Title: A Curse so Dark and Lonely
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, YA
Published on: January 29, 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Source: Audiobook (Audible)
Length: 14 Hours 51 Minutes
Series: Cursebreakers
Narrators: Kate Handford, Davis Brooks, Matt Reeves
Goodreads Synopsis:
In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives listeners another romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.
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 18th 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. 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.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
One of my favourite Disney movies growing up was Beauty and the Beast. I’ve since read the original version of the story as well as many other retellings. So adding this retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story to my TBR was a no brainer. I’ve actually read this book twice now. First in Ebook format in 2022 and again now in the Audiobook format.
I absolutely love the way this story was told. A kingdom cursed. A girl brought over to the kingdom from our world by one character, Grey, who has the ability to enter our world. All in hopes of breaking the curse. The Prince, Rhen, has approximately three months to get the girl brought to their kingdom to fall in love with him. If he doesn’t succeed a monster appears and attacks the people of the kingdom and then everything resets, a cycle to begin anew, only those who have died, stay dead. Only this time, the girl they’ve brought over is different. All she wants to do is go home and get back to her family, but in her attempts to escape she learns about the kingdom she’s been taken to and takes an interest in the kingdom as a whole wanting to help the people. Could she be the one to break the curse?
“My father once said we are all dealt a hand at birth. A good hand can ultimately lose—just as a poor hand can win—but we must all play the cards fate deals. The choices we face may not be the choices we want, but they are choices nonetheless.” – Brigid Kemmerer, A Curse so Dark and Lonely
I remember in my first read of this book I couldn’t put it down, and it was a struggle to do so as I was reading it during my commute to work. It was the same listening to it. I kept looking forward to listening to it more and more. The characters are well fleshed out, and the author reveals just enough to keep you engaged and wanting to find out more.
The narrators of the audiobook did a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life as well, the emotions the chracters are feeling. It truly felt like witnessing the events as they unfolded.
Something I have noticed a lot with books written around the same time as this one is the phrasing of “I wanted to do this, but instead I did this.” there were a few spots where this occured quite a bit in a small span of time which was the only irksome thing I noticed as far as writing goes. Something about this way of phrasing things bothers me, no matter what book it occurs in. Nothing major just something that takes me out of the story sometimes.
One thing that is mentioned heavily in the beginning of this book is that the main character Harper has Cerebral Palsy, which I admit I didn’t know a lot about, I did look into it a bit and it effects everyone differently. Harper’s seems to be a more mild less noticeable form of it. She walks with a bit of a limp and has issues with balance. Which is probably why by the second half of the book I forgot altogether as it’s not mentioned as much, and she doesn’t seem to struggle with anything the way it was emphasized she did at the beginning. I don’t know if it was just me, but it felt like that plot point dissapeared and was forgotten.
Overall I did enjoy this retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I’ll be continuing my re-read of the series with the audiobook of the second one, where we will find out more about the plot twist the end of this one left us with.
Have you read this book? What were your thoughts on it? Leave a comment below and let me know.
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