Charles's Reviews > The Cursed

First Reads Review - The Cursed by Alyssa Day

Coming on the heels of a different, vampire flavored paranormal romance, I will admit that I hesitated starting this book, which at first glance doesn't seem to offer much in the way of differences from the standard. But once I got into it, into the characters and the setting and the story, what I found was refreshing and fun, unapologetic in its delight and full of layers and interesting subtleties that I didn't find in that last vampire book I read.

It helps that there were no vampires. Not that vampires in and of themselves are bad, but that I think there is something in the water now that equates vampires to certain gender norms that I don't particularly like, and with the Cursed those gender roles are challenged and shifted so that Rio, the female lead, comes off as the stronger character, the stronger person, while at the same time being smarter and more resourceful at times and stronger physically even by the end of the story. That makes things much more interesting to me than having the man (vampire) being the better of the female in every way. In this book the two romantic interests met as equals, never as dom and sub, and I really like that.

It helps that the setting is fun, that Bordertown, full of demons and fae and monsters, is the right balance of crazy and familiar, that it takes enough elements from standard mythology and lore and brings in enough other elements to give the depth required to have the setting not be instantly forgettable. And while there is a lot that still needs to be fleshed out in the way of politics and the like, there is still a very good start here, and as this is the first book in the series, and not a very long book, it does the job well of introducing readers to the idea of Bordertown and to some of its more colorful characters.

Which is where the book really shines, with the characters of Rio and Luke. Both of them might seem at first glance to be bordering on standard characters, but enough is done to turn that around, from giving Luke a curse and an interesting family history to giving Rio a more down-to-earth background and at the same times a very celestial twist. It's interesting and the chemistry between the two is fast and satisfying. There are a few parts when you may want to sigh and shake your head, because that was my reaction to a few of the developments, where the characters act a bit like teenagers, but aside from that the romance was nice and I liked them and rooted for them. And the sex scenes were numerous and well done, steamy enough for my tastes and full of detail.

The only things that kept it back from being even higher in my mind were a few of the story points and perhaps just a more general lack of direction at times. While I liked the story, it did jump around a bit, and there were stretches of time where I wasn't really sure what was going on, or what was really motivating the characters. A villain from early on just sort of disappears and other things show up to pass the time, but there wasn't really that big a sense of conflict or tension at points.

Otherwise, the book was great, and I guess this means that I'm a paranormal romance fan, or perhaps just a fan of this particular one. But after reading some less than stellar examples of the genre, it's nice to find one that I can recommend without hesitation. It's fun and fast and a good read, and with that said I give it four stars out of five.