A review by summerthelibrarian
A Cursed Age by A.M. Dunnewin

adventurous slow-paced

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

2.25

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Man, I wish this had been better! The description sounded so promising. Steampunk alt-historical fiction with pirates? Something about a sea witch? Hell yeah. 

But this really fell short and I was so disappointed. 

First off, it's loooooong. And weirdly for as long as it is, I feel like the worldbuilding could have been stronger. But my main gripe is that this book has worse instalove than Twilight. It is SOO bad!! Literally the two MCs have absolutely noo chemistry whatsoever and their relationship was not developed in a way that made sense to me. This is kinda explained by the fact that *spoiler*

they are fated to be together, but it's not really explained WHY they are soulmates. It also doesn't seem like this is something that exists for other people in this world so again, WHY are these two seemingly random people so special that they have this epic fated love? How does it work?? I have so many unanswered questions and this book answered none of them. I really dislike fated love as a theme in general but pretty much every other book i've read it in (Throne of Glass series by SJM comes to mind) does it better than this, because at least there it's explained why they are fated soulmates.

. 

But this is a critical plot theme and it just didn't work for me. I was rolling my eyes so hard because at least in YA, it makes sense, because, teenagers. These are adults. Blegh. 2 ish stars