Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Grade: 4 Butterflies
Name: Cruel Beauty
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: Hardcover, 352

Goodreads Summary

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.

I love re-tellings, they are some of my favorite stories and books. So it is no surprise that I got my hands on this one and read it as fast as I could. In the end I really enjoyed this one. This book was really great and fun to read. However, there were a few problems I had with this story.

First off, the plot. I had serious mixed feelings for this plot. On one hand I really enjoyed reading this story, I liked the concept of it, I liked how it was executed, I liked reading it. However, the whole story of Beauty and the Beast is the romance. So even though the plot isn't just about the relationship I went into this one expecting a romance where they two people hate each other, but learn to love one another and at first I was disappointed. I was disappointed because until page 150 they didn't start falling in love with each other. We actually rarely saw Ignifex up until that point. So I was a little disappointed how long the romance took to even turn into romance.

With that said, I still enjoyed the plot. While I was a little disappointed I still thought the plot was great. And even though it took me a while to get into this story when I did really get into it I couldn't get out of it. It was thoroughly captivating and enchanting. The ending had me on the edge of my seat, I had to know if the author twisted it to that extreme or if they do get a happy ending. I stayed up way to late to finish this because I had to now how it would end. The only other thing about this plot is I figured out the 'mystery' at page 5o. I didn't figure out the how, when, or why until the end when it was revealed, but I did figure out the basic element of it at the way beginning.

Why I really enjoyed this book was because of the complex characters. This author has a talent for writing and developing characters. I loved how flawed she made these characters and how they accepted their flaws. It made them feel so much more realistic and relatable. At the beginning Nyx wants to love her family but all so feels is resentment and hatred towards them and you can't blame her. They are essentially sending her towards her death and they don't seem to care, at least her Father and her Aunt don't seem to care. If I was in her place I don't think I would be any different, not because I'm an awful person, but because It would be a natural reaction. So, I really appreciated how complex and realistic these characters turned out to be.

Last thing I would like to talk about is the romance. I've said I didn't like how long it took to really take off, but besides that I actually liked the romance. I love Nyx's and Ignifex's relationship. I liked how they bickered with each other, I loved reading their back and forth dialogue. They where just so cute together!! The one last problem I had with this book was that while they where good and amazing together their relationship didn't have much depth. We got to see them overcoming their first initial judgment of one another, but even with that I felt that their relationship lacked a lot of depth. Yo could tell they loved each other just not why.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this one. The plot was really great and the ending had my on the edge of my seat needing to know how it ended. Even though the ending was a little confusing, I felt like the author wrote it like that on purpose or that was just the least confusing way she could write it. Either way it didn't bother me all that much because the rest of the book was so enjoyable that it couldn't ruin the book for me. I would reccomend this one to any fantasy or fairy-tale retalling lover.

This book got....

 4 Butterflies

Beloved, This is a really good book.

Happy reading

Top Ten Tuesday (44)

This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Tuesday REWIND! (Pick from previous topics that you want to do again or may have missed)

Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines 

Alex from the Covenant series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

She is one of the best fighters I've  read. She can kick anyone's butt without breaking a sweat. She is also sassy and refuses to take crap from anyone.

Allison from the Blood of Eden series by Julie Kagawa

Allison is a freaking amazing fighter and she is so kick-ass with her cool sword. It also helps how amazing Julie Kagawa can write fight scenes. In every fight scene in these books it's like you can vividly see the fight happening in your minds eye and its so freaking amazing to read!!

Hermione from the Harry Potter series by . K Rowling

So she might not be the best fighter but she did fight in a huge war and she was willing to sacrifice everything to help Harry. Not only Harry, she would be willing to do anything for people she loves. She even wiped her parents minds so they didn't have any memories of her so they would be safe. I mean, if that doesn't make her an amazing person and character I don't no what does.

Juliette from the Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette may be a whinny, selfish brat sometimes, but overall she is a kick-ass character. She has these amazing powers and she knows how use them.

Gin from the Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep

Gin not only a kick-ass character but also a kick-ass assassin. I love reading these books because Gin is an amazing fighter but also refuses to let anything stop her and don't even think about threatening people she loves. 

