Renae’s review of A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers, #1)

5 out of 5 stars. For the first time in a long time, I found a book that I couldn’t put down. I’m enjoying this fairytale retelling trend in young adult fiction.

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Setting:

This story is primarily set in the fiction world of Emberfell. The country is like Europe in the Middle Ages — castles, royalty, swords, etc. The exciting part of the world is the magic system. Those who can do magic are a specific race. The race’s magic gets more robust, the less of them there are.

The crown prince has been cursed by a witch, in that he must make a woman fall in love with him or he turns into a monster. If she doesn’t fall in love, the world resets, and the prince starts over. The magic of the witch keeps her from dying and the prince from dying.

The magic system allows people to cross over to our “realm,” and the Beauty of this story is from our world.

Plot:

This story is primarily character-driven. A lot of what happens, at least at first, is because of Harper. As the story unravels, other factors come into play, but our main characters drive the story.

As with any retelling, there are a few twists because there are more players in this story. Though there is no Gaston like in the Disney…