fairy tales and Greek mythology which I enjoyed. The book is very well-written as well. My main complaints are that it got overwhelmingly romantic a time and the ending was terrible. 

5 comments:

  1. I didn't love this book either. It was very hyped and then fell flat for me. I can't remember exactly what I didn't like, but I'm with you on this one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I did read it a while ago but I can't remember what I thought about it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad to hear it was well written even tough it asn't fully your kind of read. Nice to hear the characters were well done.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I actually really loved how dark this was and just plain..different. It was fun but I can see why it wouldn't be for everyone. Glad you did like most of it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The premise sounds amazing, but I was sure it would go into romance territory :D that's too bad it was so disappointing though.

    ReplyDelete