Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim is a captivating blend of myth and magic. My favorite part is the intricate relationship between the sisters, Sura and Mina, whose bond is tested by a powerful curse. Lim’s character development is exceptional, with each sister’s growth and struggles deeply engaging. The world-building and lyrical prose enhance the story, making it a must-read for fantasy fans.

I didn't like it as much as I loved Six Crimson Cranes, but it was still fascinating to see this prequel concerning a major character in Six Crimson Cranes. Reading this really wants to make me reread that for more context! I did like the main character and really felt for her story. This is a compelling adventure filled with notes of Asian-inspired mythology that really bring it to life. And there's nothing like the bond between sisters.

I loved the Six Crimson Cranes duology, so I was stoked to read this companion novel. It's a great addition to that world! Elizabeth Lim's vivid and lush writing transported me to the Asian mythology-based setting. The dynamic between the sisters and the magic was fascinating, and I even found myself getting emotional at times. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will read anything Elizabeth Lim writes.

This is the first book I read by Elizabeth Lim. I then found out (probably halfway through) that it is a prequel for Six Crimson Cranes, and set in the same world as her other books. I mention that because by the time I got the end, it felt like it was setting up events while wrapping up the story of Channi and Vanna. I found the story interesting; a fantasy world, “cursed” sisters, and even an animal companion. The “romance between sworn enemies” wasn’t the most appealing. The twist at the end left me with mixed feelings. But as I said, it seemed to be setting up events for the duology.

This series is one of my absolute favorites. I loved getting a prequel and learning about the two sisters. This was genuinely such a fun read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
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It was enjoyable to go back in time to see the back story of the step-mother from the duology! It was definitely sad to read about all of the trauma she endured , but fascinating to see the journey.
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I definitely think this prequel could be read as a stand alone and still enjoyable! But finding the Easter Eggs to things we knew from the duology was fun!

Another stunning work by Elizabeth Lim.

I absolutely LOVED Six Crimson Cranes and this prequel gave so much more insight into Chani.

ABSOLUTELY. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. Reading this makes me want to reread Six Crimson Cranes & A Dragon Promise after gaining new insight from on Channi’s story from this prequel. I had no idea how much I would love Channi and Vanna’s story. A love like no other, a love of sisters. True friendships, with a snake for a best friend. Characters so well written and brought to life. I’ve already read some really good books this year, but this might be my favorite so far.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the eGalley I initially began reading for review!

I'm going to split this review into two: one for those who haven't read the Six Crimson Cranes duology and those who have.

For those who have NOT read the Six Crimson Cranes duology, I am leaning toward telling you to wait to read this prequel until after you've read the duology because the impact hits differently when you do, but I think it may be alright to read it before reading the duology as it sets up things very well. It's your call. It also works well as a standalone book, as a tale of two sisters who love each other unequivocally and the tragedies that befall them once they've become cursed. The Legends of Lor'yan world is rich in lore, with fantastical mythology and fairy tales inspired by Asia, and it is so much fun to read about them through the characters. I can guarantee at least one character will capture your heart. So whether or not you read it first or read only it, it is worth the read.

As for those who HAVE read the Six Crimson Cranes duology, rest assured that answers you were seeking when reading The Dragon's Promise especially will be answered and you will love the expansion of the story's lore. Several times I found myself going "Aha!" when there was an allusion to something or someone in the duology or a reveal and it made me want to re-read the duology with this new information. While it didn't make me devour it in a single sitting like Six Crimson Cranes, by the end of it I was legitimately crying and wishing for the part of Channi's story where she finally gets to Kiata to be written next. It's endeared me more to the character for sure and I have a new appreciation for her.

Even if I hadn't known where the story was going because I had read the Six Crimson Cranes duology, I still would have enjoyed this story. It's tragic but so full of love and action and amazing mythology that it wasn't hard to feel connected to it. It's another excellent story by Elizabeth Lim and I can't not recommend it!

Book Name: Her Radiant Curse
Author: Elizabeth Lim

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's | Knopf Books for Young Readers for an ARC of Elizabeth Lim’s Her Radiant Curse

Stars: DNF
Spice: DNF

I wish the summary mentioned that this book is a prequel to Six Crimson Cranes. That was a book I just wasn’t into. I hoped by trying this one out I would see the author grow/ plot lines become more compelling but that just wasn’t in the cards. These books are VERY YA (not bad just not for me) The pacing feels odd and the author comes off very much like she’s preaching/teaching a moral lesson rather than telling a story. This makes the characters feel flat and stifles the reader's connections to them. If you had said this was middle grade I would have understood but the darker content and nature (IE Physical Abuse | Mental Abuse | Child Sacrifice | Violence | Kidnapping) demand a YA rating.

