A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer – ARC Review

 

My Rating ~ Five stars

RELEASE DATE: 29 January 2019

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: E-ARC

Source:  Received from Bloomsbury via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Blurb

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper Lacy. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

Review

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for providing me with this E-Arc of A Curse so Dark and Lonely in exchange for an honest review.

A Curse so Dark and Lonely is told from dual points of view – Rhen and Harper’s.  Harper is living in D.C. with her dying mother and brother.  Their father has left them, along with debts they can’t repay, to people who you don’t want to owe a debt too,  In desperation, Harper’s brother is shaking down other’s in the same boat for the criminals that threaten their lives.  While standing guard for her brother, Harper sees a woman being kidnapped and decides to interfere.  Instead of scaring off the would be kidnapper, she finds herself transported to a strange land in her place.

Rhen, a prince, lives in a castle with his commander, Grey.  They have been cursed to relive the same season over and over again until Rhen finds a girl to fall in love with him.  This is made almost impossible by the fact that the curse involves him transforming into a vicious beast at the end of each season and wreaking havoc on everyone around him.

When he finds Harper is certainly not like any of the other girls that have come before, breaking the curse ceases to be the only matter at hand.  There’s a chance he still might be able to help some of his people.

This was a phenomenal Beauty and the Beast retelling that I couldn’t put down.  Although Harper’s stubbornness sometimes frustrated me as she often made things worse for herself, I really loved her as a character.  Rhen’s growth was also fantastic to watch through the story.  I also adored Grey, maybe more than every other character! The action was brilliant and the anguished choices the characters constantly had to make made for such engaging reading.  I didn’t intend to read the entire second half of this book last night, but there was no way I could stop.  Coffee was invented for a reason, right?

 

 

 

 

Photo via my Instagram account – Bookbookowl

 

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