⭐⭐⭐; SHOUTOUT TO LILLITH FOR COMING THRU WITH THE TORTURE!!!! we love a heinous one-dimensional bitch who brings the drama and drives the plot forward with all the force of a charging bull
Oh?? 👌😉😏
cringefail!rhen is back from 2nd book purgatory in full force. ive said it before and i will always say it again: cringefail men are the cornerstone of good romance! the more desperate, hopeless, and despairing the man, the more impact it makes when his lover stands by his side to help him solve the plot, and i will love it every. single. time.
i really liked the scenes where rhen is alone in the castle being held captive by [redacted]. something about the muted horror and rhen's strength as a trauma survivor really gets me
character conflict that i can actually understand and believe in (eventually), without feeling the hand of the author concocting the drama, plus dynamic, interesting action scenes!
No.. ❌🤢🤮
not necessarily a dealbreaker, but the trauma survivor experience of rhen did make me feel like a content warning would have been appreciated (better safe than sorry!). there's also a spicy scene (with fade-to-black) where the characters sort of gloss over how sexual trauma might make things more complicated. there is enthusiastic verbal consent , but i do feel like the whole scene could have been taken as an opportunity to explore that topic at length instead of wriggled around to keep the sexiness going
i speedread all the grey and lia mara pov chapters up until the very very end when all the pov characters are in the same place. they were SO. BLAND. the fairytale of their romance was too boring!! like caricature cutouts of 'morally correct prince and princess who Want to Do the Right Thing and Still Be Monarchs'
Spoilers under the cut - this is the third book of the series!!
Summary:
In fair Emberfall, we set the scene: two brothers who don't want to go against each other, reluctantly moving to go against each other and dragging two neighbouring countries into it. It's a whole thing! On one side of the border, Rhen waits for the axe to fall as Grey's ultimatum to give up Emberfall's throne to him as the rightful ruler draws ever closer; on the other side, Grey struggles to garner enough support in a foreign country that's dragging their feet over their new queen's calls for gentle kindness over harsh obedience, and find themselves thoroughly disgusted by the idea of a magesmith king. But the worst part of all this isn't the brewing unrest in both kingdoms, or the threat of brother-on-brother violence - the worst part is that Lillith isn't dead, and she's about to make that everyone else's problem.
Concept: 💭
It was clear to me by the middle of the second book that we were engineering Rhen and Grey to be ~in conflict~, and that was the stage the third book needed to open on. At this point, I was mostly just pulling myself to the finish line to know how the trilogy ended. The disappointment was real and I was ready to skim-read.
Execution: 💥💥💥
For better or worse, I definitely understand what Kemmerer was going for with Grey vs. Rhen, though I don't feel it was well-executed at all, and certainly not enough for me to get invested in it. Rhen and Harper's chemistry while rebuilding their trust and relationship with each other, however! I enjoyed the nuance of them pushing and pulling until they reached an equilibrium; it was heartfelt and well-earned. I also liked the buildup to and the actual action scenes at the climax very, very much - Kemmerer's craft shines best, I feel, when it comes to describing scenes of physical confrontations and building short-term tension.
Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤❤❤ (Harper/Rhen POVs); ❤❤ (Grey/Lia Mara POVs)
Like I said Harper+Rhen as a couple (and as individual characters) appealed to me so much more than Grey+Lia Mara, mostly because I found their interactions and character conflicts much more interesting. Giving Grey and Lia Mara no conflict to overcome beyond 'golly gosh its hard to be monarchs', which, neither of them had to figure out anyway in this book, really stalled their development and left them feeling secondary in a book where they were POV characters. Arguably, the most important thing they did was have sex and (major spoilers!!) get pregnant. which, like, good for them! but not enough to hold my attention.
Favourite Moment:
because they happen right after each other I'm picking two scenes for this: Harper dicking Rhen down and Lilith immediately showing up post-fade-to-black PISSED TO HIGH HEAVEN. the way she got so heated!! Now, do I think Rhen deserves to suffer traumatic unending torture at the hands of a vicious evil fairy? No. (am i vaguely squicked out over the way he and harper have sexytimes largely for the sake of YA plot over his own character's very understandable aversion to sex? yeah.) But does the plot becomes so much better when Lillith shows up? YOU FUCKING BET!! It perfectly showcased my favourite aspects of both characters - Harper's 'fuck it we ball' energy jumping out in Rhen's defense and Rhen's quick-thinking + selflessness to protect Harper in turn. no matter what else, we have Lillith's jealousy jumping out to thank for that.
Favourite Character:
What's this?? It's Harper coming up with a steel chair to steal the top spot in the last round!! This book, to me, really drove the point home on why Harper was the girl to break Rhen's curse, out of all the others; she cuts through the heart of his fear and acts when he freezes in panic. she brings a knife to a fairy fight and gets a hit in! While I appreciate Rhen (my cringefail son) wholeheartedly for engineering those situations where Harper truly shines, she always rises to the occasion with gusto and never lets me down (cough, cough, grey). Honorary mention to Rhen, though: there is truly no romantic lead I appreciate more in fiction than a pathetic guy, and Rhen comes prepackaged already on his knees.
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Honestly, A Curse So Dark and Lonely instantly became one of my favourite books. It was an absolute delight to read (and I was going through a book slump at the time but was so captivated by this story) but then. Came A Heart So Fierce and Broken. I started really disliking Grey, the reasons to which I will write in another post someday. But then. I read A Vow So Bold and Deadly. Absolute let down. The end was SO unsatisfactory I can’t even begin to describe. The book itself was unsatisfactory. Rhen and Harper’s apparently had a glow down instead of a glow up. Like???? Bridget Kimmerer please write a new 3rd book and cancel AVSBAD.
Anyone relate? hmu I really need someone to talk to about this...
✩📃🌷 Series Review:
* Enemies-to-lovers
* Slow Burn
* YA Fantasy
* “Beauty and the Beast” Retelling
With “Forging Silver into Stars’” release date on the horizon, I finally got around to reading the Cursebreaker trilogy! I am so glad that I did because “A Curse So Dark and Lonely” is one of my favorite reads of 2022 and the absolute best fairytale retelling!
Kemmerer’s writing is fantastic. She created characters that I have grown dangerously attached to and sucked me into the world of Emberfall with her beautiful descriptions.
I cannot wait to see what she does with Tycho’s story! If you have not yet preordered “Forging Silver into Stars,” be sure to do so! You are not going to want to miss out.
➤ A Curse So Dark and Lonely: 4.5 stars
➤ A Heart So Fierce and Broken: 4.25 stars
➤ A Vow So Bold and Deadly: 4.0 stars
➤ Overall Series Rating: 4.25 stars
Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph
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Rhen and Harper deserved better than what they got in canon. Their characters in A Curse So Dark And Lonely were rewritten in the subsequent books to the point I could not recognise them - to top that off we had a rushed finale of a "redemption arc".
It seems to me the author wanted to focus on the two other haracters more and did exactly that in AHSFAB, but realised how much backlash she got because of it. And in the end they got the shorter end of the stick.
There is so much more I'd like to add on my disappointed and dissatisfaction over AVSBAD, but I'll just end it here.
“I am always surprised to discover that when the world seems darkest, there exists the greatest opportunity for light.”
(Brigid Kemmerer, A Curse So Dark and Lonely)
