Are you Cursed?

When I read the blurb from Marissa Meyer, I couldn’t wait to get Curses. Curses was written by Lish McBride and is a reverse fairy tale you never knew you wanted. It follows the life of Merit Cravan and her curse. Merit was cursed due to her refusing to marry someone who was much older than her and the boy she fell in love with, ran when her mom offered him money. She was devastated and got in a screaming match with her mom. When a Godling got involved, her life was turned upside down. Her family had the biggest crop of the flower which created the potion which helped the cursed to be able to function normally for a while. When Tevin’s mom, Florencia, was caught stealing one of the special flowers, Merit caught her and put her in jail. Florencia came up with a scheme to get herself out of jail. It involved her oldest son, Tevin. This family were some of the best con runners throughout the kingdom. And from there the story just evolves into a book you can’t put down.

Lish McBride does a great job at evolving her characters. The character development is wonderful. Reading how Merit and Tevin change as the book progresses kept me flipping pages. McBride brought characters that shined and made me smile when they entered the scene. She also did a good job at creating bad characters that just don’t change. Which happens in life. Her characters were wonderfully created. One of the things I struggled with was world building. I had a little trouble with picturing the expanse of Merit’s land. As well as the beauty of the flower. I gushed about the character building, but maybe a little more time spent on the world could have been beneficial.

All in all, I could not put this book down. I wanted to learn more and more about Merit and Tevin. The story she created is not exactly like the fairy tale we remember. She changes reasons and how the characters come to the position they are in. I loved the backstories of the different characters, not just the main two. Curses

is a book in the “read again” pile. Pick it up and enjoy a great story.