Waiting on Wednesday–Cruel Beauty

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, which spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating!

Cruel Beauty

Author – Roseamund Hodge

Publisher – Balzer & Bray

Expected Publication – January 28, 2014

 

Summary

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.
Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
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.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

One of my favorite books this year was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast – Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay. So, of course, as soon as I read the summary that mentioned one of my other favorites, Graceling, I knew I had to read Cruel Beauty! I’m hoping that this more traditional fantasy retelling of the popular fairy tale will capture me the same way that Stacey Jay’s sci-fi-ish twist on the story did.

Do you enjoy fairy tale retellings? If so, which have been your favorites? What upcoming books are you most anticipating?