#acsdal

[good-books-to-read]

Beauty & the Beast

A curse so dark and Lonely (ACSDAL) by Briged Kemmerer

Of beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Of curses and kisses by Sandhya Menon

A Court Of Thorns And Roses (ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

[maricanread]

(A curse so dark and lonely - chapter 53)

Harper's finally got it

[neverlearnedtoread]

A Curse So Dark and Lonely

⭐⭐⭐⭐; it is a truth solely acknowledged by me that the more cringefail a love interest is, the better the romance

Oh?? 👌😉😏

fairytale retelling! i love retellings of well-known stories. something something telling the same stories as our ancestors and our descendants binds humanity together something something

it takes a while to come to light, but the love interest is one of those 'head before heart' idiots. he's genuinely shrewd, politically savvy, and calculating, i.e. exactly the sort of person who doesnt fall in love easily. which makes him being the 'beast' in this beauty and the beast retelling so compelling! he's trying SO hard to engineer feelings and its just not working 😭

following off the above point: the love interest thinks he is inherently unlovable. nothing is juicier than someone who thinks they're too hard to love being proven wrong!

No.. ❌🤢🤮

isekai story, which as a trope teeters on the edge of losing me completely on principle; Kemmerer did manage to add enough details to keep me from totally losing my suspension of belief

just enough 'not like other girls' energy in the main character to make the first 50-100 pages hard to get through. i know its crazy, but consider: sometimes when a girl is kidnapped it's okay for her to have some level of caution / fear??

love triangle attempted(?) - wild choice from the author to make the guardsman hotter than the prince. i mean i get it, but if you're going to do that, can we not have the reason she doesn't choose him be so obviously and singularly because it wouldn't break the curse?

Summary: Harper, an 18-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, has a lot of problems - her mum has cancer, her father's a deadbeat who left them indebted to loan sharks, and her brother Jake is now working for said loan sharks to pay off those debts. Harper's always felt like a liability - too weak to help, let alone protect anyone - but when she sees a dodgy guy knock a girl unconscious in an alleyway, she has to try. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished - in the tussle, Harper finds herself magically transported to a parallel world with a whole new set of problems, including a cursed prince, an evil enchantress, and no way home.

Concept: 💭💭💭 Honestly, I didn't think too highly of this one! I had heard various criticisms about the prince being too broody and the sense of 'not like other girls' throwing others off, and it was selling itself as an unapologetic YA Beauty and the Beast retelling, so I wasn't thinking that this book would do anything crazy for me because Beauty and the Beast as a fairytale isn't my favourite.

Some spoilers under the cut!

Execution: 💥💥💥 On the whole, this book met my expectations exactly where I held them, which was a typical YA fantasy romance. I hold nothing against books that give me exactly what I expected - if I didn't think a book would suit my reading tastes, I wouldn't pick it up in the first place! I did have a hard time at the start - I'm pretty sensitive to 'not like other girls' vibes, so harper really grated on me, but once she and rhen understood each other better I was having a lot more fun. I kept pinballing between enjoying it (rhen being bad at romance) and rolling my eyes at it (harper being too Strong Women Feminist) through the middle but by the time we hit the 'i have to go home to see my family before its too late' story beat, the book was clawing its way to a solid 4 stars.

Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤❤❤ Despite being a predictable YA fantasy romance, Prince Rhen was a pleasant surprise. It is my personal (and therefore, correct) taste that male love interests are best when they are, at heart, cringefail. Rhen fits this criteria perfectly - he can wine and dine and politick with the best of them, but what he wants to do is save his people, and for that he needs someone to fall in love with him for realsies. He is wholly unable to accomplish both (on account of him being very shit at love) until Harper jostles him forcibly out of his holding pattern - he tells her he's doomed to fail, and she still convinces him to wholeheartedly try. It makes Harper not only the heroine of the story, but specifically Rhen's saviour - that's true romance, babey!! Their chemistry was the cornerstone of me rating the book 4 stars - with special shoutout to Lilith being shamelessly used as a plot device to make the romance go. We love an evil enchantress who is petty and bitchy.

