Wow! A Curse So Dark and Lonely captured me right from the get-go. Something about the formatting of the ARC I received kept crashing my e-reader, so I had to read this on my PC. Normally I hate that, as I spend enough time staring at the screen each day as it is; however, I loved this story so much, I didn't mind and did hour-long sessions at a time, unable to stop turning the page. This is a deft retelling of the beloved Beauty and the Beast tale. The world building was excellent, and the shift between our world and the fantasy realm in which Rhen dwells worked seamlessly. I wasn't sure about Rhen as a character at first, but he grew on me as the story progressed and we got to know him better. Harper comes across well, and I liked the way her cerebral palsy was introduced and dealt with during the tale. The idea that she was the only one different out of hundreds of girls stretched believability a little at the start, but that soon disappeared as the story took off, and I enjoyed the slow-burn progress of their relationship. The ending took me by surprise. There were a few things unresolved, which suggests a possible continuation in a second book later. We'll have to wait and see. I would certainly be happy to read more set in this world and with these characters.

I overheard some girls talk about Beigid’s work today. I couldn’t help smile to myself thinking about this book; they’re not going to know what hit them. In a break away from her previous work, this will be loved by her existing fans, and readers of this year’s the Smoke Theives.

As with all Beauty and the Beast retellings, I had my reservations going into this. But, as with all fairy tale retellings, I couldn't stay away. Plus, look at that shiny cover! I just couldn't resist.

And I'm so glad that I didn't. A Curse so Dark and Lonely gives true meaning to the term "modern retelling". I don't want to give too much away because this is a story that needs to be discovered for one's self, but I loved the twists to the Beauty & the Beast we've known before.
Harper couldn't be more different than Belle, while maintaining Belle's most lovable qualities.
Rhen's curse actually made sense (have you ever tried to figure out the maths for the Disney version? Don't. It's not worth the headache), and the situation he was in made his plight instantly more easy to root for.

But for all that, the reason why A Curse so Dark and Lonely gets five raving stars are the details Kemmerer has woven into the story. Harper's cerebral palsy. The fact that it didn't define her. The fact that there was a good, valid, and very plausible reason, that didn't involve Stockholm Syndrome, for her to go back. No insta-love. No real love triangle to speak of. Scary Grey, who actually has a marshmallow for a heart (my ultimate weakness in characters). Fierce Zo. Jake, who worries a lot. And oh my goodness, Noah. I actually can't pick a favourite supporting character, they were all amazing.

And, as per usual, I absolutely live for surprise gays. If this is a trope for 2019, can I just be the first one to say... HELLS YEAH.

So... when's book two out? :D

I'm absolutely loving this book. I'm a little over 25% through it and I'm loving where this is going and that it's dark, it's what a beauty and the beast retelling needs I'm modern times!

This was a dark, beautiful book, with a deliciously slow romance between two incredibly complex characters. There was only one fly in the ointment and I’ll discuss that later.

Harper is a teenage girl living a highly stressful life in D.C. – her mother has cancer, her father’s abandoned the family, and her brother has become a gang enforcer in a desperate attempt to pay off their father’s debt. To top it all off, she has cerebral palsy. It manifests itself in the form of a malformed leg and this was actually pretty underplayed throughout the novel – as Kemmerer explains in an author’s note, Harper’s disability doesn’t stop her from achieving her goals.

One of said goals is stopping what she thinks is the attempted kidnap of a woman, only to find herself kidnapped instead. Prince Rhen of Emberfall made a horrible mistake on the night of his eighteenth birthday, and is now cursed to turn into a murderous beast if a girl doesn’t fall in love with him within a single season. Every time he fails, the season repeats itself as he tries to woo a different girl. And there have been OVER 300 girls, supplied by his faithful Guard Commander Grey, the last and most loyal of his men.

I’ll talk about the fly in the ointment now, since it was only really present in the first half of the novel. The book had a serious case of YOU’RE NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS, HARPER. Rhen thinks about how she’s unique because ‘all the other girls went straight for the pretty dresses and shiny stuff’, and how ‘she’s the only one who ever tried to fight back.’ Really? You’re telling me that out of, I repeat, OVER 300 girls, Harper’s the first not to like dresses/demand forcefully to be taken home? Um, yeah, no. If there’s anything that going to an all-girls school for seven years has taught me, it’s that this kind of thing is BS. In my class of a hundred girls I can easily think of a score who don’t like clothes and makeup, and another score who’d have reacted to being kidnapped the way Harper did. The claim that she was the first girl in 300 to have some skill with horses was only slightly more convincing.

Rant over now, sorry! To the book’s credit, this line of thinking vanishes after the 50% mark, and we’re treated to a delicately unfurling romance between Rhen and ‘Princess Harper of Disi.’ On the sidelines, there’s viciously loyal Grey, an intriguing man with his own past and secrets. I loved how the book was peppered with a bit of everything dark: court intrigue, political manoeuvring, violence, secrets. The whole concept of love on a time limit was also treated extremely well. Both Rhen and Harper are strong leads with distinct and relatable personalities.

The ending, though pretty open, was perfection. Definite room for a sequel! At nearly 500 pages it was a long book, but so dreamy the pages started to fly by. Recommended to anyone who wants a gorgeous Beauty and the Beast retelling.