Cruel Beauty

Nyx was raised to save her world. On her seventeenth birthday, she is to be married to the Gentle Lord. She is then to kill him and avenge her mother and the deal her father made. She has spent her life resenting her father for making this deal and her sister for being the twin her father loved. As she goes to her new husband, Ignifex, she finds that killing him isn't going to be as easy as she thought. Then there is Shade, who only comes out at night and looks stunningly similar to Ignifex. He is the opposite of her husband, kind and helpful. She looks to him to help her take down her husband and restore her world. But things take longer than she had planned, and Nyx finds her husband to be more and more interesting. Eventually she falls in love with him. But she has made promises to her family that they are not going to allow her to break. She must decide if she can betray the only one who has ever loved her for a family who never really cared. Her choice may reset the world and leave Ignifex and Shade to the whims of the Kindly Ones who are not what their names may imply. Nyx must find a way back through her memories to save her husband and outsmart the demons. What will this cost her? Is it a price worth paying? This book wasn't my favorite. It was okay, a little confusing in parts and probably not something I would recommend considering all the great books out there. It is an interesting concept, the duality of the villain and how that is portrayed, but not enough to make my favorites list. With only a couple of days of vacation left, my next book awaits. Not sure what it will be, but there is no end to my stack. Happy reading my friends!