Cover Image: How to Break an Evil Curse

How to Break an Evil Curse

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Member Reviews

Unfortunately I have to DNF for now. I just couldnt get into the writing and the characters. I felt it could be going somewhere but I just cant wait around for It. Hope others enjoy it!

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It starts in the land of Fritillary and takes you to different generations of family and points of views. There are two sisters it starts out that way and a wizard Farland. There’s Lillian and Mirabella.

Then there’s Juliana, Warren, mirabella, Lillian, Conroy Farland and many more on a interwoven adventure.

There are a lot of different points of views from different characters. There’s a lot of author commentary between each chapter as side note. Or also after notes between each chapter academic style.

I was given this arc in exchange for an honest review.

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Okay listen, I am someone who is pretty generous when it comes to star ratings. A book doesn’t have to have much for me to like it but I am DNFing this book. I think it had a lot of potential but I couldn’t get past the writing & most of the time I was confused. Hopefully someday I can come back to this and enjoy it more.

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The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover and the premise sounded interesting but I was disappointed by the execution of the plot. I feel like this book has so much potential but it didn't quite reach it, just falling short of being an excellent novel which was frustrating.

Here are my thoughts:
- As I said above, the plot had a lot of potential. I would describe this more of a low fantasy/fairytale-inspired book than how it is advertised which I think is the first mistake of the publishers. I went into this book expecting something completely different to what I got. This is not a high fantasy novel.
- Although many of the characters were dull and a bit one dimensional, (can we talk about how many characters there were????) again many of them had potential. I was mostly just waiting for some character development to occur but it never did. It was like watching a movie play out with no end. It left me unsatisfied. The characters started and ended pretty much the same.
- I'm not sure what the major issue was but I think so much more could have happened in this book. I hate being the type of reader who reads waiting for the climax of the story to happen and well, it just never did. Even the ending, which was likely the best part of the book, still felt oddly rushed and I was expecting more from it.

To summarise, I think if this was better planned out, the overall story would have reeked the benefits a lot more. I thought the premise had a lot of promise and I think Laura's writing is by no means bad. I just didn't get along with this book.
2.5 stars.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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This book was received as an ARC from Black Spot Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book was not expected to be like it sounds. At first it took me a while to understand the direction of the plot but, as I read on I began to enjoy it much more than expected. The rivalry between the King and the Wizard with the backstory was so thrilling and breathtaking that it brought life to the story that it desperately craved. Then their is the King's daughter Julianna who is cursed to die and is now living in the confines of the palace dungeon and is only to go out when the sun is not out. She meets Warren Kensington who is part of a theater group and their bond and unlikely friendship just might be the key to break the curse once and for all. I believe at parts when I was reading this book, my heart stopped at the shocks of the twists and turns. I know our teen book club will have a lot to say once they read this book.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

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I'd like to thank the author and publisher for giving me a copy of this book. The title really explains the plot, though honestly I felt there was a lot lacking. The world didn't feel totally fleshed out, as if most of the story was focused on the Characters. I felt that characters didn't have enough connections or depth that made me relate to them. They being said, I feel it's the writing style that didn't click with me the most, it's just really not my preference. The footnoted made things feel too explained at some points, but again, that's just not my preference. I do feel there is an audience for the style of writing and they the author does have a lot of potential, however, this book just wasn't for me.

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How To Break An Evil Curse is a story that tells you in the title what the premise is. As you’d expect, it’s a story built on a fun and imaginative take on how to break a curse. There’s a large cast of characters, plenty of tongue-in-cheek (sometimes cheesy) writing, and a good sense of humor. However, I felt the writing ultimately struggled in the execution. There was an omniscient narrator who would chime in, but I found this to be more annoying than charming. I think younger readers may have trouble following the tangents and train of thought explorations that occur. That’s not to say they aren’t fun, but they often lacked clarity. And while this writing style isn’t for me personally, I have no doubt that this book will be enjoyed by readers who like this style.

Upon reaching the end of the book and the big twist, I mostly felt disappointed. The world felt cobbled together rather than carefully built and more telling than showing occurred. Generally, I find extensive footnotes are hard to do well. It felt like this story was close to nailing it, but didn’t quite get there. While this book was not my personal favorite, I think the writer is definitely one to watch and I’m excited to see her future creative endeavors! How To Break An Evil Curse is a book with a lot of heart and humor, and I think readers will enjoy how creative it is. How To Break An Evil Curse releases on October 13, 2020. Thank you to Laura Morrison, Black Spot Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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2 stars.
First i wanna say i dont think its a bad book. It just confused me a lot. I didnt know who i was supposed to root for, if i was supposed to laugh or cry in any scene because the writing seemed to change tones without a warning. It got specially hard when the story would Tell me something happened or that someone was X without showing it to me. That being said, the general ideias for this novel were pretty interesting, i just found the delivery and execution a bit lacking specially when It concerned the writing style and narrative being described. I still hope to see more of the author, as they clearly have good solid concepts but in my opinion this story itself failed to connect to me as a reader and that is not something easy to be overlooked during the reading experience.

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I really enjoyed I really enjoyed the style of writing by this author, this is a very entertaining read, made me laugh on many occasion.

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