A review by booksthrilljessica
A Curse of Breath and Blood by K.W. Foster

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

4.0

Aelia Springborn is betrothed to King Gideon Ironheart, but she is in love with another. She must leave her love, Caiden, behind and start her new life as it is her duty. 

Five years after Aelia is married off we find that she is now dubbed the Traitor Queen. Now living as a mercenary, Aelia, will do whatever it takes to survive and never return to her brutal and vengeful husband. She also struggles with multiple addictions just to cope with the nightmares and PTSD that she suffered at the hands of Gideon. 

And now as if in a puff of smoke, Caiden appears back into Aelia’s life. Only to deliver the unfortunate news that her sister has been taken by the man she hates the most, Gideon. Aelia must break a deal with her ex lover to defeat Gideon and rescue Baylis. 

Along their journey Caiden and Aelia find themselves in a predicament… vowing that Aelia will erase all his memories of their love together, in exchange for his help, they inevitably find themselves still deeply in love. But they must fulfill their bond to forget or fate will intervene. 

Overall rating 4/5

I was perplexed by the choice in the beginning of this book to quickly show Aelia’s past love to then be thrown into a marriage. Then just as suddenly the story jumps ahead five years. This had me wondering if the past could have just been explained within the present timeline. I loved how all the characters in this book were flawed and how they embraced these flaws. It was refreshing from the normal fantasy books where the MFC is usually perfect or a hero. Filled with complicated and dynamic characters this book has a different feel, yet holds true to a core romantasy. 

And that ending…….. I can't, I need more and appreciate that this wonderful gritty book had a HFN cliff hanger. 

*Thank you to K.W. Foster, Aethon Books and Netgalley for the ARC copy. I am freely leaving my honest review.