I absolutely loved both the book and the audiobook! Reading the book first made Gray's voice in the audiobook hit me hard – total mind-blower. The different voices for distinct POVs in the audiobook added a whole new layer of richness to the story, amping up the overall experience. The narrators did a killer job conveying a range of emotions, letting listeners really feel the characters' vibes—whether it's love, hatred, fear, surprise, or care. This book is an emotional rollercoaster, and the audiobook captures every little detail brilliantly. If you enjoyed the book, or if you're on the lookout for a gripping new read, I totally recommend giving the audiobook a spin.

A massive thanks to Harper L. Woods and Dreamscape Media for hooking me up with the audiobook ARC through Netgalley! 🎧📚

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this audiobook so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must listen for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

The follow-up to Harper L. Woods' "The Coven" we follow Willow in her continuation to gain her footing in the witchy space within the Coven. However, how is she supposed to navigate the politics when there is no more Coven? Who can Willow trust when the man she thought she cared for tricked her into using her, and killing her, in order to come back into his own body? Who are Willow's true friends, when everyone feels like a stranger?

This was certainly a very enjoyable novel, with a decent amount of spice. However, unlike the first novel I think there were some points where the plot became unclear, or some of the details became too convenient. Certainly still enjoyable though. Also some of the audio quality was slightly less desirable than the first in that the voices seemed to start sounding the same, and one or two became slightly wearing. I would still recommend to anyone wanting a decent romantasy listen though!

Thank you to Harper L Woods, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC of The Cursed.

This one just didn't hit the same as the first book. The plot got lost in the smut which made the book feel unnecessarily long. The FMC was just annoying and there was too much drama for no reason.

I was not a fan of the the female narrator but really enjoyed the male narrator.

Overall, it wasn't bad, it was just a bit too long for me.

I enjoyed the overall arc from The Coven into The Cursed, but felt that this one should have ended about 3/4 of the way through, rather than gearing up for a 3rd installment. It felt like everything was wrapping up nicely, and then it just kept going. End end/set up for the next book felt unnecessary.

That being said, I enjoyed the story as a whole. I think it was a good mix of darkness with some happiness, finding the light in the darkness, and power of love mixed in.

I received this an audiobook ARC from Dreamscape Media through Netgalley. Thank you for approving me for this book, I really do appreciate it!

This is the second book in the Coven of Bones series. This series is a dark fantasy romance.

The audio performance for this book was great. I really like that it had dual narratives to match the different POVs. I would say personally, I didn't like when the female would change her voice to act out the male parts but that is strictly my opinion. Other than that, the narrators' voices matched the characters they were narrating.

The romance in this book was fantastic. The dynamic between Willow and Gray was wonderful. I really enjoyed that there was growth in their persons as well as their relationship. The spice was spot on. I would say 3.5🌶. There was spice all through the entire book, open door, and explicit. Gray could be more described as a Dom and there was a scene with "backdoor" play.

The plot was very fast paced and enjoyable to listen too. The political/religious aspect of the book was hard to read only because it went against morals, personally. but it does not reflect the story as it was well written.

Overall, the narrating, plot and romance was very good. If you enjoy witches, demons, romance, dark fantasy, touch her/him and die, spice, and a good plot. Then you will very much enjoy this book!

Full review...see @nice_to_read_ya

oof ok. super hard to talk about The Cursed without giving anything away! This series is shaping up to be short, dark and easy to consume. I read both books in the span of a weekend and now I'm keen to see where the storyline goes. Especially with Margo's closing words!

In the mood for something dark and spicy? Give this one a go friends (after you've checked the trigger warnings of course!). Now...whilst I wait for the next instalment, you'll find me reading another of Harper's series...Of Flesh & Bone!

This is the second book in the duet. I absolutely loved the first book and this was a good finish to the duet.

About this book:
∘ Dark Paranormal Romance
∘ Witches & Demons
∘ Elemental Magic
∘ Dark Academia/Gothic vibes
∘ Enemies to Lovers
∘ "Touch her and you die"
∘ Villain gets the girl

The Cursed picks up exactly where The Coven ended. There was so much in book one that I did expect more from this book.

I will say that I absolutely loved Gray and his character really carried the book for me.

