Cruel Beauty

Product Information

Nyx was intended by her father to be the savior of her people. It means she will most definitely die. Her father made a deal with the king of the demons, the Gentle Lord; in exchange, Nyx will be given in marriage to the Gentle Lord when she turns 17. In return, her beloved twin sister, Astraia, will be able to live a normal, happy life. Nyx truly loves her twin sister, the innocent, sweet Astraia, but it is so hard not to feel resentment at one who has been the recipient of all their father's love, while knowing that her happiness will come at the cost of your own, but she is determined to fulfil her mission: I had broken my sister’s heart. I would never see her again, so I could never beg her forgiveness. I had let hatred fester in me so long, I didn’t think I could ever learn to love her properly, either. But I could make sure she lived free of the Gentle Lord, no longer afraid of his demons, with the true sun shining down upon her.Nyx has been groomed half her life to be the Gentle Lord's bride, but her father and his secret society has other plans for her: she will marry him, she will seduce him, she will kill him. Nyx will save Arcadia from the demons. Prince Marcus Valerius Lux ("light"), signifying the complimentary nature of his and Nyx's ("night") relationship. I found a rose garden under a glass dome; the roses formed a labyrinth in which I always got lost . . . The dialog between characters feels so odd and stilted to me. Often when two people are talking, what each is saying individually makes sense, but not in the context of what the other is saying. It's like the author wrote one person's lines independent of the other, and then wove them together without making any edits. The odd dialog makes certain parts of this story really hard to follow, and I walk away from this not really sure I understood the crucial plot points.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge | Goodreads Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge | Goodreads

I shuddered, but my mind refused to recognize it until I groped farther and my fingers slid past teeth into a cold, wet mouth.

Maybe it's just me, but I've rarely encountered a Beauty and the Beast retelling that I haven't loved. Ok, except Beastly. That abomination was just horrible all the way around. And let's not even mention the movie. Some people just have the kind of face that just begs for an encounter with my fist, and pretty boy Pettyfer is one of them. But I digress.

Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge - Google Books

I knew it was insane to be happy, to feel this desperate exultation at his words. But I felt like I had been waiting all my life to hear them. I had been waiting, all my life, for someone undeceived to love me. And now he did, and it felt like walking into the dazzling sunlight of the Heart of Earth.CRUEL BEAUTY was our October book of the month in the Unapologetic Romance Readers group - in fact, it won by a massive landslide. Not that I was surprised. CRUEL BEAUTY made quite a stir when it was first released; it seemed like everybody was singing its praises and mooning over Ignifex. On the surface, it sounded like a great story - love and death, revenge, magic, fairy-tales, demon lovers. That's Nenia to a T. But it was also YA. And I've been burned by the YA genre more times than I care to count. My heart couldn't take any more disappointment. So anyway, we started reading CRUEL BEAUTY in URR, and I was defensive and hopeful all at once as I prepared myself for the inevitable let-down...

Book Series In Order Rosamund Hodge - Book Series In Order

We're twin sisters who believe in the power of great love stories, in beautiful tales of Modern Romanticism, and in living a more Romantic, imaginative lifestyle. In brief: Penryn knew she was acting selfishly and kept doing so in spite of everything, and I loved it; Nyx knew she was a tool in The Greater Good hands and resented it profoundly, and never, not even once, she thought she could find another way, resulting in her (and us) never understanding which side she was on. And I hated it.She spends SO MUCH time flip-flopping between Ignifex and Shade, ONLY TO HAVE US BE TOLD THEY'RE (KIND OF) THE SAME PERSON. Like what in the world??? Central Theme: Nothing is what it seems. The Gentle Lord's castle is a crumbling ruin from outside and a lavish residence from the inside. Ignifex is revealed to be less cruel or malicious than he initially appears despite embodying the dark side of prince Marcus's soul. Shade, while having had all malice purged from him and appearing as Nyx's apparent ally, has caused the deaths of eight women due to his deceit and cares more about destroying the Gentle Lord than her wellbeing.