Favourite Moment: The sweetest moment of the book was definitely Harper inviting Rhen into her room after learning Lilith tortures him every night. It was such a genuinely heartfelt moment that brought them together! But I love mess, so my actual favourite moment is when they kiss right before Harper leaves for DC, only for Harper to recoil from the sharp scales growing over Rhen's skin. The horror!! The drama!! The 'if you haven't fallen in love with me at this point, you certainly won't now'!!! and then Harper just going home without any resolution at all. NO ONE ELSE was having fun in that scene but me! and THAT'S BEAUTIFUL 😝

Favourite Character: Prince Vincent Aldrhen of Emberfall, cringefail king. Yes I understand he's horrible for any number of reasons, and no, I will not be retracting my statement. There's nothing more fun to me than a character who is convinced they are unlovable and has the evidence (and track record!!!) to prove it. This dude was like 'kissing this girl i like is more emotionally devastating than being magically tortured by a crazy evil enchantress every night because I will only be able to do it the once'. I can't NOT root for him to be dicked down!!

[massiveladycat]

2/? rant of how much i absolutely hated AHSFAB by brigid kemmerer - grey is dumb. no other explanation. so, if you know that there’s a bounty for your head, would you use a magic bracelet to disappear and reappear while someone is sleeping in the same room as you? WELL OBVIOUSLY NO!! DUMBASS!! - suddenly the author decided that rhen should become a full on villain just for the sake of making grey look like a hero? it’s 100% wrong. - wait a minute. we are just gonna take a world tour? even if Lia Mara is kind and well known, we are literally forgetting ALL ABOUT how shyl shallow absolutely slaughtered emberfall's people. hellooooo?!? you have been killing their people and burning their cities, the last book ended with an INVASION, and you want me to believe that people would just trust her just because she looks nice and is kind? LMFAO WHAT THE FUCK - the characters are a mess. rhen now goes against everything he did in the previous novel. grey wants to reclaim the kingdom, despite having no clue of politics or any of the things you must know to be a king. harper is apparently now not even a side character in her own story; she got a chapter and a few scenes she popped up in, and even those scenes were just her whining that rhen wasn't cruel. jake suddenly wants to fight against his sister and not return to earth. - why didn't grey just.. say he was the heir?? i get that rhen was traumatized by magic and he seems very skittish and afraid and desperate to find the magesmith/heir, but that's because he thinks that they'll put him in the absolute hell he was trapped in again, that they'll ruin the kingdom. if grey had just told him, and insisted that he genuinely did not want the throne and he didn't want to cause any harm, the chances are that rhen would've accepted. well, ACSDAL rhen anyway. all rhen fans are invited to his funeral. cause of death; character assassination. - the people should not have started rallying behind grey if only for the fact that (a) it was established that these people fear magic, and for good reason because they've been killed by the dozens by some random monster and the kingdom wasn't doing ANYTHING and (b) HE HAD NO TRAINING TO BE A KING WHERE RHEN HAS BEEN A ROYAL HIS ENTIRE LIFE!!

[friendly-neighbourhood-librarian]

Can I read your thesis once you write it???

I just finished A Curse So Dark And Lonely, by Brigid Kemmerer, and wow, it might be even better than The Beast's Heart. That's a fantastic twist on Beauty and the Beast's story, and, this time, I'm using fantastic in its literary sense of "a story that starts in the real world and then gets invaded by the magical". Harper is truly awesome and badass, and I would have loved to see Grey's POV through the story, he's so good and loyal. Rhen is interesting insomuch as he's different from what the character of the Prince usually is in these contemporary rewritings. He's much more pro-active in his life and passive in his curse, if that makes sense, while most other Princes linger in their resignation and frustration.

That was such a fascinating read, I can't wait to start writing my thesis on modern rewritings of B&tB and compare it with The Beast's Heart, A Tale of Love and Revenge, Uprooted or Once Upon A Time, Belle. If you guys know more rewritings in contemporary literature of the tale, please do drop recs, the more samples I have for my thesis, the better!