3 ⭐️ for overall story / 4 ⭐️ for audiobook performance

This follow-up to The Coven was unfortunately a little lackluster for me. After the jump scare that was the cliffhanger of book 1, I was ready to get some answers but also ready to get settled into a Willow/Gray relationship/marriage... Well Willow had other plans. She completely did a 180 and said no way. Uhhh... well alright then.

Y'all I kid you not, I couldn't stand Willow for probably 98% of this book. She just seemed so stupid to me. Creating problems and arguments where there didn't need to be any, questioning things that she already knew the answer to regarding Gray, and just genuinely acting like a freakin child put in timeout instead of a grown ass woman and a future queen. She's constantly talking about protecting the coven and other witches but then complaining that she'll never know what it's like to have a normal life and wants to get away from Gray. And then when that doesn't work, she wants to just try and kill him.... UGH!!!! She was soooo exhausting! She wouldn't just calm tf down and let Gray LOVE HER! I enjoy spunky and feisty FMCs, but this was just doing too much ma'am. Probably the only time I didn't despise her was when she was actually dropping her grandiose fkn mask and getting thoroughly worked by Gray in the bedroom (or out in the woods). I enjoyed Gray and the spice in this book. He actually seemed to have a decent mind. I actually felt a little sorry for his character.

The whole plot with God and the Angels and The Goddess and the Source almost felt a little like an afterthought. It kinda felt like it just got thrown in there last minute and somebody was just praying it was all gonna work out. I mean I guess it worked ok...*shrug* Conceptually it was interesting, but it should have been presented a lot earlier on and built up more than it was. By the time the meat of it was happening, we were at the end of the book and then BAM! Willow and Gray are getting married and CUT! End of book...WHA???? That ending felt way too abrupt. Based on the epilogue, I suppose that was because we will see more of them in the next duo that will be about what's-her-face and that archdemon that's got a thing for her...

Now for the audiobook performance. We've got the same narrators as the previous book. Male narrator was pretty good and I liked all of his tonal and character changes. The female narrator kind of started to get annoying after a while...it's hard to say what exactly it was. Granted, I was listening to this at about 1.5x-1.7x speed, but she always seemed to be speaking like she was in such a hurry, had somewhere to go, was about to come upon something crazy, or was in some kind of chaotic scene. Her tone always just seemed so combative and eventually it just got tiresome. There were times when I wanted to tell her to chill out or calm down, live a little. Haha! I also didn't enjoy hearing her enunciate every single letter of every single word. Lord. That also got tiresome. I wish she would have relaxed her speech just a bit. Also, she was very monotone for Gray, didn't really care for that. It's like he never had emotions when she narrated him. I think she's a good narrator, I just didn't care for her by the end of this book. Which is weird because I remember liking her in the first book. I don't know...

It wasn't a bad book...but this duo isn't one that I would recommend first on any list. Or even in top 5. If you're looking for something dark, academia, witchy, spicy, you'll get your kicks with this one for sure. But I don't think it has much staying power in the end. I guess we'll see what she does with future books in this series/world.

This was a decent sequel. It hit all the marks for me, tension, spice and unique world building, but I did think that the plot got a little lost with the romance. I love the premise and I hope that in the next book we get a bit more substance from the main characters, as they did come off a little shallow in their development. Despite this, I devoured this book and I will absolutely be looking out for the next book!

Ok, so I liked this story, new characters and expanded friendships. It had more betrayals from all sides which I loved for character growth. I genuinely loved the friendship between Willow and her roommates. Willow is an even more powerful witch with more villainous traits in this book, Gray might be rubbing off on her. It was interesting the way her powers combined but also had different qualities that we didn’t see in the first book. Gray is still a sexy villain and I enjoyed getting to see him level up his villainous ways.

*Deep Sigh* This book lacked what the first book excelled in… the moving entertaining plot. This was mostly the development of Willow’s feelings for Gray after his betrayal and their smut scenes, which I did love in itself but not for the finale of this duet. There wasn’t any big plot development and Willow only picked Gray like the last maybe 15% (might be aiming high) of the book so that was rushed. That being said, I do hope that we get more adventures in the Crystal Hollow world, maybe with different MCs to finish with the theme of The Crone, Mother, and Maiden. I would recommend for the SMUT alone tho *wink wink*

2ND BOOK SLUMP.

