Review – A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 496 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Release Date: January 29, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1681195087
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the A Curse So Dark and Lonely series
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 5/5 stars
“It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.
A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.”
I will say right off the bat that I am always a sucker for fairy tale retellings, especially fairy tale retellings of Beauty and the Beast. As such, I really loved this epic fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The characters were well done, as was the world. I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much everything about this book! It looks like this is going to be the first book in a series.
This book alternates POV between Prince Rhen and Harper. Prince Rhen has been cursed to turn into a horrible beast once a season until a woman falls in love with him. Harper is in our world and our time barely eking out a living with her terminally ill mother and her older brother. Harper’s brother is being forced into gang work and Harper has cerebral palsy which makes it difficult for her to function at times. When Harper tries to help a girl who is getting kidnapped, she ends up being the one pulled into Prince Rhen’s world and having to deal with his curse.
The world-building here is very well done. Kemmerer creates an amazingly in depth world in Emberfall and does an excellent job of making it believable. This series does have a darker tone to it but it never gets too dark.
The characters are also all very well done, even the minor ones. They are believable, likable, and engaging. The story does a very nice job of putting the traditional Beauty and the Beast story into an epic fantasy format. I thought it was incredibly well done. I also really liked watching how both Prince Rhen and Harper grow and change throughout the story and really play on each others strengths.
Overall this was a very well done retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I was impressed with the complex world-building, the characters, and how this turned Beauty and the Beast into an engaging and believable epic fantasy story. I can’t wait to see what the second book in the series, “A Heart So Fierce and Broken”, is like. I would recommend to those who enjoy epic fantasy and fairy tale retellings with some romance.
