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A review by jenhurst
Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon
2.0
This is a contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast with an Indian lead, at a boarding school. Grey is cursed and hates human society, until he meets Jada. A princess and the two are drawn to each other.
*e-ARC provided by Simon and Schuster Canada and Netgalley*
This book is hard for me to rate, since I didn't enjoy it, but I can see why a lot of people will like it. The writing and the story felt on the young end of YA to me. More targeted at 13/14 year olds, and I typically gravitate towards older YA. That was one issue that i had with it. I also don't typically like contemporary novels, unless they are hard hitting and deal with complex issues. This is my bad, because I should've researched it better, so that I would know what to expect. I didn't really connect with the characters either, they felt a little shallow to me. To be fair, this could have to do with the demographic its targeted for. I really wanted to enjoy it because of the diverse romance and a fairy tale retelling, but it just didn't work for me. Weirdly enough, I also struggle with books that are very much supposed to be fiction and then they have some random element of magic thrown in (aka magical realism), and this book felt that way to me. I prefer it to either be firmly grounded in fantasy or firmly grounded in realty. A lot of people will like the magical realism and the simplistic story i'm sure and the author I can tell is a good writer. I'd be interested in picking up another book from her (that's maybe strictly in the contemporary category).
2.5/5
I'd recommend this to younger readers of YA, and fans of magical realism. I think a lot of people will like this, especially fans of Beauty and the Beast but alas, it just wasn't for me.
*e-ARC provided by Simon and Schuster Canada and Netgalley*
This book is hard for me to rate, since I didn't enjoy it, but I can see why a lot of people will like it. The writing and the story felt on the young end of YA to me. More targeted at 13/14 year olds, and I typically gravitate towards older YA. That was one issue that i had with it. I also don't typically like contemporary novels, unless they are hard hitting and deal with complex issues. This is my bad, because I should've researched it better, so that I would know what to expect. I didn't really connect with the characters either, they felt a little shallow to me. To be fair, this could have to do with the demographic its targeted for. I really wanted to enjoy it because of the diverse romance and a fairy tale retelling, but it just didn't work for me. Weirdly enough, I also struggle with books that are very much supposed to be fiction and then they have some random element of magic thrown in (aka magical realism), and this book felt that way to me. I prefer it to either be firmly grounded in fantasy or firmly grounded in realty. A lot of people will like the magical realism and the simplistic story i'm sure and the author I can tell is a good writer. I'd be interested in picking up another book from her (that's maybe strictly in the contemporary category).
2.5/5
I'd recommend this to younger readers of YA, and fans of magical realism. I think a lot of people will like this, especially fans of Beauty and the Beast but alas, it just wasn't for me.