Dang... I am very bummed about this one. Book 1 was great and I was really looking forward to the next installment, but the plot was just not really there? It focused too much on the smut (and I love smut... but I need it to come with MORE) and not enough on exploring the world more (which really expanded at the end of book 1) and deepening the relationship between our two MCs.

I'll def read the next book in the series, because I did enjoy this overall, but just feeling a bit let down.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I had a hard time rating this one. I absolutely ADORED the coven. I thought it was incredible but I felt like this one was lacking a lot. It felt like a lot of back and forth… I don’t love you… hahaha yes you do. Book 1 left me thinking book 2 would be a wild ride but I feel like it was 15% plot and 85% smut. Which… I mean the spice was fantastic but I really wanted more of a story between Willow and Gray. I just feel like it left me wanting so much more. I will read the next book because I’m invested in the characters and the story itself.

I was fortunate enough to receive the audiobook version of The Cursed from Dreamscape Media.
I thought that the narrators did a fantastic job. The pacing was great. The audio was clear. Definitely enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Thank you to Harper L Woods, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC of The Cursed! This was a decent continuation to the series and gave me a lot of answers to the first book that I was looking for. I will say that the plot of this series went somewhere that I wasn't expecting, and I find it to be interesting but also confusing at the same time???

I did enjoy Gray's character and his development in the story. Now that he is no longer a vessel, he is able to feel the love that he has for Willow and he spends almost all of his time protecting and trying to understand/do what is best for her. He really struggles with his feelings and expressing them, and he doesn't do things the right way nor the way he should, He does do some things that are questionable and it makes him an unreliable character, and sometimes unlikeable.

Willow on the other hand, has become unbearably irritating in the second book. She spends this entire book plotting and coming up with ways to get rid of Gray and kill him. Like girl, this man would destroy the world for you and you're trying to get rid of him??? Dumb. It took her going too far to realize what she was planning wasn't right and it was agonizing to watch her be an idiot.

The sexual scenes are iffy at best, and as a dark romance reader I was kinda shocked by some things and how they were portrayed.

I think I probably won't continue this series, and definitely not on audio. I like that Gray and Willow had their own narrators, but I think that ALL of the dialogue should have been read by their respective narrators because it became cringy.

I enjoyed The Cursed from a fantasy reader perspective. You do need to read The Coven prior to this or you'll have zero clue as to what's happening. The writing in this one wasn't great, I don't think I would've read the book if I didn't have the audio.

The relationship between Willow and Gray during this book was just weird and also rushed. Willow hates Gray for what he's done and then all of the sudden doesn't and now she's choosing to love him? It was just odd. That being said, there's a decent amount of smut, so if you're looking for that in a fantasy book, it's a good one for that. Also, God and the angels being the real evil ones... where did that even come from?

I did feel like the ending of this book was very rushed and there wasn't really any closure - it ends on a cliffhanger and this is the end of the duet? The epilogue, which I thought would provide closure wasn't even about Willow and Gray!

If you love witches and demons; soulmates where she hates him but also loves him; and he screwed up but will do anything to prove to her he’s not going anywhere without her now; this is for you. #thecursed #thecoven #romance #books #witches #demons
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book 1 was okay and I really hoped this one would be better. But it was worse. Did we completely forget the plot just for all the smut? Absolutely nothing happened but spicy scenes

I loved the first book. I was excited to read this book because of the cliffhanger left in the last book, however I felt like this book was more spice then plot. Do not get me wrong I love spice every now and then, but if its more sex than story I tend to get bored. I know I know my 39 year old butt is lame. In otherwards, if you enjoy a spicy novel then baby this one is for you.

The first book ends with a cliffhanger at the end of the first book and the 2nd book pretty much picks up where the first one left off. While I enjoyed the first book I felt it was kind of all over the place with the story line and it really didn't pique my interest until the last 20%.
The 2nd book I found to be similar and I wanted more story/plot and less spice (even though they were very well written).
I will probably read the 3rd when it comes out and I'd recommend this series to folks who enjoy witch/demon fantasy books with lots of spice.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Coven was a great book. I really enjoyed that one. The Cursed was a decent read but did not capture my attention.