Reviews

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

snoopydoo77's review against another edition

5.0

This book was soo much fun. I read a couple retellings of “Beauty and the Beast”, but this is one of my favorites.  Same concept and lore as the original , yet new, modern, fresh with new twists and new awesome characters.

 I loved the mixture of our modern world and the fantasy world. She has done a wonderful job combing these two.

Harper, I loved her even with her disability she never backed down, she never gave up and she fought for what is right to her. She was smart and funny and always tried to take everyone into account . She also thought all her stuff through before she acted…. Well for the most part anyway.

Rhen our poor tortured prince, it was clear early on that he is not all that selfish and arrogant. He cares much and deeply for his people and willing to pay any prize in order to save everyone.

Grey I think he was one of my favorites, even over Rhen , I loved him and his honesty and loyalty not only to his kingdom but most of all friends. I loved most the friendship he had with Harper.

Overall, awesome read and the ending had me begging for more. I cannot wait to get my hands on the second book.

I rate it 5 ★

 

asaph95's review against another edition

1.0

This was disappointing. It was crazy predictable and full of plot holes and discrepancies.

meredithgracereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

danadoodlereads's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

theresamothinmyroom's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

chloepar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

dguelere's review against another edition

4.0

Meu senhor amado sabe, eu amei muito esse livro e li extremamente rápido. Não sei o que pensar e só não dei 5 estrelas pq faltou um quê a mais na história comparando com as outras fantasias que li. Mas achei mt bem desenvolvido e só leiam.

sarsarsarsarsar's review against another edition

5.0

I did NOT want to like this book. In fact, I almost stopped reading it around page 80. I was being such a hater. Thankfully I kept going because this was such a good, captivating story

Loved the creative take on beauty and the beast

I ended up falling for the characters and somehow, given the premise and everything, the romantic bits were hardly cringe or cheesy.

I found this to be a fun, silly, gory, creative read! Can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

camimil8872's review against another edition

4.0

Enjoyed this Beauty and the Beast retelling. I found it interesting that the witch was more involved with the story. Definitely worth giving a try.

bhnmt61's review against another edition

3.0

This review contains general spoilers but no specifics. I decided not to put it behind a spoiler tag because there are things I would have wanted to know before I read it.

This beauty and the beast retelling has a lot going for it, and I was all in for about the first two-thirds. Harper is an especially strong, smart heroine, and Rhen and Grey make sense as characters— and that is no small feat given the constraints of the tale she’s retelling.

But then it turned into a love triangle, and then it didn’t resolve. The ending is a muddled mess. It’s not entirely a cliff hanger ending — one major plot point is resolved— but all of the relationships are still up in the air, and one new major character development that changes the whole thing is thrown out in the last couple of pages. That is an auto-thumbs down for me.

Love triangles always feel self-indulgent to me— oh, poor me, two amazing, devastatingly handsome men are madly in love with me!! What ever shall I do! And cliffhanger endings feel indulgent on the part of the author: Stay tuned! I’ve got you hooked!! Buy my next book!

Two of my biggest pet peeves in reading. I would never have read it if I’d known. I can’t believe that not one of the people I’ve heard rave about this book mentioned either of those two things. So, definitely my own problem and not the fault of the book, because if you like love triangles and you love starting a book that has a sequel, no doubt this will be a great read.

So, all in all, really disappointed in this one. I think the next book is already out, isn’t it? At the moment I’m too mad at the author to want to read it, but maybe I’ll get over that eventually and see what happens.

Edited to add: just went and read some reviews of the sequel and I will not be reading it. Sounds like more of the same.