The best books are held aloft by a great protagonist and Cruel Beauty is no exception. It was a bizarrely beautiful little addiction and I only hope this signifies the start of a great year for young adult (after the last was so disappointing). It was one of those rare books that literally glued my eyes to the page, had me devouring each sentence in a mad need to find out what the hell was going on and what would happen. I'm still not sure I understand the ending but I am sure that it doesn't really matter. It managed to have me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. And it's the latest addition to my favourite YA of all time shelf.Ĭruel Beauty shouldn't work.It's a dark tale that stabs you in the heart at every turn and constantly throws all new levels of craziness into the mix.It's at once a powerful, wonderful, heart-breaking love story and so so much more than that.

It's a gorgeously written blend of Beauty and the Beast retelling and Greek mythology.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. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.Īs Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.īut Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. 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. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father.

Rosamund hodge