Waiting on Wednesday {39}

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, where bloggers post about much-awaited releases!

 

Title: Cruel Beauty

Author: Rosamund Hodge
Release Date: January 28th 2014

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Age Group: Young Adult

Goodreads

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.

Beauty and the Beast is probably my favorite fairy tale, and this retelling sounds just as awesome! Besides, I've always had a thing for oddly-endearing villains, so I can't wait to find out if this Ignifex really is one of them.

Title: Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1)
Author: Pierce Brown

Release Date: January 28th 2014

Publisher: Del Rey

Age Group: Young Adult

Goodreads

Darrow is a miner and a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he digs all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of the planet livable for future generations. Darrow has never seen the sky.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better future for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow joins a resistance group in order to infiltrate the ruling class and destroy society from within. He will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

The presence of a caste system in this book already had me intrigued, but "Darrow has never seen the sky"? Holy crap. Also, vengeance! I'm pretty sure I'll love this.