Tag: labyrinth

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve liked a book this much.

“Cruel Beauty” by Rosamund Hodge is a variation of Beauty and the Beast, with a little Labyrinth thrown in. The story centers around Nyx Triskelion, one of a set of twins. Ever since she was born, she knew her fate was to marry the Demon Lord because her father had made a deal with him. He gets daughters and one of them has to become his wife on her seventeenth birthday. Nyx’s twin sister, the favorite daughter, was coddled and loved her whole life, whereas Nyx was raised and trained to kill her future husband and save her land from his tyrannical rule. This has made her cold and hard, a perfect match to the Demon Lord Ignafex. On her quest in the Demon Lord’s house, she meets Shade, a shadow being who both helps and hinders her and, as it so happens, looks just like her demon husband. Her plan begins to derail when she starts having feelings for both Ignafex and Shade. However, to save Shade, she must destroy Ignafex. How will things end when her heart is being pulled in two different directions?

Fantastically, I say.

I absolutely loved the way Hodge interprets the Beauty and the Beast storyline. Even though I knew how it would end (BATB books always end with a happy ending somehow), somehow it still came as a surprise. I loved the mythical stories thrown into the mix as it added a little twist to the story. Nyx is not only Beauty, she’s also Pandora. I love it when authors pull from many different sources. I also love that Nyx is a little more feisty than traditional Beauties. The first thing she tries to do is to kill Ignafex. Her spirit doesn’t mellow out as the story goes on. She still has the same moxie at the end that she had at the beginning. She just fell in love.

I also found myself absolutely loving Ignafex. While he wasn’t an animal-like Beast, he still had bestial qualities. Being the Demon Lord, his responsibility was to control the demons that plagued the world while also creating deals. Kinda like Rumplestiltskin from “Once Upon a Time.” However, Ignafex’s deals are not always what they seem. Nyx’s father had made the deal for his wife to become pregnant with twins, but never specified that she had to survive to see them. Ignafex isn’t necessarily a bad person. He is as much a prisoner of his fate as Nyx and Shade. I grew to pity him and found myself crushing on him like Nyx was.

The only issue I had with this story, which isn’t surprising, is that I saw one of the twists coming from almost the beginning. That’s not to say that my twist-deducing skills are that good, it was just that obvious. However, I did not think this detracted from the story. The ending was still satisfying, as was the character development.

If you like Beauty and the Beast stories, you won’t regret reading this one. It’s phenomenally well written, and you’ll find yourself loving the Jareth-like Ignafex. Trust me, you want to read this.

You can read “Cruel Beauty” by Rosamund Hodge here.