A Curse of Love Review

One curse. Four mortal women. Seven days before the gods are banished to Purgatory forever.
Shadow’s whole life is flipped upside down after her boyfriend breaks up with her at a coffee shop. Now, she must survive in a world where bloodmagic is currency, and she has none. Enter Augustine. He's handsome, charming, and just cynical (and witty) enough to capture Shadow’s attention. At first glance, he seems like the perfect answer to her problems. That is, until she learns that he’s secretly the God of Dreams, and he lives in a castle with all of his deranged siblings.
After being imprisoned within the castle walls, Shadow quickly learns she isn’t alone. Three other women share the same fated rules: fall in love with your assigned deity by week's end, and your life will be spared. Fail? And your life will be forfeited.
So naturally, the women make a plan. Don't fall in love, and the curse will condemn all the gods to Purgatory. If someone falls in love? The others will suffer the consequences.
But that’s the tricky thing about love, isn’t it? It never plays by the rules.

A CURSE OF LOVE (The Shadowborne Trilogy Book 1)

• Amazon Kindle Edition

$2.99

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Tagline: ✨Four besties get trapped in the castle of the gods and must fall in love or ☠️

 Julie’s Review:

The Premise for A Curse of Love is unique. It gave game show vibes, where you either fall in love or die. I expected the gods to try to woo their chosen mortals, maybe participate in some trials together, etc. I definitely expected more romance.

Without giving too much of the plot away, the plot was very secretive and bait-and-switchy. We were told one thing at the start, and later found out something very different was true. I liked the plot twists with secret schemes, missing memories, and lots of lies. But the execution felt chaotic. The main danger the FMC (and the other 3 females chosen for the gods) faced came from outside sources trying to kill them. To stop the queen’s plans? Perhaps. But it was more chaotic than suspenseful. It felt repetitive how many times the girls were trapped, attacked, saved, and our main girl fell asleep.

FMC: Shadow finds herself tossed out in the streets by her boyfriend because his family will not allow him to marry her. But she has no bloodmagic, which is the currency. Why doesn’t she have magic? Unclear. And at the end of the book, still unclear why she couldn’t have magic all along. She is in complete denial about who and what she is, mainly because she doesn’t know anything. Just that she has silver blood when everyone else has gold blood, and that magic mark on her wrist shows a raven for some reason. Then she keeps falling asleep all the time and seeing visions, memories? She chalks it up to being paired with the god of dreams, but is there something more to it?

MMC: The God of Dreams. What is even his deal? He shows up at the beginning, seemlingly knowing everything about her, while she doesn’t know who he is yet is absolutely lusting for him. Then he brings her into this mess, and disappears? I expected him to do something throughout, and he did very little until the end. But wooh that ending. But the middle of the book he felt completely useless to me. Then there’s the secondary MMC who I don’t want to give spoilers about. But what is it about these menfolk being so possessive over this girl? They each think they have a claim on her, and of course she doesn’t know what either of them are talking about until the end.

Supporting characters: The friendships formed and the ride or die bond between these women stuck in this situation is great. They are willing to do anything for each other, while at the same time making threats on each other for causing trouble. Their exchanges were hilarious. Then we have the dragons. Enemy of the gods, released from purgatory when the curse of love was activated. We didn’t get to know them too well but I liked what we saw so far.

Final thoughts: So this will be a series, and this first book set up the premise. I really enjoyed the ending, the final reveal when Shadow figured out everything she had been oblivious to. Then she has the duty vs love struggle to deal with. I’m curious to see how this series progresses now that everyone is in the know, and the love triangle (or maybe why choose) has been set up. I feel like the book started good and ended really well but the middle was a muddle.

Cover: She’s a pretty cover, isn’t she? Love the purple. Love the elegant gown that hides her arms. And the dragon in the sky.

Tropes:

🖤enemies to lovers 

💖bitchy besties 

🐉dragon shifters 

👑gods & royalty 

💅found family 

🌶️slow burn 

😭it was always her 

🏰cursed castles

✨bloodmagic 

💋love triangles over a 3-book series 

🥀Beauty and the Beast retelling

 

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