We’re in a world parallel to that of the Dark Protectors as a Kayrs is mentioned. In this world there are four powerhouse families that run social media, but no one (except them) know that likes, follows, hearts, etc grant these families literal power. Each family has a stone (diamond, garnet, aquamarine, etc) and popularity online generates power that feeds their family stones. These stones allow for the four families to amass wealth, health, and power. Each family has someone who feeds the stones and starts the process. The four families are competitors.
Thorn Beathach is the head of the family whose stone is garnet and is also the stone feeder for the family. Alana’s family stone is aquamarine and she is the stone feeder for her family. Unfortunately, her family has fallen to the bottom of the tier of four. Her father has plans for a merger to the Sokolov family through marriage of her and the youngest Sokolov heir. Little does anyone know that Alana is being watched and coveted by a mysterious man who has plans for her that do not include her marrying anyone but him.
I enjoyed this book wholeheartedly. There are multiple side stories running at the same time as the overall “love story” between Thorn and Alana. There is a mystery surrounding Alana’s childhood. There’s a mystery surrounding the recent death of Alana’s brother. And most importantly, there is a mystery surrounding Thorn Beathach and his beastly ways.
I will definitely continue with this new series of Zanetti’s.

Retelling of a fairytale. Beauty and the beast dressed up,as dark sex. And danger. Look for other possible tales as secondary characters are part of the problems and solution. Interesting story with,plenty of dark and light in the story.

Heat Index: 8/10

Vibes: dark romance, fantasy x Black Mirror, stalker/virgin, dudes who speak Gaelic (if that's your thing)

Alana, heiress to a social media giant (in a word where tech and magic collide) is being forced to marry the heir to a competing family. That's derailed by an assassination attempt... and Alana being kidnapped by Thorn, head of a rival company. Obsessed with Alana, Thorn refuses to let her go. What he doesn't know is that she has no plans to submit; but she'll welcome the pleasure he offers.

So... yeah. I have really mixed feelings on this one, and I want to add a few caveats. First, I think there is an an audience for this. I'm just not that audience. Second, I think that Rebecca Zanetti has a style that for sure fits the fast, snappy pacing you want from a dark romance. And the sex scenes (while I have a quibble) are hot. I enjoyed how this went full camp in terms of the kidnapping, and there were some really cool touches.

However, this one has a LOT of world stuff happening. The world is run by social media! I mean, timeline. The social media is run on crystals! Kinda meta, I can see it. But there are mafia vibes, and a subplot about like, Thorn killing bad guys including pedophiles, and I think this suffered from Zanetti having to keep too many balls in the air at one time. If this had been a couple of those things versus all of those things, I think we could've focused more on the couple, and really developed the good things there.

Quick Takes:

--This actually got off to a good start for me! Thorn is a stalker. I love a stalker hero. (By the way: Zanetti offers content warnings at the beginning of the book; I did not take issue with any of them myself, and they do not impact my view of this book.) And you know what? I loved that he kinda stayed a creep. Thorn? Was weird as hell. We just went with it.

I do wish that Thorn hadn't been like... so hypercompetent with Alana, and so self-aware. When a hero's inner monologue in first person is like "I'm a sociopath, I guess"... it just feels very... edgy. It's not that I'm against a sociopathic or psychopathic hero. I just feel like that kind of awareness and acknowledgment is tough to sell in the first person. Maybe through dialogue? Not through the inner monologue.

--Alana is a nice heroine, but I don't think she was nearly as distinct as Thorn. A major part of Alana's personality seemed to be responding to Thorn and being a virgin. (More on that later.) I think that for me, a lot of the issue was that she really responded to him sexually far too early in the book, while at the same time being so inexperienced.

Now... I'll acknowledge that the "virgin jumps into shit after being kidnapped" thing has worked for me in a couple of books. However, it is a HARD sell, and it's a harder sell when a heroine is as inexperienced as Alana seems to be (I didn't get the vibe that she was a totally inexperienced woman, but I also didn't get the sense that she was an "everything but" girl, the way one virgin heroine who worked for me in this scenario was). She just moves REALLY fast on accepting Thorn and the type of sex he wanted to have. The sex he wants to have isn't crazy, but it's a lot for a girl on Alana's experience level.

