Review: Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 stars 

I was raised to marry a monster. 

This month's TBRChallenge theme was Fairytale/Folktale, no surprise, my pick was a beauty and the beast theme. I'm a sucker for this trope but this one also came along with some Bluebeard, Faust, and Greek and Roman mythology. Cruel Beauty is the story of Nyx, a teenage girl just turned seventeen that is being forced to marry the Gentle Lord. The world building relies heavily on Greek/Roman mythology, to the point that I would call this a sampler of all that mythology. It almost felt like this was 20% original story and the rest retold mythology; a lot of the time I felt like stopping this book and going to read the mentioned mythology story. 

And my future husband—the Gentle Lord—was the prince of demons. 

This is all told from Nyx's point-of-view and we learn that her mother couldn't bear children so her father made a Faustian bargain with the Gentle Lord, a deal that ended up killing the mother but she delivered twin daughters but one of the daughters must marry the Gentle Lord when she turns seventeen. Nyx is raised to be that daughter, with her father training her in the Hermetic arts created by the organization the Resurgandi, so that she can defeat the Gentle Lord, avenge her mother, and save their city. A city placed in the darkness under a false sky because 900 years ago a prince made a bargain with the Kindly Ones, demonish beings. Did I fully understand the Resurgandi and Hermetic arts with the plan to find all the hearts in the Gentle Lord's castle? No. No I did not. It was not fully developed enough or weaved into the fabric of the story well enough, which I blame on all the mythology constantly interjected and used as a substitute for original story. 

If he is a prisoner, then he could be an ally. 

Nyx arrives at the castle early in the story and that is where the Bluebeard theme creeps in with the castle ever changing, locked doors, and 8 previous wives. Nyx's husband is Ignifex, the Gentle Lord and there is a weakly formed love triangle with Nyx finding Ignifex sexy but finding his shadow, Shade, sweet. I found each relationship having the development of a true young adult vibe (Nyx and Ignifex have sex but you'll have to read the line twice to make sure you caught that is what they did, firmly shut door), but hey, this is young adult so I'll give some leeway to less maturity emotions and development, just wish it had been written better. 

“She was exactly like you. She was brave enough to risk anything for what she wanted, and she knew a little too much of the truth.” 

If you're familiar with any of the fairytales and folklore I mentioned, not to mention the clues that can be found in the all the mythology mentions, you'll have an idea what the secret or bargain involves that keeps Nyx's homeland in the dark and what needs to happen to break it. I still felt the ending was disappointing as it felt rushed together but I think that all lies in the fact that I had none and felt no emotional connection to Nyx or other characters and was not invested in the romance between Nyx and Ignifex. I just couldn't help feeling like all the mythology included broke the story up, instead of feeling like it was absorbed into it; not enough original content or character and emotional development for me.

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