No Books, No Life

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Nyx has known all her life that as soon as she turns seventeen she will be forced to marry Ignifex, the evil demon lord of their land as part of a deal her father made before she was even born. Right after they are married she plans on killing him, but gets stopped just in time. Ignifex doesn't punish her for doing that but does take away all her weapons. As Nyx learns more about him will she still be able to murder him, or is she slowly starting to fall in love with him? And what about his shadow, Shade? Is she starting to have feelings for him too? Find out in this beautiful reimagining of The Beauty and the Beast!

I absolutely loved this story. After I got an ARC of Crimson Bound in the mail, I knew that I really wanted to read this one too. I quickly ordered it so I could read it before Crimson Bound, and boy I'm glad I did. This is a beautiful story that will stay with me for a long time.

The writing is amazing. I could feel everything with perfect clarity and it was NEVER boring. I felt like all that happened was happening to ME and I really liked that. It has been a while since that has happened to me and I can honestly say that it helped make the book very enjoyable.

The characters were very 3D and even the most minor characters were very well fleshed out. My favorite character was Ignifex, he had a lot of layers. I would start to think that I knew what he would do next, but then he would do something different and it left me mind-blown (in a good way!). Nyx was such a strong heroine and definitely was not a "Bella Swan". The romance was swoon-worthy and I don't think that the love-triangle could even be classified as such since they were basically the same person. That was another bonus for me and added to my overall love for the book.


The plot never got slow. The book captured me from the beginning and didn't let me go until the very last page. As you can tell, I absolutely loved this story! If you haven't yet, go read it!

Thanks for reading!
~Bri