Remy has been harboring a secret crush on her best friend Cam for ages. She is ready to spill her heart out to him on their dream vacation to Japan. But fate has other plans for them. A misfired love spell erases Cam’s memories of Remy, and now she has to find a way to make him remember her before it’s too late. This was a heartwarming story of friendship blossoming into love. I felt the warmth and affection between Cam and Remy, and their shared jokes and memories made me smile. The magic twist in the story was intriguing, but also a bit out of place. I enjoyed the part where the love potion went wrong, but the rest of the magic seemed unnecessary and distracting from the main plot. This story made me feel a lot of emotions, and I shed some tears along the way. I was cheering for Remy all the way!

Our Cursed Love by Julie Abe
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Remy has been in love with her best friend Cam for a long time. She is determined to finally tell him on their trip to Japan. After a love spell gone wrong, Cam can no longer remember who Remy is, and now Remy has to race to restore his memories of her.
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This was a sweet friendship story that is leading to love. Very touching and lots of heart. I enjoyed all the little inside jokes and stories that Cam and Remy had together.

The magic element to the story was interesting but also felt like a different story altogether. I liked how it led to the love potion, but the rest of it felt like it was not as connected to the main story and not really needed.

There was some good emotional aspects to this story and I teared up a few times. I was really rooting for Remy!
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3⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was cute but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I was hoping to.

Our Cursed Love is an adorably sweet, young adult story which captures the essence of being a teenager in love and all that comes with it. In youth, the journey begins with self-esteem issues, peer and parent pressure, and the learning process of becoming who you want to be. The book especially encompasses first love and all those feelings of awkwardness which can drive any teenager crazy! But in Our Cursed Love, the transformation of the main characters is magical!

Remy Kobata and Cam Yasuda are high school seniors who have been best friends since their childhood. They sometimes know each other better than the other does. But both hold one secret from the other. Remy has deep feelings for Cam and Cam thinks he might be falling for real for Remy. But he is lost at what to do.

As they go on vacation to Japan to meet Remy’s sister and her boyfriend and also for Remy to interview at a prestigious college there, both knowing full well that Cam will be staying in the United States for college and Remy will hopefully get in to this college, this may be the last time for quite a while they will be together. So, they want to make the next six days heading up to New Year’s Eve the best of their lives. But there is an awkwardness between them as they both want to say something to each other, but it just never happens.

As with young adults, they fear their feelings will not be reciprocated. And Remy just needs to make sure Cam is her soulmate before she opens her heart to him. But unfortunately, when she goes to a mystical tea reader, he not only tells her she will never have a soulmate, but she will never fall in love. She is devastated.

But she hears there could be a potion which has been banned by the government that could help her in her search to see if Cam is the one. They take the potion. Unfortunately, it is disastrous! Cam begins to lose all his memories of Remy! And as of now there is no antidote. By New Year’s Eve if they can’t find one, Cam will never remember who Remy was to him.

As they are helped by magical scientist friends, they are in the race of a lifetime. Remy feels like perhaps she really does not have a soulmate, but can she let Cam go? Even if they find a remedy, will they even be together? As the clock ticks down to New Year’s Eve, the pressure is on them. They truly are cursed!

Our Cursed Love is a charming love story filled with humor, magic and real-life teenage dilemmas which will resonate with young readers.

Thank you #NetGalley #WednesdayBooks #JulieAbe #OurCursedLove for the advanced copy.

Thank you to the author 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘈𝘣𝘦, publishers Wednesday Books, and also to NetGalley for a complimentary digital copy of ᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴜʀsᴇᴅ ʟᴏᴠᴇ. All views are mine.

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. I love the premise in this book that everyone has a soul mate. Doesn't have to be romantic. Doesn't even need to be human, I think, could be a cat.

2. Descriptions of the feeling of love are breathtaking: Then, there’s a whirl of fresh air. It’s like they’re standing on the banks of the Katsura River in Kyoto, with the wind blowing off the flowing water. The faintly musty scent of the secondhand shops has disappeared; with the thick trees that surround them, she can’t even see the rest of Tokyo now. The pebbled concrete path weaves through groves of bamboo and lush green trees that seem to have forgotten that it’s the middle of winter. Loc.441.

