Cruel Beauty

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If you’re excited about the upcoming Disney film Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson, don’t miss Cruel Beauty. While I wasn't a big fan of the love-triangle, I kinda got it. That's all I can say without saying any spoiler.

Cruel Beauty Series in Order by Rosamund Hodge - FictionDB Cruel Beauty Series in Order by Rosamund Hodge - FictionDB

Happily Ever After: In the altered timeline, Arcadia was never enslaved, Nyx and Astraia share a relationship free of bitterness, Telomache and Leonidas are married and expect a child to be born, Nyx will presumably go to the Lyceum to study the Hermetic Arts and is eventually reunited with Lux. 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. I found a rose garden under a glass dome; the roses formed a labyrinth in which I always got lost . . .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. You deserve all that and more. It made me happy to see you suffer. I would do it all over again if I could." I realized I was shaking as the words tumbled out of me. "I would do it again and again. Every night I would torment you and laugh. Do you understand? You are never safe with me." I drew a shuddering breath, trying to will away the sting of tears.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge | Waterstones

I thought this would be a book of action, but it's actually a book of inaction. Nyx spends the majority of time thinking about what she needs to do and her feelings of hate and inadequacy, but almost no time actually doing anything relevant to achieve her goals. The majority of the book is spent with her walking down hallways, opening doors, and entering different rooms, while ruminating about kissing guys and how much she loves/hates her sister. Nyx Triskelion and I are not right for each other, this much is apparent. I saw many similarities between her and Penryn (protagonist of Angelfall), which is probably part of the reason why I fel the comparison was necessary; anyway, many were the differences as well. Both heroines are flawed and know it, but while Penryn fights along with her faults making strengths out of them, Nyx's attitude is more ambiguous and, I believe, hypocritical. She never denies having, as she dutifully remind us every now and then, "poison in her heart", but she fluctuates between thinking of herself as the most despicable person on Earth and easily rolling with it, even relishing it. It basically depends on her mood of the moment. I personally prefer the latter case, which is a pity since we see more of the former. Nyx is so volatile that she can convincingly assert she in love with Ignifex and be firm in her purpose to kill him, which she can express with determination and willingness one minute and with nothing but frustrated reluctance the next. She does not seem torn: she seems bipolar. The fact that she simultaneously falls in love with two men ( I don't give a hoot they are in fact the same person: for the whole book they were separate entities and that's it) does not help me getting rid of the impression, actually it reinforces it: she does not know what she wants, she's indecisive, flighty, erratic, and she remains so for the whole story, never growing up and never deciding until she had but a path to take, so it's not as if she finally did take a real decision. stars. Everyone was telling me I would hate this book, and I did not! While it did have its faults, I enjoyed what it was trying to do and the general theme, even if the execution failed at times. It is a Beauty and the Beast/Hades & Persephone hybrid with some folklore mixed in. I cannot hate it. None of the characters have a real conversation ever. They talk about love and connections on the first "date" Sibling Yin-Yang: Nyx is regal, resentful and sardonically sarcastic. Astraia is described as pretty, naive and very sociable.Where the moral of this Cruel Story, the contradictions of human nature, how the cruelty is compassion and how we never understand what we wish for..

Cruel Beauty also enjoyed - Goodreads Readers who enjoyed Cruel Beauty also enjoyed - Goodreads

The Shade aspect of Lux was described with skin was milky white, his hair was pale silver-gray. Only his eyes were colored, such a deep blue as I had never seen before, their pupils round and human. His face was sculpted into exactly the same lovely shape as Ignifex’s. Though he does not have his eyes. Thus, I decided it was time to cull the herd. So decided I would try the cliched booktube trend of reading first chapters of books that have been on my shelves awhile...unhauling anything that didn’t at least mildly capture my attention. I think that I wasn't liking it at the begining because Nyx is always changing her mind and I wanted to slap her sometimes, but also because the world in this book is really confusing! At first I didn't understand a thing about the "Hermetic" laws and the elemental hearts, then it became clearer, but we also had demons, gods, "kindly ones", shadows, mithology, fantasy, and so much more that I don't think I fully understood the world at the end of the book, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it, on the contrary, I found it very interesting! Characters have sex, but it's not described at all. More descriptions of passionate kisses, and twice clothes are suddenly stripped off. Nyx talks about her aunt and her father sharing a bed. Nyx's aunt tries to give Nyx a lecture on her "wifely duties" when she's married. This book, I would have preferred to read written for adults. It is mostly a romance, with a lot of talk of virginity, ravishing, tearing off dresses, etc. But because it's YA, despite being quite sensuous, it doesn't go further than kissing. Too bad really, I don't come across many good adult romances, and setup of "Cruel Beauty" is perfect for creating all kinds of convenient excuses to facilitate sexy times.Romance Billionaire Romance Erotic Young Adult Crime Fantasy Vampires Science Fiction Thriller Horror Classics Suspense

Nyx Triskelion | Cruelbeauty Wiki | Fandom Nyx Triskelion | Cruelbeauty Wiki | Fandom

While I understand why many might not like it, I'd still recommend it if you're looking for an enjoyable retelling loosely based on the Beauty and the Beast. But then again, I'm no expert in this genre since I'm a newbie and all yet, I know that I loved it. 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. She starts liking Shade because he's KIND to her and she falls in love with Ignifex because he loves her for who she is. ("I wanted to hit him again. I wanted to cry. Most of all, I wanted to forget my mission and lose myself in the embrace of the one person who had ever seen my heart and claimed to love me after.") Girl both of those are not reasons for love...... 😮‍💨😮‍💨 I meant the words for a joke, but Shade nodded seriously. "Like all monsters. Because it reminds him of what he truly is".” I find the main characters interesting, and I liked that their interactions were fiery and vivid. I love how Rosamund Hodge played with the original tale, especially in the complexity of the main characters. There is much less of a focus on Ignifex's physical appearance, and more on the evil and darkness that surrounds his character. Whether or not the perceptions about him are true, no one would presume to call him a good guy. Nyx is also not an innocent beauty. She is driven, starved of love, and recognizes the darkness that lives in her own heart. I think some people may find the main characters too dark and self-centered to enjoy their story, and at times it was edging on a little too much for me. There is some terrible violence and pain in the story, and the characters didn’t always respond the way I wanted them to (though I usually understood why they did). Anyway, I didn’t mind this too much because they interested me, and I did come to like them.But Nyx doesn't just have the responsibility of avenging her family. She lives in this Greco-Roman city called Arcadia that's been frozen in time for almost 1,000 years because of a curse. They have a parchment sky and a demon lord, called the Gentle Lord, who makes Faustian bargains that always end in curses and tragedy. To fulfill the bargain made by her father, she has to marry him. To fulfill the prophecy handed down by their alchemists through centuries, she has to kill him. I remember the hours I had spent in Father's library, drugging myself with books so I could forget my doom for an hour..”