Gwen from the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep

Gwen is just an amazing character altogether. She can fight, but she is also a great friend, very selfless, and a very smart and clever. 

Yelena from the Study series by Maria V. Snyder

I love Yelena!! She is one of my all time favorite characters. She is tough and selfless and stubborn and a great fighter. She also refuses to let something intimidate her. If someone stronger them her threatens her she won't even blink an eye before throwing herself at him. And on top of that she will probably win the fight. She also gives her all to a challenge. It's all or nothing with her.

Katy from the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Katy isn't as kick-ass as some of the characters on this list, but she is still great. What I like about her is that she feels like a normal person, not a chosen one or someone damaged. She acts and thinks like a normal girl, which I really appreciate. 

Sophie from the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins

Sophie has everything a great heroine needs. She's a great fighter, she won't let somebody get hurt if she can help it, and she is hilarious. She is the sass queen of all the books. She lives on sarcasm. 

Katsa from the Graceling Realm series by Kristin Cashore

Katsa has some flaws, but she is still an amazing character. She won't let anything stand in her way, if someone near to her heart gets hurt she will be there for them. And she will fight to the death to help someone she feels if being wronged. 

That's my Top Ten, what's yours.
Happy reading

Series review: The Assassin's Curse series,

Grade

Book 1| 4 Butterflies

Book 2| 4.5 Butterflies

Average/Series| 4.25

Book one~ The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Review.

Goodreads Summary

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to another pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. When Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn't really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. 

To break the spell, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks--all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic...and the growing romantic tension between them.

Skip this if you haven't read The Assassin's Curse. The series review doesn't have any spoilers but this summary does contain spoilers for the first one. 

Book two~ The Pirates Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Review. 

Goodreads Summary

After setting out to break the curse that binds them together, the pirate Ananna and the assassin Naji find themselves stranded on an enchanted island in the north with nothing but a sword and their wits. But Naji has unseen enemies, and Ananna must face the wrath of the Pirate Confederation.

Together, they must travel afar, defeat their foes and break the mother of all curses. With all this going on, falling in love would be such a bad idea... All of this and much, much more await, in the swashbuckling sequel to The Assassin's Curse.

Book 1:
 So, I had a lot of expectations for this one. I thought it was going to be amazing, the concept sure sounded like it, but I was a little disappointed. Very few things happened in a lot of pages, which was frustrating to read. It also felt to much like a set up. It felt like it had less of its own plot and more like it was setting up book two's plot. Which really hindered and took away from this book.

However, even with those problems it was still a very enjoyable book. I loved the characters! I thought that they felt very realistic and lovable. I was also swept up in the world. There wasn't as much world building that I would have liked, but it was still a really cool world. I really liked the pirates aspect to the world; it gave the whole book a sense of adventure and fairy-taleness to it.  The plot was also very interesting. Even though the plot did feel more like it was just made to set up for the second, it was still really fun to read!

Book 2:

This one was much better!! I felt like all of the problems I had with the first went away with this one.

Since this was the second one the whole emptiness of the plot in the first one wasn't there. The first one's plot set up for this one and since this one doesn't have any other books to set up for it had more filling to the plot. The plot itself was really enjoyable and amazing! It was really fun to read and the pages flew through my hands. 

The characters where just as good as this one as they were in the first one. I was also really happy that Naji got some more depth, because I felt like he was lacking that in the first one. So, it was great to read him get some more depth and character. Ananna was just as cool and kick-butt as she was in the first one. I really like her character, she is such a strong character. 

The one and only problem I had with this one is that the writing took away from the story again. Throughout this book very few things happened in a lot of pages. Which is really annoying to read.

Overall: 

This was an enjoyable series. There were some problems throughout the series, some of which get fixed in the second one, but overall I really liked this series. I thought it was full of action and great, lovable  characters. I also really liked and shipped Ananna's and Naji's relationship. I thought it was really cute and fun to read. I liked how the romance in this was really subtle in the first one but flourished in the second one, which made it feel really realistic. 

I would recommend it to any fantasy/paranormal lover or to anyone who wants to read an adventure. 

Happy reading