I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition ofI would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
I’ve been an Ali Hazelwood fan from the beginning (of her published career, at least), and I was honestly super excited to see her writing a paranormal romance. I’ve found more of a love for paranormal romance (especially vampires and werewolves) in the past year or so, with vampire books coming back more, so getting one from Ali Hazelwood seemed like perfect timing!
Bride was so immensely fun and entertaining that I wanted to just drink it right up. It was quickly addicting, and even though it was so different from anything else Hazelwood has published so far, it had the same charm as her other romances. I also feel like Hazelwood further diversified herself and her characters and writing in this book, with both Misery and Lowe feeling really different from her other characters. It just further solidified her as an author I enjoy overall, not just for a very specific type of academic romance.
Fantasy has always been my comfort genre, and the explosion of fantasy romance, or romantasy, in the past few years has been fantastic for me. The blend of fantasy world-building with romance you just want to sink your teeth into (literally) is just so addicting, and I am always so quickly caught up in these types of stories. Bride was exactly that, and I just had so much fun with every aspect of it. The world-building blended perfectly with the romance, and while the focus was definitely more on the romance, the plot and the setting were still well-defined enough for the whole story to remain supported by it. I really cannot wait for the rest of the world to get their hands on this book, and I can definitely see myself rereading this in the future!
Overall, Bride is easily my favorite Hazelwood book (which isn’t an easy feat, considering I’ve loved all her books so far!). I really hope to see more like this from Hazelwood in the future!...more
I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
I’I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
I’m honestly struggling with how exactly to review this, because I loved it and yet it seems so incomparable to other books I’ve read and loved. There is just something extremely unique about this book that I can’t really explain, but it just felt very fresh.
At its core, Cursebreakers is a blend of dark academia and fantasy, with a strong focus on mental health. It takes place in a society that both covets magic and the progress it can bring, while also cowering from it. There are three main branches of power in society, one of which is focused on expanding magic, while the other two are focused on controlling it. I think a lot of this book’s uniqueness comes from this precarious balance the society seems balanced on. Magic is not outlawed or shackled entirely, but it is also far from free. Magicians are taught to fear the Vigil and witch hunters, but yet still have power of their own. It means that magicians, such as our main character Adrien, spend their lives walking a tight rope between learning about and using their magic, and being thrown in jail for it. This potential danger seems to be the driving force for most of the plot of this book, and yet it’s never actually as simple as that either. There’s always more going on than we originally think, and it leads to some interesting dilemmas as the story unfolds further and further. There are unlikely allies on all sides, and so much scheming and politicking that it makes for an extremely captivating read.
However, even though the plot was enthralling, it actually wasn’t my favorite part of the book. I found the characters, and their specific struggles, even more interesting. Adrien especially grew on me rather quickly, and I ended up really enjoying the way he saw the world and spoke with others. I also loved watching him grow as the story went on, even as he struggled with his mental health (bipolar disorder). His internal struggle and story blended extremely well with the overall plot, and I loved watching him work through his confidence and guilt about his past while trying to stop all these terrible things from happening again. His partnership with Gennady, one of the Vigil that is always supposed to be his enemy, was specifically my favorite part of this book. Their conversations (and arguments) were always so fascinating, and I enjoyed reading them go back and forth. Their personalities are also very distinct from each other, so it made for interesting scenes and conversations as the story went on as well. There was also a quality to the characters that I really only find in a few stories, like Natasha Pulley’s, though Adrien and Gennady are still very much their own people. It’s hard to explain, but it’s just a combination of depth and humanity that the characters seem to have, a feeling of realness that’s often hard to accomplish.
Overall, I thought every part of this book was extremely well-done. I was surprised this book was only actually 280 pages, as it felt like such a deeper story than that page count usually allows. Everything that was introduced is explored well, from complex family relationships and friendships to struggles with mental health. It felt like everything was handled with care as well, and finding books that manage to both introduce difficult topics and explore them sufficiently is often quite hard!
Cursebreakers is definitely worth the read, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for more books by Madeleine Nakamura in the future!...more
I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition ofI would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
When I read the synopsis and saw sapphic thriller, I knew I had to read this one. While we have seen a wave of new sapphic books releasing, I always get super excited whenever we get new releases in the thriller, fantasy, and sci-fi genres. And while I do think this book will find its readers and its fans, I don’t think I’ll be one of them in the end, unfortunately.
I think this book played up the expectations of a thriller a bit too much, where it’s more of a psychological look at characters falling apart after surviving a shared, traumatic event. Most of the action of the book actually happens before the book has even begun, with both the main characters and readers unsure of what actually happened. I do think this book could have worked for me if structured a bit differently because the build-up of the book does seem to play up the thriller/mystery aspect of the main character’s past and the truth of this event, when in reality this book ends up focusing on different aspects of this story. It’s more about what the unknowing does to the MC, rather than what the truth actually is. While this is a unique premise, and one I can definitely get behind, it just wasn’t what I was expecting, and it made the ending and the book as a whole feel unsatisfying.
There is also a lot of filler content in this book, especially for a thriller. It feels like there are a lot of breaks and pauses between finding out new things and plot events unraveling, and while that might be to show how the MC is also unraveling, it actually just becomes repetitive quickly. The MC has a few thought patterns that all events seem to lead into, and while this can show how her mind is twisting and warping, it was also just a bit too repetitive. As a reader, I got the point after the first few times, it didn’t need to keep repeating it for me. I saw another review mention that this book could’ve been a novella, and I agree! I think it actually would have been extremely strong in novella format, and would’ve changed the expectations I had going into the book, and would’ve led to a lot of repetition being removed.
Overall, I do think there were strong aspects to the ideas and character building of this story, and I do want to try other and future books by this author, but I think this book was hindered by the expectations of both the longer novel format and being sold as a thriller. It feels more psychological in nature (and not necessarily in a ‘thrillery’ way, except for certain bits), and hopefully, new readers will come into this book knowing that, and enjoy it more than I did! ...more
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