3. Excellent food for thought for young readers all throughout: Cam bites his lip. He hadn’t thought of it before; he’d just figured Professor Watanabe was really private, like Haruki Murakami or something. He makes a wild guess. “Because your research intimidates everyone?” She looks at him with absolute disbelief, and lets out a laugh. “Well, that’s what I get for asking. In TMU, I get judged by how I look before I even open my mouth. It’s a double standard. If I didn’t use a hair shine elixir and countless makeup potions and creams, I’d be called busaiku—ugly, in English—and an abomination to the department. When I dress nice and spend the woman’s tax of getting ready an extra hour every morning, I apparently made it into TMU just because of how I look.” Loc. 823

4. I love reading about the potion making and the effects of the potions, it's like listening to a conversation between very talented bakers, chemists, or medical professionals!

5. When this book writes about candy, it commits! I love candy, so I really enjoyed these passages and frequent allusions. Remy laughs. “Share some with me. Ooh, look at these!” It’s rolls of washi tape, but instead of being meant for sticking on bullet journals, it’s edible strips of gummies that melt on your tongue—and then turn into the actual dessert. ...“Try this one,” Cam says, offering her a pale golden roll, with tiny cheesecake slices decorated all over it. She gives it a nibble. ...“Whoa. That tastes exactly like biting into one of those fluffy, jiggly Japanese cheesecakes...." Loc.2662

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. The stuff in between the salient points is a little hard to follow. While it's true one of the characters can't remember anything and thus gets lost, understandably, from point to point in the other character's memory, that doesn't mean the reader should get equally lost. This is a fun, not a hard challenge!

Rating: 🍭🍭🍭.5 candy books
Recommend? Yes
Finished: Aug 19 '23
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley, SMPI
Read this book if you like:
🦄 fantasy-scifi
🪄 magical worlds
🍬 candy
💖 interesting theories on love

Remy and Cam have been friends for years, but Remy has recently come to realize her feeling for Cam on an even deeper level. She plans to tell him during their trip to Tokyo. After Cam and Remy take a banned magical soulmate elixir Cam doesn’t remember Remy and Remy’s memories of Cam slowly begin to slip away. With the help of their family and friends Cam and Remy try to find an antidote for the elixir before their conditions become permanent. Will Cam and Remy be able to find a way to keep their memories or will their love be forever cursed?

I loved the Tokyo setting and the magical aspect I thought actually added a lot to the story in a pleasant way. I really enjoyed this YA romance!

I gobbled this book up! Loved the magical part of the story. I was cheering them on to a romance.beloved this book!

Definitely selling at the store

Thank you net galley the author and publisher

Highly recommended

3.5 ⭐️ rounded

“Real love is about falling in love every day.”

I have never been more enlightened by Candy Crush references and yet petty that Remy’s about 300 levels ahead of me.

Unpopular opinion, I love the soulmate trope. And it’s friends-to-lovers. And the amnesia trope is here too … no wonder I’ve been seeing mixed reviews but all of that is probably why my quite anti-fantasy reader self looked over the magic realism. The contemporary setting helped but that’s besides the point. While this plot did drag a little and was boring, it was nice to read. Remy and Cam have an adorable friendship that you kinda have to root for with all the lovely memories and fate seemingly working against them.

I was so much more invested in the Candy Crush references.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC.

Friends to lovers. Magic. Tokyo. The makings of a delightful story! I did enjoy this story that included one of my favorite tropes. Remy and Cam have been friends since birth and Remy is set on working up the gumption to tell him she loves him while they’re visiting a magical university in Tokyo. Things go wrong when she gets a terrible fortune: she doesn’t have a soulmate. Remy and Cam were so cute and watching them get both closer and further away to and from each other was sweet and nail biting at times. There was such an emphasis on food in Tokyo and I wanted to eat all the things and drink the magical drinks. I wish that their siblings had played a bigger role, but I understand why they didn’t. So sweet and enjoyable. Props also to the BTS references! They made my sad little self smile each time!

This was such an interesting book! I really loved the magical aspect of the romance here. I also loved the setting and focus on memory. I read it over Christmas and that was the perfect time with the timeline of the book.

