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A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer


Rating:

4 Stars


Themes:

Fantasy, Romance, Retelling, Dual POV


Thoughts:

I’m still quite new to fantasy stories but I absolutely loved this one. Since it’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling I knew they would get together in the end but it’s definitely a slow burn when halfway through the book they could still barely talk to each other. I enjoyed seeing the way in which they started to care for each other through trying to protect the people of Emberfall and also how those people took to the complete stranger of Harper and their new roles. I loved how Harper’s Cerebral Palsy is portrayed. As someone else with a disability it was refreshing to see her condition took in the stride of Rhen and Grey but she also admits when she’s struggling to slow down the horses or take a hot bath so it isn’t just treated like we should push through everything regardless of what it does to us. It also led to the ‘baddies’ being shown as insulting her through her illness, constantly calling her broken, but I’m glad she defied Lilith’s idea to ‘fix her’ as there is nothing broken about us to fix. I also really liked Grey and he is such a strong side character but hopefully we’ll see more of him in the next one as the epilogue did speak from his POV.


Favourite Quote:

“I am always surprised to discover that when the world seems darkest, there exists the greatest opportunity for light.”

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