--Now, the world here is interesting and high stakes. But again, I think there was just too much going on. I never really got what the magic system... was. And I kind of couldn't help but feel like Zanetti wanted to write a mafia romance (this read in a lot of ways as a mafia romance) but also wanted to connect it to fantasy and a higher concept. It's not a bad idea, and I can always appreciate a big swing. It just didn't really work for me.

--This is a very clear Beauty and the Beast retelling. I love that. But there is a character named Coggsworth here. I've gotta tell y'all: it is kind of a pet peeve of mine for retellings to directly reference Disney, versus doing a new spin based entirely on the actual fairy tale. It just takes me out of the story, and it definitely did here.

--Thorn has Lexical-gustatory synesthesia. It basically means that he tastes voices, and I REALLY liked that. It was unique, it added texture (he chews mints a lot when he's around shitty people because their voices taste bad, Alana's voice tastes like honey which also adds to why he wants to do Certain Things) and I haven't read it before. Do I know if Zanetti portrayed it accurately? I don't know. But in terms of the way it was portrayed, it was really interesting.

The Sex:

The sex was hot. I wouldn't say it's intense BDSM, but there's definitely flavor there--you have edging, orgasm denial, lots of spanking (and I did appreciate that Thorn used lotion to try to prevent bruising, I don't know that it was effective but the boy tried) and some rough sex with light dubcon vibes. It's well-written, and I won't lie, the sex scenes were probably my favorite part of the book.

What I did struggle with was the fact that this was set in a world pretty much like ours but with magical social media stuff... and there was SO much emphasis on the hymen. Like, I kind of let it pass when it was a part of this virginity test situation mentioned by the bad guys. But then Thorn continued to reference it, there was an anatomical reference during the first penetrative sex scene... I don't know. I don't mind some virginity fetishization, especially in dark romance, but the emphasis on the hymen SPECIFICALLY felt kind of dated. Couldn't he have just talked about her tight pussy or whatever?

Anyway--this wasn't for me, but I do plan on trying more Rebecca Zanetti stuff. She came highly recommended to me, I can tell she's talented, and I'd like to see a less crammed plot or world from her.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you love a possessive stalker then you’re gonna love Thorn! This modern day beauty and the beast retelling had such an interesting and unique story line that focused on social media, influencers, AI tech, and the power of gemstones. There were crazy plot twists and super hot spicy scenes that kept me highly entertained 🥵 I’m talking clit torture, edging, all that good stuff 😝 I loved the cute fairy tale bits and pieces the author snuck in aside from the obvious Beauty and the Beast aspect. I look forward to reading the sequel!

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for this ARC! Even though I’ve already read it, I just preordered the gorgeous hardcover sprayed edge edition for my library 😍

3.5 stars

This is a dark retelling of Beauty and The Beast but with a curse and social media twist.
That is where my problem lies, it is heavily embedded into the story but is highly superficial. In fact, most of the plots in this book are. It seems like a mess at the best of times and just leaves you wondering the point of anything.

This is a world where Social Media is ran by crystals. Yup, crystal. Garnets, aquamarines, diamonds, etc. Beyond that I couldn't make sense of what this world really is. The crystals are mentioned but never explained, so what exactly is this world? Supernatural? Magic infused? Part of another series of RZ?

Alana, the new heir to Aquarius Social, presents herself to the world as a vapid influencer but she is more than that. She is the power behind the company as she charges the crystals to keep the servers going. She also takes it upon herself to be an online vigilante of sorts. She helps women in bad situations but after Thorn comes into play none of that even matters anymore. She doesn't even stop to think about what she was doing to help people.

Thorn, the owner of Malice Media, is literally the opposite of Alana. While Alana helps women in need, he kills the men who create the problems no problem. No one knows what he looks like and he likes it that way. However, he is obsessed with Alana and that means that he enters her world of video posting and has to put himself out to the public. He kidnaps her and threatens sexual punishments every time she disobeys and follows through with it but she tries to keep her company going and suddenly it's a problem? There is even one scene with a knife that is just crazy and I understand the kink but it just didn't work here.

Alana in inexperienced and I feel like Thorn is too much for her intro into those things. She fights him along the way and he simply says no and she claims to hate it yet she submits to him no problems. Their chemistry seems forced and it just doesn't work for me. I much preferred the secondary characters to the main 2 and they are the only way I will continue on with this series in hopes of better writing.