I absolutely loved Julie Abe's "The Charmed List," so I was super stoked to read the follow-up story about the younger siblings. Unfortunately, this book fell a little flat for me. I'm honestly not sure exactly what it was that didn't work for me, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as the first book. The romance was sweet and I loved the travel and magical elements, but it didn't grab me the same way the first one did. I'll definitely read more of Julie Abe's books in the future, but I was slightly disappointed by this one.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

I really enjoyed Julie Abe's THE CHARMED LIST so I was optimistic that I would have a similar experience with OUR CURSED LOVE. Even though it's not a sequel, we still get an update on what's going on with Jack and Ellie. It's not that I didn't love the story, but the overall tone of the novel is quite different--just more serious and less rom-comy. Additionally, I didn't find the worldbuilding as effective even though OUR CURSED LOVE is technically in the same world despite being set in Tokyo, Japan. And I don't think I ever cared completely about what happened to Cam or Remy, even though their choices and motivations felt realistic. The story just seemed to lack the same pizazz that THE CHARMED LIST had.

This book overall was cute and an enjoyable read, perfect for those who like magic and YA. I loved the journey and seeing the characters grow as the story went on and the details about Japan. It's a perfect palette cleanser and was soft and sweet, the cover is GORGEOUS and I look forward to more work from this author hopefully in this shared world. This would make a cute film, pacing was a bit slow and the end felt a bit rushed/jumbled but I still liked the book and had fun reading it.

I liked this book a great deal. Not only was it nice to get an update on how Jack and Ellie's relationship was progressing, but also to explore more of the magical world Abe created in The Charmed List. It was a less cozy story, although food and family were common themes throughout. I didn't mind the change. What I minded, really, was how the ending felt thrown together, with lots of complicating elements being added and immediately withdrawn. (I was also a little surprised that everyone who knew about the curse was not doing everything in their power to facilitate Cam and Remy's quest.) Overall, this was still a sweet, interesting book with all the good elements of a cozy anime. It just didn't quite win me over.

I love the characters Julie Abe writes - they are sure to make me laugh and fall in love. Or just believe in love! This book is filled with a little bit of magic, wishing, and a running clock to contend with. Luckily, when you know your best friend, it's easy to find your way back to his heart!

Just like Julie will find a way to YOUR heart! This is a great rom com to read!

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

This was such a cozy and sweet book. I don't always love the "lack of communication" trope but it didn't matter here because the main characters are just so adorable. Loved the apothecary!

i’m submitting the reviews for books by you that I already have, but I will never request another one. In October one of your employees made a horribly racist statement and you have chosen to do nothing about it. People have continuously asked you to say that you don’t stand with what the employee said, and you refuse to. This is not someone who I want to promote ever because you are sending the wrong message. These reviews will not be posted on social media because you don’t deserve the promotion. I hope that all of your authors move to other publishers because you are standing with a genocide. Watch this video for more information https://www.tiktok.com/@vivafalastinleen/video/7288407369313307947?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7211704101519296042

I enjoyed the first book but this one was a lot better. I liked that it was in dual POV so we got to see both Remi and Cam stocks. They were kind of adorable, but I’m biased because I always love a friends to lovers. It was really cute, how they went about trying to get his memories back and I really enjoyed hearing a memory from each side. I was a little bit worried at the end that they weren’t going to make it but it’s romance book so they always are.

Our Cursed Love by Julie Abe

Published: December 12, 2023
Wednesday Booms
Genre: Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy
Pages: 284
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

It is a slow-burn, friends-to-lovers story with mystical elements. This was cute. I enjoyed the easy flow of the plot and the characters. There is a good use of humor, and I loved the magical elements.

I want to hate Cam, but I can’t. He’s young and still significantly influenced by his dad. He made a foolish choice, and I thought my heart would shatter completely.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Remy and Cam as they had their grand adventure of getting Cam’s memories back. The charming connection between these two is swoon-worthy.

Soul mates are rare and when one is your best friend how do you get the confidence to tell them you love them? Our Cursed Love explores how love can manifest in different ways and you truly have control of your future. Abe brings a classic trope of soul mates and adds interesting questions to the plot but ultimately falls short. The added magic element felt forced and shallow, there was no world-building connected to it and the history was non-existent. The soulmate element was not fleshed out and did not resolve itself by the end of the book. Only wondering what happened to the other soulmate and if the concept was even true.

"Our Cursed Love" was a sweet story about two best friends who take a trip of their lifetime to Japan in search of entering the magical college. When they take a love potion, their world gets turned upside down, but will their friendship be enough to remember? I was immediately enamored with Remy and Cam. The different sites throughout the story were well described and made me feel as I was walking alongside Remy and Cam in this story. Not only was their friendship tested, they each also go on their own journey to make a path for their individual futures. Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!