Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Released: January 28th 2014
My Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Find it on Goodreads
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. (from Goodreads)
I am a massive fan of fairy-tale retellings, so when I heard
about Cruel Beauty, I knew I had to read it. And honestly, it was probably one
of the best retellings I've read in a while. Unpredictable and dark and
mysterious, Cruel Beauty was exactly what I wanted it to be and more.
Nyx was a brilliant main character. She was the unloved
child in her family - everybody preferred her twin sister, Astraia, and it was
because of this that Nyx was the one who was chosen to marry the Gentle Lord. For
her whole life, Nyx had been trained for her fate while her sister got all the
love and attention, and her father never once seemed to regret the bargain he
made with the Gentle Lord to sacrifice one of his daughters. Astraia had their
mother's (who died during childbirth) face, while Nyx looked more like her
father, and though Nyx did love her sister deep down, she couldn't help but
resent her. In fact, she was full of resentment (as we all might be in such a
situation) and hate bubbled inside her constantly. She hated her father most, even
though all she ever wanted was to be acknowledged by him, but she also hated
her aunt and the whole facade they both put up in front of Astraia to spare her
feelings. She tried to be a good sister and most of the time managed to hide
her true feelings and mask them with a smile. But on the day of her wedding, the
day she had to be brave and put on a calm face to face her fate, it just got
too much for Nyx, and she lashed out at Astraia, intentionally trying to hurt
her. The funny thing about Nyx was that after everything, she still felt guilty
for what she said, and both revelled in the pain she caused and wished she
could take it back. This happened often - people would do horrible things she
didn't agree with, she would say something awful to or about them, but then she
would feel bad and try to justify their behaviour in some way. She would even help her enemies because she
couldn't stand the way the guilt was gnawing away at her. It was an endless
cycle of loathing. I think she probably hated herself most of all; she thought
she was a terrible person for constantly thinking such terrible and vicious
things, and she knew she would be willing to do anything, even if that meant
betraying a loved one, if she truly believed it had to be done. She was not
"pure of heart" as many heroines in fairy tales are portrayed to be,
and she knew it. She had a darker side and she was broken and that's why she
was prepared to die for her mission - as she said one chapter, she did not go to
the castle to be saved.
Ignifex was a very fascinating character, and at first, I
had no idea what to make of him. At the start, he seemed to be a villain who
thought other people's lives were just all fun and games and a source of his
amusement. He had a shadow, Shade, who he had apparently trapped to become his
slave, and all in all Ignifex seemed to be the very monster everyone thought he
was, though one who laughed and enjoyed irony. Shade in contrast was the poor
lost soul whose freedom was stolen from him, who showed kindness to Nyx and who
wanted to get rid of Ignifex no matter the cost. However, what I loved about
Cruel Beauty was there were no clear-cut "good or evil" characters.
All of them were a mix of both and I could never work out who to trust. I kept
asking myself "who is who here?" trying to figure out who were the
good guys and who were the bad, but there were so many switches and confusing
actions that I had to conclude that no-one was one set thing. People who would
typically be called "bad" believed they were justified in their
actions and those trying to do "good" did so many awful things for
the cause. Ignifex seemed to be evil at first, but after learning his
background, and his reasons for his actions, it was hard to hate him. He was
not blameless of course, he could still be called a monster, but I could
sympathise with him. I wasn't sure how I would feel about a romance between Nyx
and Ignifex seeing as he was responsible for her mother's death and the
entrapment of Arcadia, but it was actually one of the most intriguing romances
I've read. While I thought the word "love" was thrown about a bit too
quickly (especially in Shade's case - that was a total insta-love weird
relationship that made little sense - I get he was nice to her, but whaaat? They
barely knew each other!), it was interesting. Usually I wouldn't like a romance
like this where one character was the reason the other character's life was so
messed up because usually the messed up party would be like "I know they
have done oh so many terrible things but I am so pure and good on the inside, I
can definitely forgive them for what they've done lalala" and it would
just be weird and unbalanced and creepy. But this time was different, because
Nyx herself was terrible and willing to do terrible things, and she did NOT
forgive Ignifex. The reason Nyx was able to fall in love with a monster was
because she believed herself to be almost a monster herself, to be capable of
doing such an awful thing, and of course, what are a few atrocities between
monsters? The whole time, she continued wanting to stop Ignifex. Firstly out of
hatred and revenge and to free the land, and then later on to free him from his
own kind of prison. She acknowledged the bad things he had done and never
forgot them, but continued to be with him nonetheless, because the only person
who understood her, who knew her the most, was this monster of a man. So what
did that make her? But even if we ignore all this profound stuff, Nyx and
Ignifex had a lot of chemistry, and I loved their conversations which could be
a mixture of hilarious and sweet and crazy all at the same time. Ignifex was
arrogant and over-confident and very funny at times but he was able to make Nyx
feel worth more than she'd ever felt back at home. He cared about her more than
he ever expected to and vice versa, and they made the strangest and yet most captivating
pair.
Plot-wise, so much went on that I would never have guessed.
The meeting with Shade surprised me and it took a turn I didn't expect and so
many things happened that made me keep asking "where is this going?",
because I honestly couldn't work it out. I did guess the revelation about the
prince pretty early on, but honestly, it didn't bother me, because there were
so many other mysterious things going
on. I really loved the mythology aspects and the stories weaved in and
how everything somehow connected to something else. My only complaints would be
the insta-lovey parts (if "love" were replaced with "like"
it would have been so much better) and the ending, because I would have liked
things to have been explained more as it was a bit vague and I didn't really
get how the things that happened, happened.
Overall, I really enjoyed Cruel Beauty and loved the way
mythology and fairy-tale were brought together. Recommended to fans of
retellings, mythology and forbidden romances.
