Review: "Cruel Beauty" by Rosamund Hodge

Quick Summary

Type: Novel, book 1 in Cruel Beauty duology

Genre: Romance, fantasy

Back Cover: "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."

Read Time: 4 days

Rating: 3.25 stars

Review

First of all, I just want to say that I really like the cover. Honestly, that's probably why I picked up the book.

It was a little hard to get into the story, but at around the 15% mark, it really picked up. As soon as Nyx stepped into the Gentle Lord's castle, I got interested enough to forgive some of my early problems with this novel.

My big early problem was that I couldn't figure out what time period and region this fantasy was supposed to be based on. Obviously, there was a strong ancient Greek influence, as shown by many of the names and the worship of Greek gods. There was also Roman influence, also as seen by the names. But there was also some Irish mythology influence, based on the name of one of the Kindly Ones (Brigit?). All in all, it was very confusing.

But the story was fun enough that at some point, I stopped caring about the weird setting quirks and focused only on the romance and the "mystery".

Now, the "twist" was so obvious, it did bother me that Nyx (who's supposedly smart) couldn't figure it out. Obviously, if Shade and Ignifex share the same face, they're the same person.

But again, the story was so fun that I didn't care that Nyx couldn't figure it out. I also thought the twist only about 75% through - when the world resets and suddenly Arcadia is a country in the real world that worships the Kindly Ones - was clever, and I liked that Nyx went to find Ignifex after remembering her other life.

I am curious about the sparrow, but I guess I'll have to read the second book to find out what that's about.

So yeah. Was this a trashy YA? Yeah, probably. Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Also yes.