Overall I DNF’d this at around 30%

Due to the Negative Nature of this review, I will not be posting it to Goodreads or retail sites with respect to the publisher and author.

I enjoyed the fact that we got to revisit and gain a better understanding of a character we were already somewhat familiar with. SCC and TDP already hinted at the Channi’s complexity and backstory so I’m glad this delved deeper. Overall, I appreciate the ease of reading Lim’s stories and the vibrant world she has created.

This was such a beautiful story, yet so sad. I was honestly not expecting what happened at the end and although it was a happy ending (in a way) I would have loved the story to take a different path (your girl is just a fan of enemies to lovers sorry ) .
I loved the world building and the characters and I just didn’t now what I needed this month was to read a book with the main villain as a tiger lol. I read this in 36 hours you guys. The story was just really easy to read, the characters likable and the writing style very smooth.
I really feel for some characters and what happened to them at the end and I wonder if I’d get to read a bit more of their fate in the next books.
I really loved Channi and her love for her sister so I’m really curious what will happen to her in SCC.
This was my first EL book and although that made me sad I love it and now I want to read all her books

Thank you NetGalley for Irving me an arc in exchange of my honest review.

4.5 stars

4.5 Stars

I love this world! I was really excited to be approved an ARC. Elizabeth Lim is such a fantastic writer.

I loved Channi's character and the story around her. It was the perfect novella to add to this series.

I definitely recommend it!

3 stars

I'm so conflicted about this book. On one hand, the emotional beats in the last third of this book were beautiful, but the logic was not logicing for the series continuity (in SCC and TDP). This actually made me dislike SCC and TDP even more than I already did. Upon reviewing what I wrote about SCC and TDP, the author actually teased a lot of the things I put on my wishlist for a Raikama prequel but delivered it in such an unsatisfactory way.

Liz Lim needs to compensate me for teasing yet another dragon man romance and then swerving far, far away into vanilla traditional feminine societal roles, a vanilla boy next door romance (for Shiori in SCC and TDP), and motherhood and family=happiness (for Channi in HRC and onwards). In context, a lot of HRC's conclusion makes sense for Channari's character because she wants the family she never had and wants as much distance as possible from her abusive family and horrible hometown. I just don't like being teased with enticting alternatives and lampshades (where Ukhar said Channi could have been a powerful and renowned sorceress! and pursue other ambitions) and then the story ends with essentially Channi being like "nah i wanna stay in the kitchen". Again, Channi's choices make sense for her character. She doesn't need to change the world or anything. However, it does rub me the wrong way that Channi was "domesticated" in a sense. Like taming of a shrew but this time it's taming of a spear-wielding badass tomboy snake girl.

Like a less traditionally feminine character can't find happiness and is shunned by society bc she's ugly and cursed - Is there no way for her to find happiness as she was? I know Channi's transformation into Raikama was already set into stone, so this couldn't be avoided for her character specifically.

I have no desire to revisit SCC or TDP to know exactly how the prequel impacts how I view the main story with Shiori or whether this succeeded in being a White Snake story, but I felt that the sisterhood between Channi and Vanna had a lot more to say than the entirety of SCC and TDP combined. In a sense Her Radiant Curse was a successful prequel in that it explored Channi's past and gave us a glimpse of Raikama before she was Raikama.

I preferred Ukhar over Kiki immensely. It was both sad and endearing that snakes never forgot Channari even when she went to Kiata. Ukhar and Channi's bond was forever even when they were apart, but it was still sad that he couldn't come with her. Like honestly... taking on roles thrust upon you and being separated from the one being that cared about you unconditionally is overrated.

Hokzuh (aka Khremelan)... Oh what did Liz Lim do to you?? I felt for him in TDP because he had to suffer through Shiori and Takkan flirting the whole time he was around and now I feel for every dragon man Liz Lim has written and will write in the future because she clearly does not want any of them to win or have anything good?? I think if there's no follow-through with a dragon boy romance in Liz Lim's plans, she should just go intended main romance story (or platonic/familial love story tbh) without teasing other options (i.e. dragon; Seryu or Hokuzuh) when the other option is always the same option. Does this make me worry about Liz's future Beauty and the Beast retelling because there is a marriage contract with a dragon lord? A little, yes, given Liz's track record with dragons in these past three books.

