Armada Volya

Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author, via LibraryThing, in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts: A fair reminder, curses generally affect more than just the intended individual. Harry Potter’s entire story is evidence of that fact. The Curse Your Body series is yet another example of a curse with far-reaching consequences. I, of course, eat it all up as if I’m starving. In a way I suppose I am. Books and movies are the only drama in my life and I would prefer to keep it that way.

In Curse Us All, the author develops the characters a little more. We learn more about Fredrick’s kids and the curse. The consequences of the curse actually surprised me a bit. I wasn’t expecting what happened, so congrats to the author for that. So, I liked the plot a little more in Curse Us All because it centered itself more firmly in the fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal world. Whereas the first book, Curse You, left you wondering which category the series would be in.

I do think the author could do more to develop her characters. After two books, I still feel like I know next to nothing about the main characters. However, I do understand there’s only so much you can do with a short story.

Overall, I’m personally planning to stick with the series and am interested to see what happens in book 3. I’d recommend Curse Us All if you’re a lover of paranormal books that include the very popular werewolves and vampires. Besides, they’re really short and won’t take you very long to read. If that’s not your thing, then you can probably just skip this series.

For more reviews, check out http://reviewsinapinch.wordpress.com today!… (més)

Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author, via LibraryThing, in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts: I’ll be upfront about the fact that I had zero expectations going into this book. The cover is kind of creepy, but I didn’t really let it settle long enough in my consciousness to make a judgement.

My first criticism is that the overview of Curse You is actually just a short passage from the story. It doesn’t give you any idea of what to expect from the overall story. It’s not a huge criticism because to be honest I rarely read the book’s description anyway. I usually pick what to read based on recommendations, the cover and/or the title of the book. Every once in a while I’ll pick something up based on the author.

The story itself isn’t too bad. You don’t really get to know the characters, except for Fredrick (who is a major d-bag and I have zero sympathy for) and then a very random switch in point of view to Robert (the healer/doctor). I’m pointing out that it was a random switch because the whole book is about Fredrick until the last 10 or so pages and suddenly we’re supposed to care about Robert’s point of view. I just didn’t get it.

I did like that it was about the persecution of witches/magic users. I usually love books about the Salem Witch Trials, so once I had that figured out I was a tad more invested in the book. The author definitely demonstrated a fair bit of knowledge of the general reaction to burning “witches” at the stake (i.e. no one stepped forward in defense of the accused).

As a whole, Curse You was an okay book. It wasn’t a spectacular ground-breaking read, but it wasn’t terrible either. It was just a middle of the road type book (a mere 39 pages). I liked it and personally plan to read the second book in the series. Would I recommend it? I would not recommend Curse You, but it’s currently available for free (from B&N, as of this publication) and it wouldn’t be a waste of your time.

For more reviews, check out reviewsinapinch.wordpress.com today!… (més)