Screen Shot 2019-04-22 at 8.53.03 PM

Title: A Curse So Nighttime and Solitary

              Series: A Curse And so Dark and Lonely (#1)

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Genre: Fantasy

Target Age Group: YA

*Review contains spoilers

5

"We are all dealt a manus at birth. A good hand can ultimately lose – just equally a poor hand can win – but we must all play the cards the fate deals. The choices nosotros face may not be the choices we want, merely they are choices still"

Screen Shot 2018-12-08 at 7.08.24 PM

Lately, I have been in the habit of reading the books that I recently bought instead of them siting on my shelf for 6-24224 months until I finally read them. I bought this book at the finish of March and read it in April! I am part of a volume club (in real life) and I finally got a turn to pick the book! I wasn't sure about information technology because retellings tin be a hit or a miss. Just this was really well washed. If you like A Court of Thorns and Roses, so you will likely enjoy this tale.

leaf 14

Plot and Setting

This takes in two worlds. Of form i world is "old timey." I remember information technology would be fair to say that it resembled the medieval time menses. There isn't any modern technology in this second globe. The other world is modern mean solar day lodge/reality.

The book is split up into two different point of views and as readers we get a glimpse of both our "dazzler" and our "animate being." At first this was hard to get into but I didn't find either viewpoint more superior than the other. I enjoyed reading both perspectives and thought each voice contributed to the overall arc of the plot and storyline.

Our main protagonist is living and struggling in Washington D.C. Our Belle is really named Harper. Her father is expressionless and her mother is dying. She and her brother are surviving by working for a mob dominate to whom they owe coin to.

Rhys and Gray are the only surviving members of a kingdom from the alternative world. Information technology is apparent from the very outset that Rhys is under a curse because he turns into some type of monster every season. He doesn't have the same form each time and he loses all sense of himself when the alter overtakes him. In his monster form, Rhys killed his entire family unit and guard in the castle–with the exception of Gray. Grey has been loyal to him from the start. The change happens at the end of every flavor.The only mode to break the expletive is if a girl falls in love with Rhys before the change overcomes him.

Time moves incredibly slowly considering of the curse. Exterior the castle grounds, it moves more rapidly–but not much. For every 100 years, the outside grounds seem to motion forward but 1.5 years. I was confused at first just the timing is explained several times in the offset and I chop-chop got a better grasp of the setting.

1 night, Harper comes to the aid of a woman who appears to exist falling victim to some sort of assault. The adjacent thing she knows she's in a room with two strange men; Rhys and Grey. This is where things commencement to get pretty interesting.

Characters

Every character that was in this book had a unique personality and all of them carried their own voice through out the story. There is no uncertainty that anyone reading this volume will finish with a favorite. I call up for me, it was Grey. Rhys and Harper's romance is a slow burn down and Iloved it. I but wanted them end upwards together so badly. Greyness's loyalty to Rhys was sometimes annoying and difficult to understand but it gets explored a bit more during his interactions with both Rhys and Harper.

Harper is tough. She has cerebral palsy simply I don't experience similar it was a plot indicate in the story fifty-fifty though a lot of reviewers use that as a selling point. I call back its great to evidence variety in books, but I wish nosotros lived in a world where showing diverse characters with different abilities was the norm so information technology didn'thaveto be a selling betoken, know what I hateful? I digress, though. Harper doesn't let her CP slow her down and she even makes multiple attempts to escape and goes up confronting some pretty nasty men who aim to kill her. Yeah, Rhys and Grayness ultimately come her rescue just Harper does her own share of rescuing too. I think its a expert balance. I am personally not opposed to the damsel in distress trope if its done correct and I think this author did it very well because her being "rescued" doesn't soften Harper at all. In the end, Harper rescues Rhys so it all balances out anyway.

Rhys is a sweetheart who is tormented by this expletive. I love the way his feelings develop for Harper and I fifty-fifty love the monster he becomes that Harper ends upwards taming. He'southward just so lovable. I like that Kemmerer doesn't brand him this terrible mean dude who is simply focused on ridding himself of the expletive. His mood is honestly pretty apathetic and he's decided to stop trying to get rid of information technology and but focus on building his kingdom back up.

The "bad guy" in the story is the fairy, Lilith who cursed Rhys and his castle. She tortures Rhys past taunting him and reminding him that he has killed his unabridged kingdom/family unit. She literally only pops up out of nowhere and it gave me the creeps. The reason she cursed him (he slept with her but didn't desire anything more than from her) seems a lilliputian flimsy but hey, if a fairy is pissed because a prince wanted to striking information technology and quit it, and then I tin can roll with it. By the finish of the volume we assume that Lilith is dead but it is obvious that the new adversary is going to be the nearby kingdom who was an imminent threat the entire story. Brigid knows how to write a skillful villain so I am interested to see how the next book writes a whole new antagonist with a unlike personality.

Then there is Grey. He is probably my favorite with his fierce loyalty and dry personality. I accidentally spoiled myself with who Grey truly is when I read the synopsis of the adjacent volume. But I didn't know the details and then I was still surprised and thought the catastrophe was done very well. Grey just has a skillful soul but isn't afraid to take shit from anyone, either. He is a killer but he is also a protector. I am so glad he wasn't killed off!

Even the side characters were well done. Harper's brother and his boyfriend become an important part of the story. Her brother is annoying but over again, it brings more dimension to Harper's grapheme and story. Also kudos for the writer to having some LGBTQ rep in her story. Again, information technology wasn't a plot point that her blood brother is gay, its simply a matter and then we move on. It made the inclusion of diversity more natural and not forced.

Pacing

I didn't want to put the volume down. I was intrigued by the very beginning folio. I knew I would beloved it. I was and so distressing when it was over and was put into a serious reading slump because I didn't want to selection up annihilation else. I just wanted to go along living in the earth that the author created. January 2020 feels similar forever away. This book is my favorite read of 2019 so far. I know I volition re-read it earlier the next book comes out and I honestly can't wait to read information technology a second fourth dimension. It is so practiced!

leaf 14

In every retelling, an author has creative freedom to put their ain twist on the details of the story. I liked how Brigid executed these details and it made for an enthralling read. Fifty-fifty though as a reader, we conceptualize a happy catastrophe considering of prior knowledge about the original story, Kemmerer still brings a sense of suspense, mystery, and excitement to this read. I actually hope she doesn't torture us too much in the next volume with Grayness betraying Rhys and Harper. I desire them all to alive happily ever later on or at to the lowest degree kick some ass together instead of going against each other. but its non my story to write!

2078378_orig

Screen Shot 2018-11-29 at 7.51.26 AM