Tuesday 22 April 2014

Teaser Tuesday: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge.

Cruel Beauty – Balzer + Bray

“Well, I’m already hoping there could be a dinner where you don’t try to stab me with your fork,” he said.
“You might need to make your peace with disappointment.”
— Chapter 5

Then I let go and forced a smile. “I wasn’t born to be saved.”
— Chapter 10



Usually, fairy tales are a Christmas thing, but why not Beauty and the Beast for Easter? The cover alone is all sorts of clever and interesting. Yes, it’s a rose, but what resonates inside the book are the stairs and the red dress ... well and the thorny and deceiving qualities of the flower.
Stopping short of letting this become an image analysis (really not my area of expertise) this story has some fun dialogue between a not-so-pure-at-heart Beauty and her not-quite-so-beastly Beast. Very clever to mark the Beast primarily by his character and not to much his appearance. And of course the influences of Greek and Roman mythology and several nods to T.S. Elliot had me smiling several times (and guessing in the slightly wrong direction in the beginning). The end was a bit too quick and clean for me compared to the more fleshed out beginning.
Nevertheless, this is a fun field day for hunters of intertextual connections as well as it is an entertaining read if you are looking for an innocent and pretty love story with some bumps along the way.

How did you spend the Easter Weekend? I consumed way too many chocolate eggs and quite a few pages. Let’s hear from you in comments.

4 comments:

Brooke from The Bluestocking Guide said...

I did a lot of cooking and running around.

This sounds interesting!

Mine is from Call the Midwife

Kim@Time2Read said...

Lol! Cute teaser! I'll probably add this one to my list. Thanks for sharing.
This week I am spotlighting Up At Butternut Lake by Mary McNear.

Beth F said...

I've been wanting to read this one. Great teasers.

Here's mine Beth Fish Reads

Sandra Nachlinger said...

Love your first Teaser. The book's cover is definitely one of a kind and unforgettable, and the story sounds like it would be fun to read.
My Teaser is from LOVING CHLOE.

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