I will admit, I hate to have said that because I am a HUGE fan of Rebecca Zanetti but this just didn't cut it for me.
Also, this is 100% a "me" problem but I can't get passed some of the names, I know this is a Grimm retelling but all I picture is Disney and talking furniture.

Title: One Cursed Rose
Author: Rebecca Zanetti
Genre: Romance | Fantasy
Tags: Beauty and the Beast retelling | mafia-esque | dark romance | stalker romance | mystery | thriller | magic system
TWs: stalking | kidnapping | torture | bdsm

This novel was touted as a must-read for fans of Scarlett St. Clair and Sara J. Maas, yet I found myself missing the resemblance. I do feel a little misled into reading this because of that. However, diving into this dark, mafia-esque romance, I found it to be a captivating introduction to a genre I hadn't explored before.

My initial attraction to the book stemmed from its premise as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. While the darker aspects of the narrative took me by surprise, I found myself engrossed nonetheless. This reimagining is a very unique and interesting take on Beauty and the Beast.

One Cursed Rose takes place in an alternate version of Silicon Valley where there are four elite families that own nearly all social media. They gain power, money, longevity, and health through their affinity with various crystals that are integrated into their social media servers. Engagement with the social media platforms helps power the crystals. Alana is the heir to Aquarius Social and Thorn runs Malice Media. Thorn’s crystals, and by extension his body, have been infected with an unknown computer virus and there is a race to find a cure to save his life.

I found the world-building very intriguing, but I would have liked for a deeper exploration of the mechanics behind the system, particularly as it played a critical role in the story’s resolution.

I found the relationship between Alana and Thorn only partially believable. It was believable that Thorn would fall in love with Alana, but not the other way around. Thorn continuously learns things about Alana that make him authentically fall in love with her, but Alana’s love for Thorn seems more automatic without any clear reasons.

In One Cursed Rose something is always happening. There is plenty of action and mystery to keep readers engaged throughout. I feel there was a good balance between the plot and the spice; there is definitely a lot going on in the plot. I didn’t want to put the book down and was able to read it in one day.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes dark romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an intriguing story that seems to be a combination of romance and fantasy elements. It’s very intriguing how the world in this book has companies and corporations that they get power through social media. Alana is trying to help save her families company when her father decides to marry her off to a competitor, in order to shore up there, business. She’s not happy but her father‘s plans are derailed Wen thorn who is the head of the rival corporation that is putting Alana‘s families company out of business decides that he wants her. Alana is a character that you for because she is strong and determined. Thorn is dark and doesn’t seem to have any emotions but he is enthralled with Alana and will do anything to have her. This is a new world and I’m very excited to read this book because the setting just adds to the ambience of the romance. I’m looking forward to more stories in this world.

3.5 Stars

Kidnapped by her rival, Alana Rose Beaumont has been watched by Thorn Beathach for a very long time... and now, she is finally his...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One Cursed Rose immerses the reader in a world where social media dominates society, and the four strongest, most elite families, rule it all. Alana may hide her brilliant mind behind her social media persona, but Thorn recognizes just how rare of a jewel she is... and that he wants to possess her, most of all...

This dark romance was a scorching, BDSM romance read! Alana is captured by a man who she should fear, but with every lesson he teaches her, she falls more and more under his spell. But while Thorn becomes a commanding presence in her life, they must face a race against time to save him... from freezing from the inside out...

There were so many great elements to this book, and the plot was weaved together well with many suspenseful and mysterious threads. I really enjoyed the dark and twisted love story and Thorn's intense obsession with Alana that fueled it all. This story introduced many ideas in a fantasy world, with health and wealth tied to precious gemstones that power social media companies and their owners. And while some plot details worked better than others, I felt that the story sometimes focused too much on the fantastical elements, and not the bigger picture, like lurking enemies, or the secrets waiting to be revealed. But in the end, the story wrapped up nicely and left room for the series to continue and grow.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest and unbiased review.

