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A review by bhnmt61
A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
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.
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.