Cruel Beauty

This isn’t your typical Disney retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Author Rosamund Hodge takes a beloved story and wraps mythology, ancient and classic history, and mysticism into a death-defying game of love, life, and death. Marked a martyr, Nyx has been raised preparing for her marriage to the Great Lord (beast) in order to save Arcadia. If she fails, her own mother’s death would have been for nothing. However, does Nyx have what it takes to kill a man, even one as evil or not so evil as him? Still, once Nyx gets to know him, her mission and her conscience start battling as she finds she enjoys his company. What does this mean for Arcadia and for her fate?

With so many books working from the fairy tale genre it is refreshing to find a story that isn’t completely recycled. This book takes a shell of the original fairytale and fills it in with a myriad of details and a plot that is so well written you won’t want to put it down. I truly loved this book and I hope to see more from this author.