Reviewing: Gilded Ashes by Rosamund Hodge

Hellooo, lovelies. Today, for the first time in ages, I read something. I was pleased. I threw confetti. I danced in a circle. Beforehand, I had been staring at my August TBR and thinking "wow, I feel absolutely zero motivation to do anything." And then I realized I'd put a novella on my list. YES. SOMETHING SHORT. (I thought it would be best to ease back in to former reading habits, or else my already shriveled brain would suffer a complete collapse).

As I'd said before, I'd been wanting to read Gilded Ashes for a while, because A) Rosamund Hodge is fabulous and B) it is set in the same world of Cruel Beauty-- WHICH I LOVE.

(Also, Ignifex makes an appearance, except he is not referred to as Ignifex, because, well, obviously, the main character doesn't know his name. I nearly shrieked with joy when it dawned on me that he was in the book).

Orphan Maia doesn't see the point of love when it only brings pain: Her dying mother made a bargain with the evil, all-powerful ruler of their world that anyone who hurt her beloved daughter would be punished; her new stepmother went mad with grief when Maia's father died; and her stepsisters are desperate for their mother's approval, yet she always spurns them. And though her family has turned her into a despised servant, Maia must always pretend to be happy, or else they'll all be struck dead by the curse.

Anax, heir to the Duke of Sardis, doesn't believe in love either—not since he discovered that his childhood sweetheart was only using him for his noble title. What's the point of pretending to fall in love with a girl just so she'll pretend to fall in love with him back? But when his father invites all the suitable girls in the kingdom to a masked ball, Anax must finally give in and select a wife.

As fate would have it, the preparations for the masquerade bring him Maia, who was asked by her eldest stepsister to deliver letters to Anax. Despite a prickly first encounter, he is charmed and intrigued by this mysterious girl who doesn't believe in love. Anax can't help wishing to see her again—and when he does, he can't help falling in love with her. Against her will, Maia starts to fall in love with him too. But how can she be with him when every moment his life is in danger from her mother's deadly bargain?

~*~

The world is still gorgeous (although I wish there were more details on its background), and Rosamund Hodge's descriptions are definitely 80% of why I love her books. The amount of detail she puts into describing each emotion is immaculate, and each sentence is tailored to perfection.

TEACH ME YOUR WAYS.

The other 20% is the characters. None of them feel two-dimensional. None of the characters in Gilded Ashes are reduced to only evil-stepmother, evil step-sisters, or ever-cheerful Cinderella. Each character has a reason for why they are what they are. Which is, of course, awesome. I am a firm believer that everyone needs a purpose. No one is bad for no reason, just as no one is good without reason.

Maia is no where near the same person as Nyx (the main character of Cruel Beauty). She is sweet and gentle and kind because she's trying to protect others from the wrath of her mother (who is a ghost). She's terrified of showing her real feelings, and she's hidden them for so long that sometimes it's as though she forgets she has them.

This is not a dual-POV novella. We never get to see what it's like in Anax's mind, only Maia's. Anax was an interesting character, although I admit that I found him a little unlikable at the beginning. He improves-- but I didn't love his character. He was just mediocre, in my opinion.

Another thing: Rosamund Hodge does not do happy endings. She dangles it in front of your face and you think Oh, yes, this is exactly the goodness that these characters deserve and then NOPE. There are tears and blood and so much happens that you wind up gaping at the book-- sort of happy, but mostly just shocked.

Rosamund Hodge does bittersweet endings.

Mostly bitter.

While I loved this novella to bits, the ending felt way too rushed. It felt like things were at a very nice pace-- and then everything bad that could possibly happen, happens. Don't get me wrong-- I actually like it when things go wrong in books. Destruction, chaos... it tends to liven things up a bit. But... it felt overdone.

Would I recommend reading this book? ABSOLUTELY. Would I recommend reading Cruel Beauty first? It's not necessary, but if you want a better understanding of the world, you probably should.

Reviewing: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

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.


How do I review this book without flailing everywhere? Oh, that's right. I DON'T. *flails everywhere*

Let's just start with the main character, Nyx. Okay, so I didn't love her. I knew why she was doing the things she was doing and even though I didn't always agree with that, I did understand where she was coming from. She was tough. Strong. And a little bit cruel. But she ached for love. To be honest, I didn't really see a lot of Belle (seeing as this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling...) in her. But that's okay! In fact, I'm glad Nyx wasn't entirely like Belle. She probably would have died within the first ten pages if she was. 

Ignifex and Shade, well...

I'm not entirely sure what I can say that won't be spoilery considering these two, but I'll try my best. And basically what it comes down to is IGNIFEX. I am pretty much a goner around villains that act like villains while simultaneously being sarcastic and just really sort of weird. I'm not sure if "weird" is the right word (I almost want to use adorable instead), but just to tell you why I chose weird-- he is constantly poking Nyx in the forehead and on her nose and he basically uses her as a pillow 24/7. He is like a cat.

I spent most of the book mad at Shade. Well, okay, not most. More like... half. He felt sort of bland to me at first. But WAIT. After a little bit he becomes anything but bland. NO ONE IS BLAND IN THIS BOOK. But everyone is also a little bit (or a lot) evil.

Which brings me to Nyx's little sister, Astraia. She was supposed to be the nice one. I was supposed to like her, and feel bad for her. And I did, at first. But then... THE INCIDENT. She almost felt more cruel and manipulative than Nyx and I was just staring at the book with a repulsed expression on my face thinking about how much I really wished Nyx would walk away from her very bad, very mean family forever.

The world was absolutely brilliant. A sky made out parchment paper?? YES PLEASE. Also, I absolutely love Greek mythology. Maybe it's because I've studied it and written essays on it and read an abundance of stuff about it (all of that, not counting the essays, for pleasure) but I never really got confused about who was who and all the ranks and all the mythical places. But my brain almost died when the complexity of how the house worked was brought up.

And let me just take a moment to talk about the ending. Talk about heartbreak. I'm pretty sure I was sitting there in a bubble of depression for hours after I finished the book.

Spoiler (highlight to read): [And let's not even get started on how much I missed Ignifex after him and Shade came together as the two halves of the former prince. That being said-- I totally had thought that Ignifex had possessed Shade's body or something and that Shade was the actual prince while Ignifex had nothing to do with all that except for the itty-bitty detail of him being the demon prince.]

All in all, I absolutely loved this book. There are hints of Beauty & the Beast everywhere, but unless you're paying close attention you'll definitely miss a couple of them. They weren't at all obvious, and this book is, well... nothing like the Disney movie except for the those small details. But I absolutely loved how much Rosamund Hodge twisted the fairytale into this awesome-ness.