Teaser Tuesday: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge {53}

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Title: Cruel Beauty
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Release date: January 28, 2014
Pages: 352

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.

My teaser, from page 131 in the ARC:

Then I looked down at the two keys I had stolen. One of them was golden, its hilt shaped into a roaring lion's head; the other was plain steel. My lips curved into a grin of my own. Let him have his little victory. I was about to go exploring.

I've probably said it fifty times by now, but Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, so this iteration has gotten me all excited. I love how it's been set up thus far, and am so looking forward to finishing this one! :)

I'll be visiting around and visiting back, so leave me links to your teasers! :) Happy Tuesday!