-Dark Romance
-Magic
-Mafia/Gangs
-Billionaires
-Kidnapped/Forced Proximity
-Touch Her and You Die
-Beauty and Beast Retelling
-Crystal Magic Systems
-Kink Exploration

I was super excited for this romance, as it was advertised for fans of Scarlett St Clair. It could not be further from what she writes and how she writes her books.
I will start off by saying I did not like the male main character. There is no chemistry between them, and he has no character traits other than being beefy and brutish and speaking Gaelic every other page to amp up the attractiveness. The romance between them was also not fun to read because it was insta-lust, and it felt like there were no feelings involved until there suddenly was.
The sex felt misplaced for me. The MMC threatened her with a spanking (which she instantly was aroused by), literally less than ten minutes after he’d killed a teenage waiter that was trying to protect her from harm, and then he’d kidnapped her. She had no idea who he was, yet was getting all hot between the thighs at the idea of getting spanked by her violent, ruthless kidnapper who showed no mercy to basically a college student age kid. Does she have molasses for brains? Don’t even call it Stockholm syndrome, because they hadn’t even been with each other for an hour at this point in the book. She’d never met him. The sex was too kinky for a girl that didn’t know her kidnapper and had conflicted feelings about him on every other page. The crystal magic system had no detail either.

Thank you to NetGalley and Edelweiss for the ARC!

I volunteered to read and review an advanced readers copy of One Cursed Rose through Net Galley. I enjoyed reading this story so much . It's an interesting and entertaining suspense romance . A unique twist on Beauty and the Beast . I found this story action packed and Suspenseful . The characters and the story is so different than anything I've read in a good way . So much goes on in this story . It's dark and dangerous. I highly recommend taking the time to read .

I enjoyed this book. I’m a sucker for retellings. Beauty and the Beast are one of my favorite love stories. This book was a dark retelling with suspense, fantasy, magical elements, romance. It is a love story with SPICE. I like the romance between Alana and Thorn. This story is a uniquely modern Beauty and the Beast.

Well that was a pleasant surprise. A little darker than what I am used to from Rebecca, but I quite enjoyed it.
The magic element took a little longer for me to understand but like any good math question, when I figured it out? It was worth.

In this dark and erotic retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale, social Media princess, Alana Beaumont, is now the heir apparent after losing her brother in what seems at first to be an accident. Her father's company, Aquarius Social, is one of four ruling family's who get their power from precious stones as well as interaction online with billions of followers. Alana is told by her father that she will marry another family’s odious son as Aquarius Social is in trouble needing to shore up power. When someone attempts to harm Alana, she is saved by the reclusive rival Thorn Beathach, who is know as the Beast for his appearance as well as the brutal tactics in the near war between the four ruthless and the seriously moral lacking families.

Once in Thorn’s secret castle, Alana does her best not only to escape but learn all her captor’s secrets. Thorn tells Alana from the outset that she is his to keep giving her strict rules to follow that come with punishments for infractions. Those penalties are of the S/M Fifty Shades kind which is all new to the virginal Alana. Alana is vital to her company because she “charges” the gems that keep it running. Thorn has been physically afflicted by an enemy; his time is running out to find the perpetrator and the cure before it takes him out.

This story, the first one in the Grimm Bargains series, is much darker with violence, brutality, and eroticism than other of the author’s fantasy romance books. The next one looks to be a take on the Cinderella story focusing on Ella, one of Alana’s close friends and an internet hacker stepdaughter shunned from another of the dominant families. I usually enjoy Ms. Zanetti’s writing and am a fan of her other works; however, this one was too dark and too much sexual exploration in the land of kink for me. The setup for the world building is somewhat hard to follow as well.

Loved the main character and the idea but I had a hard time following the themes of social media / platforms / tech. Otherwise I really liked it, just definitely might have needed a bit more "follow-able" plot for me :)

One Ccursed Rose by Rebecca Zanetti is a dark and twisted reimagining of Beauty and the Beast. I am all for fairy tale retellings, but not so much for dark mafia romance so this was going to be an interesting challenge of a read and to be fair, I was intrigued. Is dark mafia my jam? No, does it work in this context? Kinda. Is it better to spearate it if you are not into Dark Mafia and enjoy it as a really well-written retelling? By eckers yes!

This retalling is absolutely brilliant. The character dynamics are strong, the dialogue equally so. The plot flows naturally and oh my, well, oof, keep a glass of water to the side to cool off!

The Urban/ Paranormal Fantasy vibe is definitely where I found my pace in reading One Cursed Rose and it works so very, very well.Unique, original, shimmering, angsty, morally grey and oh my crikey the slow burn is fire!

Thank you to Netgalley, Kensington Books and the amazing author Rebecca Zanetti for this fantastic ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

I’d like to say Thank you to Rebecca Zanetti and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review One Cursed Rose!

