Cruel Beauty (by Rosamund Hodge)

              

 8.5/10

                                                     

              She was trained for seventeen years

     To Kill Him

                             

     raised by her world

 

  To Despise Him

    willing to trade her own life

  To Destroy Him.

  But what she never expected was that he would

 

  Change Her Forever.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

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.

8.5/10

This book was absolutely beautiful. It was masterfully written and intoxicating. I fell in love with the world, characters and riveting plot. It was unlike anything I have ever read. Absolutely breathtaking! I highly recommend this novel! Strange, romantic, dark, provocative and twisted all at once this debut novel is a winner!
I would highly recommend it to anyone! It was romantic without ever getting steamy so I believe that even younger readers could take some enjoyment from it. Though by saying that in no way am I saying that in any way this is a children's novel, it is definitely YA fiction. So go give it a go! You won't regret it.