I will also comment again on how the action scenes are written in this series - I don't think they worked for me, personally. I was stuck half way through the book for 6 months before I was able to finish it. The middle parts of the book drag on without much substance, and most of it was Channi fighting.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me an ARC for review.

Probably my favorites in this fantasy universe! I loved the characters, and the story was really gripping and emotional.

My Thoughts:
When I was looking for more non-white normative fantasy, the only Asian author I knew who was doing fantasy was Julie Kagawa. But Julie Kagawaʻs early fantsy was still using white characters, even if they were not "human." And then there was a whole slew of Asian, mostly female, fantasy writers using their own cultural folklore to create worlds and stories that involved both historic and new protagonists, mostly female. Elizabeth Lim is one of the OGs of this lady's club of writers. Her Blood of Stars duology - Spin the Dawn and Unravel the Dusk is similar to this standalone in that there are no absolutes, beautiful, ugly, demon, not demon, love, obligation. The only absolute in Lim's book is perhaps the idea that all of her characters will need to pay a huge price for what they want, and even then, they may not get what they want.

Finally like all of her books, including the Six Crimson Cranes duology with The Dragon's Promise, Her Radiant Curse will not give you the Disney happy ending/meet cute romance. If that is what you are looking for, she is not the author for you.

For this book specifically, I like that this could easily have been a duology, but that Ms. Lim played out the story instead of chopping it. Channi is so narrowly focused on one thing, that when the unexpected happens and she is not in control of her fate, the book could have easily been over, but it was not. So it may start at a betrothal contest and the sisters trying to save each other, but it is also a quest to destroy a witch, only to find out that these characters are complicated. Some Disney tropes are still here, but filtered through an Asian world view. For example, there is the evil-ish step mother, but she is joined by the biological father, not as evil, but more as weak willed.

Early on, when Channa's mom gives birth to Vanna and then gets very ill, Channa's dad knows that to save his wife, he needs to sacrifice the baby to a witch in the forest. But Vanna is born with a golden glow about her and anyone that is near her falls in love with her beauty and personality. Instead their father takes the older child, Channa and leaves her in the forest as a sacrifice. The demon witch/tiger does not take her. The king of snakes instead bites Channa. The venom scars her face and body while also making her blood poison and venomous. The demon witch does not want Channa but assures her that she will come back for Vanna when Vanna is grown. Channa spends her life training and searching for the demon witch and although they do meet again, it is not as expected.

The takeaway for readers is fairly simple: What is on the outside is not always a good indicator of what is on the inside. I appreciate the author putting all of this in one book. It makes it more complicated, but also more complex, which is good.

From the Publisher:
One sister must fall for the other to rise.

Channi was not born a monster. But when her own father offers her in sacrifice to the Demon Witch, she is forever changed. Cursed with a serpent’s face, Channi is the exact opposite of her beautiful sister, Vanna—the only person in the village who looks at Channi and doesn’t see a monster. The only person she loves and trusts.

Now at seventeen, Vanna is to be married off in a vulgar contest that will enrich the coffers of the village leaders. Only Channi, who’s had to rely on her strength and cunning all these years, can defend her sister against the cruelest of the suitors. But in doing so, she becomes the target of his wrath—launching a grisly battle royale, a quest over land and sea, a romance between sworn enemies, and a choice that will strain Channi’s heart to its breaking point.

Weaving together elements of The Selection and Ember in the Ashes with classic tales like Beauty and the Beast, Helen of Troy, and Asian folklore, Elizabeth Lim is at the absolute top of her game in this thrilling yet heart-wrenching fantasy that explores the dark side of beauty and the deepest bonds of sisterhood.

Publication Information:
Author: Elizabeth Lim
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (August 29, 2023)
Hardcover length: 432 pages

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

This is my first full Elizabeth Lim book. I started another but haven't finished it. I really enjoyed this world and the characters. My heart felt for the sisters in here.

Rating 4/5

This book was not what I was expecting, in a good way.
I really enjoyed the character development and the storyline kept me on my toes.
I’m looking forward to reading more of this authors works.

I did miss that this book was a prequel, but it was still a very fun read! I checked out the main series afterward and enjoyed it, really loved the prose and characters!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.