Cursed One

 Cursed One is an intriguing Romantasy. The setting is intricately crafted; in this world, a wall of magic protects it from the “chaos” that lies beyond it.  Powering this wall are magic users, called Chosen, and each has one of 4 elemental powers. The story begins with Lyrianna going to a trial of sorts, where she is given the power of fire. She begins training to be a Chosen. I think the fantasy leg of the story is quite good and could stand on its own, even without the romance.

The romance aspect is well written. The characters Arés and Lyrianna have this tension between them, starting with raw hatred and ending with, well, something entirely different. Lyrianna also befriends Bella, a fellow student in the school.  

The book features tropes and reverse tropes. On the one hand, the book features an enemies-to-lovers situation. On the other hand, Lyrianna is the chosen one of a prophecy, but something goes horribly wrong, and the prophecy is not fulfilled, hence the name, Cursed One. A boy, who was supposed to be part of the prophecy, dies, as well as most of his family. However, his brother, Arés, lives and resents Lyrianna for living while his family died. 

I will give some warning now, there are a number of open-door sex scenes in the book. I think these are generally tasteful, meaning that they are not crude or vulgar in their depiction of sex. An aspect of the book, not directly referring to anatomical body parts, helps with this. 

While we are giving warnings, I will also say there is a good amount of profanity in the book, particularly many f-words. There are a few mentions of a rooster too, thankfully not in the context of the sex scenes, but it still might bother some. Now I can stop clutching my pearls. 

Just for fun, I will point out that the name of the main character is Lyrianna Cavendish, which you could arguably shorten to Anna Banana (a cavendish is a type of banana).

With both the fantasy and romance aspects of the book pulling their own weight, the book has many forces driving the reader forward. Even at 399 pages, I read this book quite quickly. For lovers of romance and fantasy who don’t mind a bit of spice, this is a great read.

Length: 399 pages

Perspective: first person

Tense: Past  

Kindle Unlimited: Yes

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Monika-Guss-ebook/dp/B0FWVVJL5N