I was very intrigued by the idea of a dark retelling of Beauty And The Beast. (“Tale as old as time” right ?! ) This one was very unique. I really enjoyed the fantasy element added to the story and the murder and mystery added to it made it thrilling.

I do wish that the magic of the crystals had been a little bit more elaborate. I would have liked to see that mapped out a little more. But the social media aspect was very interesting.

I think dark romance , mafia , fantasy , billionaire , and mystery is a lot of themes happening at one time. It made the plot points a little thin in some places. I wish that there was more back story of the crystals. I would’ve liked some kind of fated mate story line.

Overall I did enjoy it. It has lots of dark spicy scenes and plenty of twists and turns!

One Cursed Rose is different from the other books by Rebecca Zanetti that I have read. It is a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast with Mafia ties. I liked her unique take on the story; she blends fairy tale elements with computer science, crystals, and magic with hints of Camelot. There are four prominent social media families. Alana is the heir of the media giant Aquarius Social. Her father wants her to marry a revival media family to combine their empires to help take down the company run by Thorn Beathach. Thorne has other plans for Alana. He needs her to help save his company. Even though they are enemies, Alana can't fight her attraction to Thorne, and he can't let her go. Word of caution: this is not your typical Rebecca Zanetti book. The romance gets very dark, and Thorne has a strong possessive quality. I loved her take on this classic story and can't wait for the next book in this series. I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. A big thank you to Rebecca Zanetti, Kensington Books, and NetGalley. #OneCursedRose #NetGalley

I loved the Dark Protectors series, so when I saw that the author is writing a dark fairy tale series, I couldn't wait to read this! Thorn is truly a beast with dark urges, but he also uses his power for good. The four competing social media giants have discovered that the more followers they can attract, the more that energy powers their crystals. Thorn has never shown his face in the media, but when his obsession Alana, heiress to her family's media company is almost kidnapped, he rescues her... only to keep her captive himself.
In a world with so much competition for power, Alana's father plans to marry her off to forge an alliance, but she's kidnapped by Thorn before that can happen. Is it Stockholm syndrome or is the attraction she feels to this frustrating man real? And will the discover the cure to his curse before he's taken from her forever?
I've read several Beauty and the Beast retellings but this one was truly unique. The use of magic crystals and social media made the story more modern. Thorn was truly the dark hero you hate to love and Alana was perfect for him. There are so many great side characters in this story that I can't wait to catch up with in the next books!
Thanks to Kensington Books through Netgalley for the advance copy of this book. The opinions in this review are my own and given voluntarily.

✰⋆☾ ⋆ One Cursed Rose ⭑☽ ✧˖°. R. Zanetti ✰


🕮 Romantasy
🕮 Beauty and the Beast retelling
🕮 Enemies to lovers
🕮 Magic
🕮 Touch her and die
🕮 Dark Romance
🕮 Murder mystery
🕮 🌶🌶🌶/🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶


Really liked this retelling of Beauty and the Beast, It was beautifully written and LOVED the spice! ♡
Was a bit of a slow read though as I was confused in the beginning and had no idea what was happening. 🙈

I'm sorry to say that this is my least favorite Rebecca Zanetti story that I have read. It is a fantasy, in a world in which four families with an affinity with gems, which gives them power and long life, rule the world. It is a dark world. The families are ruthless, like mafias. In the modern world they spread their power with the use of the internet and social media. Someone has poisoned Thorn, the head of Malice Media, by setting a virus into their server and his body parts are freezing. He has become obsessed with Alana Beaumont, heir of Aquarius Social, stalking her to keep her safe and kidnapping her when an attempt is made on her life. He is a bully, but just being near her warms him. I do not care that he was abused and kidnapped himself when he was a child, there is no excuse for his sadistic behavior to her or her response to it. I do not care to read sadistic/masochistic relationship. So basically the story is about finding who poisoned Thorn and a cure, who killed Alana's brother and Thorn teaching Alana to be submissive, when that is not her nature. She is more spunk than submissive but she has come to love him.

Nevertheless, the story is engaging, fast paced and a page turner. Like most of the author's books, the villain was the last person that you would suspect. It wasn't until I got to the author's Acknowledgements, that I found out this was suppose to be a dark Beauty and the Beast. I hadn't caught that. Oops. OK, so I now see it in a different light, but still do not like their dark relationship.

I read a gifted advanced readers copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.com. This is my honest, unbiased and voluntary review.