[theinquisitxor]

Best and Worst Series of 2022 Book Tag

I saw a booktuber do a video of these questions and I really liked them, so thought that I could answer them here! Credit goes to bookslikewhoa on youtube. Feel free repost and add your own answers!

In total I read 21 series in some shape or form:

I read and completed 7 series this year (meaning I read books 1-- end)

I finished/wrapped up 2 series this year

I started 4 series

I caught up with 3 series

I continued with 1 series

I DNF'ed 5 series

1.What is the best series that you caught up with this year that is still a work in progress? I caught up with the Atlas Six series by Olivie Blake this year as I read books 1 and 2. Book 2 is my favorite, and it's proven to be a fun read.

2.What is the best work-in-progress series that you are still catching up with? OR What is the best completed series that you are still catching up with? Probably the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. I've only read the first two books, but need to prioritize getting to the rest. In fact, I didn't read one of these this year.

3.What was your favorite first book in a series this year? I have to go with Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman. I adore that book, and I reread it this year in anticipation for the sequel (the sequel was interesting to say the least-- it was quite different from the first book, and I'm still not sure if I liked it?)

4.What is a first book in a series you read this year that you think should have been a standalone, not a series? This one is tough, but I'll have to go with Book of Night by Holly Black. I found this overall very lackluster, and the story could have been wrapped up in one book.

5.What is your most over-hyped series of the year? Definitely Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I read books 1-3 this year, and while enjoyed the original trilogy for sure, they're not the best thing I've ever read. (I think Sanderson is a little over-hyped in general)

6.What is a series that you DNFed this year? I just finished One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig a couple of days ago, and I'm probably not going to read the sequel when it comes out next fall. Same goes with Book of Night by Holly Black and A Spindle Splintered by Alix E Harrow. I also attempted to read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, but ended up dnf'ing the book, so I'm def not reading the rest.

7.What was your favorite series finale of the year? OR What was your least favorite series finale of the year? My favorite series finale was Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee. That was such a satisfying ending to one of my favorite series and I was very happy with that book. It lived up to all my expectations.

8.What was the biggest cliffhanger you had in a series this year? The ending of House of Sky and Breath. How can you leave me like that SJM?! I have to wait potentially years for the next one, ughhhh!

I also reread The Other Side of the Sky by Amy Kaufman and Meghan Spooner (which ends with quite the cliffhanger!) and then the sequel, Beyond the End of the World.

9.What is your favorite spin-off series you read this year? Perfect question, as I read Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer this month and loved it. It's a spinoff of her ACSDAL series.

10.What is your most anticipated next book in a series that you read this year that will come out next year? I don't think I have any? Unless The Atlas Complex releases late next year, but I don't see a date yet for it.

11.What is your most anticipated series to catch up on with next year based on what you read in that series this year? Possibly The Expanse by James SA Corey, but primarily because that is the only series that fits this prompt. I read two more Expanse books this year, and I just want to push through and finish the series up next year. I feel like I've lost my motivation and interest in that series, but maybe starting to re-watch the show might rekindle that.

12.What was your favorite series that you finished this year? I started and finished The Queen's Thief series this year, and that has been by far a favorite.

13.What is your favorite episodic series of this year? I am currently reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, the first book of the Kingsbridge series. Each book takes place at a different point in the middle ages and don't have to be read in order.

14.What is a series you finally bailed on after holding onto it for a long time? I don't have quite the accurate answer for this, but I had been meaning to try reading An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir for years, but I read the first book and didn't like it. So you could say I bailed that series

15.What is the series you were most surprised you liked this year? I have to answer with A Deadly Education (The Scholomance) by Naomi Novik. I had heard mixed things about the first book, but I ultimately enjoyed it, and I went on to really like books 2 & 3. I was also a little hesitant about the premise of the series, but I also ultimately had a lot of fun with it.

