Curses

Content Overview

Overall Content
Severity
1.2

Language

1.0/10

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

2.8/10

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

1.3/10

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

0.4/10

Potentially Intense Themes

0.3/10

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Curses

Lish McBride

Curses is the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ retelling I’ve been waiting for.”–Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A unique and twisty magical romp!”–Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author

Merit Cravan refused to fulfill her obligation to marry a prince, leading to a fairy godling’s curse. She will be forced to live as a beast forever, unless she agrees to marry a man of her mother’s choosing before her eighteenth birthday.

Tevin Dumont has always been a pawn in his family’s cons. The prettiest boy in a big family, his job is to tempt naïve rich girls to abandon their engagements, unless their parents agree to pay him off. But after his mother runs afoul of the beast, she decides to trade Tevin for her own freedom.

Now, Tevin and Merit have agreed that he can pay off his mother’s debt by using his con-artist skills to help Merit find the best match . . . but what if the best match is Tevin himself?

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) Cute, fun story! It’s a reversed Beauty and the Beast retelling where Merit will be cursed as a beast forever if she doesn’t find love or marry someone her mother approves of by her birthday.

Tevin steps up to the job to help her and he made the book for me. He’s a con man with the biggest heart. Yep, you read that right! He’s sweet and endearing and will con you right out of your money. While his history was questionable, he was the only one who saw Merit for what she was, beast or not. He made her beast problems fun, he made her laugh when she needed a smile and he fell for her hard. I’m not spoiling anything here, it was obvious from the start and I was not sad about it!

I was initially overwhelmed by characters but was able to keep them straight. There are quite a few and most don’t play a large enough role. I also feel it was too long. Goodreads says this book is 288 pages. That’s a big fat lie. It’s 450. And while I believe it’s much longer than necessary, I did enjoy it. I just wish the middle parts were wrapped up a little shorter because much seemed unnecessary. The end was all I’d hoped it would be.

Content Summary: I love the amount of content in this one. It’s mild in all the necessary areas but still held my attention throughout. There are LGBTQ+ aspects but just a young woman trying to flirt or grab the attention of another young woman.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book releases July 20, 2021.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***-

H***- 

S***-

A**- 5

B****-

D***- 4

Bas****- 1

Religious Cursing

J****-

Chr***-

G**-

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

For godling’s sake 

Chit 

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

Two women drink ale. 

Many men are drunk. 

Four teens drink wine. 

A young man sips champagne. 

A young man drinks champagne from the bottle. A young woman drinks from it. 

Two women smoke cigars. 

Champagne is served at a party. Teens partake. 

Champagne is served at a party. Teens partake.

A woman puts poison in a young woman’s drink. 

A young man poisons a young man. 

A pollen from a plant causes a young woman to hallucinate. She sees spiders (large and small and excessive).

A young woman pours two teens wine. Two men drink wine. A sedative is put in two guards food, making them pass out. 

Many drink (teens too) at a celebration. 

A young man drinks from a bottle. 

A man is drunk from brandy

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*Very minor LGBTQ+ aspects included* 

A young woman likes young women.

A woman is rumored to be having another man’s baby. 

A man gently kisses a young woman. She thinks back on previous kisses. 

A man kisses a young woman. 

A young man kisses a young woman passionately, pushing her against the wall. 

A young woman is briefly naked in front of many others. 

A young woman kisses a young man. 

A young woman and young man kiss. 

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A man is cursed and falls to the floor, flailing with cuts that seep blood. 

Two people fall out of a window to their deaths.

Potentially Intense Themes

A large animal pops out of a pond. A young man thinks it tried to eat him. A large cat chases a group. Many “Fladgers” attack which are flying animals. 

**Any quotes from the book are taken from the advance copy and therefore may not be fully accurate or correctly compare to the final copy of the book.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

3 Comments

  1. Sounds cute but I just can’t with all these retellings, I wish they would tweak them enough to not have to market them like that

  2. I agree with Athena….. too many retellings! Come up with more original plots! I like “inspired by” better than “retelling”!

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