Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

e-ARC, 352 pages
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Cruel Beauty Universe, #1
Source: Edelweiss
For fans of: Fantasy, YA, Romance, Retellings

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.
     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.
 

*MY THOUGHTS*

     One thing I've noticed about this book..... You either loved it or you hated it. There was really not a gray area. I'm guessing its because the beginning isn't that great. And that's exactly what happened to me. I fell victim to the bad beginning. 
     I'm a little upset because I really wanted to love this one. Especially since it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling. Which I have decided to stop reading. They never seem to work out for me. It's like expect way too much out if them and they never come out right. 
     This is another one where I've seen some bloggers say it gets better as the book goes on, but I just couldn't get into it. I made it to about 30% and I just felt like with all the information they had already given me had told me the entire story and I didn't need to read the rest. *shrugs*It was a little unfortunate because I didn't even want to skim it like I normally do my DNF's, but I mean, it was a retelling. I had always known what would happen. 
     I hate being the black sheep. I hate not loving a book that everyone else does, but this one just didn't do it for me. I wasn't impressed and I don't care to see what else happens. 
Overall, I give this

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