16.What is the series you meant to catch up with or finish this year that you didn't? The Expanse again, I only read two books, and I wanted to finish it this coming year.

17.What is a series you finished or caught up with this year that you think is greater than the sum of its parts? Probably the Throne of Glass series by SJM. I reread this series in the beginning of the year, and while I enjoy it overall, some books are weaker than others.

If you're still here and reading, here are all the series I read this year. This is obviously more for my record keeping than anything else!

House of Earth and Blood (reread) + House of Sky and Breath

The Other Side of the Sky (reread) + Beyond the End of the World (sequel) (completed)

Throne of Glass series (reread all 7)

Expanse 5 & 6

A Spindle Splintered (series DNF)

Tess of the Road (reread) + In the Serpents Wake (sequel) (completed)

Jade Legacy (complete)

Parable of the Talents (complete)

An Ember in the Ashes (series DNF)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (reread all 5 on audio)

Book of Night (series DNF)

The Atlas Six + The Atlas Paradox

The Scholomance (read all 3, completed)

Mistborn (read all 3, completed, partial audio)

The Queen's Thief (read all 6, completed)

Seasparrow

Moon Witch, Spider King

Forging Silver into Stars

The Magicians (DNF)

One Dark Window (series DNF?)

The Pillars of the Earth

[oblivion-books]

“Failure isn't absolute, just because you couldn't save everyone doesn't mean you didn't save anyone.”

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ― Brigid Kemmerer, A Curse So Dark and Lonely

[caitsbooks]

"When the world seems darkest, there exists the greatest opportunity for light.”

BookTok || Goodreads || Bookstagram || Twitter  || Reviews

[skumreads]

Dreaming about color coded bookshelves

[allisoinreynolds]

BOOKS READ IN 2022: A CURSE SO DARK AND LONELY (& CURSEBREAKERS SERIES), BY BY BRIGID KEMMERER. Failure isn't absolute, just because you couldn't save everyone doesn't mean you didn't save anyone.

[lifeishell005]

[itsjustlikefallingsnow]

RAW AND MIND-BLOWINGLY POWERFUL BOOK TITLES: A LIST

If We Were Villains (M.L.Rio)

This Savage Song (V.E.Schwab)

We Were Liars (E.Lockhart)

Then We Came To The End (Joshua Ferris)

We Are The Ants (Shaun David Hutchinson)

A Curse So Dark And Lonely (Brigid Kemmerer)

[maricanread]

"I wish she had. Not because of the curse, or because of Karis Luran, or because of Emberfall. Because I have fallen in love with her"

(A curse so dark and lonely - chapter 38)

Yet another quote from Rhen's PoV and I'm not even ashamed.

[princessofdisi]

i’d never run for a man but if grey called me “my lady” i might sprint a little

[massiveladycat]

rating: A HEART SO FIERCE AND BROKEN BY BRIGID KEMMERER ooohh. oooohh. i have never hated a book so much. i should not have gone in with such high expectations. mm. two stars. the character assassination and the villainization of ptsd with rhen is absolutely insane. character development?? i dont know her RHEN'S THE VILLAIN? the boy who fought his monstrosity and suffered every moment when hurting his subjects? the man who tried to die rather than keep the whole affair going? he turned into a vicious, cruel man, on the account of his literal trauma with being tortured for YEARS by MAGIC and now his people doubting him? and now, his ptsd is being villainized? i call bullshit, kemmerer. this “series” should have been a standalone. let’s not even try to talk about how much of a hypocrite AHSFAB grey is. if he had been honest from the very beginning, everything could have been avoided. also, we literally spent this WHOLE book watching Mara Lia and grey fight for peace, but once she gets the crown from her mother, grey decides to take a tour with her spreading propaganda against rhen. and theeeen Grey decides that Rhen is not a good ruler, so he actually decides to declare war on Rhen and *his* people? his home country? ooh. this book makes me so angry i am making so many parts ranting about it. 1/?

[kiwichaeng]

hi hello Rhen is deserving of love and forgiveness