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A review by xalexmarissa
Kingdom of Forgotten Curses by A.R. Kaufer
2.0
I was Kindly provided this arc from the author for an honest review. I so desperately wanted to love this book because Beauty and the Beast holds such a special place in my heart. Sadly, this book was not for me in the end.
To start, this book has a lot of promise and it also started out promising for me. The author's writing is VERY fast paced, which sucks you in. She whisks you away withe the tale-as-old-as-time plot from the very beginning with the curse of our leading man - Prince Dracke. I loved how the curse is a "vampyr", which is an interesting take for the beast character. From there, the authentic plot we all know and love of the traditional plot takes of, with a few creative twists. Maurice stumbles upon the cursed kingdom and finds himself trapped by the cursed prince, vampyr. Then - you guessed it, Bells or Bellamina, finds herself tasked with finding her father missing. She ends up entangled in Dracke's clutches to free her father. From here, the two are thrust into a push-and-pull slow-burn. And when I say push and pull, I mean I literally felt the tug-of-war rope between the two characters for the majority of the book. It drove me bananas at times and I wanted to throw my kindle lol. I found myself at times rooting for the two, and then absolutely pissed off at one or the other. This was my first flaw with the story.
The other flaw for me was the pacing. It was fast. Almost too fast at times where I felt like there wasn't enough time for the story to breathe. The indecisiveness of the characters drove a lot of the plot decisions, which resulted in a rapidly changing story where the reader felt like they were in a hamster wheel going round and round.
I also felt like I was just waiting and waiting the spice the characters kept dangling like a carrot. By the time I got it, there was too much going on with the Fae aspect of the plot and worldly politics.
With all that said, the potential of this book stems from the author's creative world. I just felt like it needed to be fleshed out a tiny bit more from the beginning. There were times when it teetered on a 3 star read for me. I am glad I gave the book a go! If you like fast-paced plot lines, characters who deny you satisfaction in the romance department, and an ever-evolving fantasy world, give it a go!
To start, this book has a lot of promise and it also started out promising for me. The author's writing is VERY fast paced, which sucks you in. She whisks you away withe the tale-as-old-as-time plot from the very beginning with the curse of our leading man - Prince Dracke. I loved how the curse is a "vampyr", which is an interesting take for the beast character. From there, the authentic plot we all know and love of the traditional plot takes of, with a few creative twists. Maurice stumbles upon the cursed kingdom and finds himself trapped by the cursed prince, vampyr. Then - you guessed it, Bells or Bellamina, finds herself tasked with finding her father missing. She ends up entangled in Dracke's clutches to free her father. From here, the two are thrust into a push-and-pull slow-burn. And when I say push and pull, I mean I literally felt the tug-of-war rope between the two characters for the majority of the book. It drove me bananas at times and I wanted to throw my kindle lol. I found myself at times rooting for the two, and then absolutely pissed off at one or the other. This was my first flaw with the story.
The other flaw for me was the pacing. It was fast. Almost too fast at times where I felt like there wasn't enough time for the story to breathe. The indecisiveness of the characters drove a lot of the plot decisions, which resulted in a rapidly changing story where the reader felt like they were in a hamster wheel going round and round.
I also felt like I was just waiting and waiting the spice the characters kept dangling like a carrot. By the time I got it, there was too much going on with the Fae aspect of the plot and worldly politics.
With all that said, the potential of this book stems from the author's creative world. I just felt like it needed to be fleshed out a tiny bit more from the beginning. There were times when it teetered on a 3 star read for me. I am glad I gave the book a go! If you like fast-paced plot lines, characters who deny you satisfaction in the romance department, and an ever-evolving fantasy world, give it a go!