A Curse So Dark and Lonely

By: Brigid Kemmerer

Narrated by: Kate Handford, Davis Brooks, Matt Reeves

Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bloomsbury presents A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer, read by Kate Handford, Davis Brooks and Matt Reeves.

A New York Times best seller!

In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives listeners another romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his 18th year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall...and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

©2020 Brigid Kemmerer (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic Reviews

"Has everything you'd want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale." (Jodi Picoult, New York Times best-selling author of A Spark of Light and Small Great Things)

"I couldn't get this creative, suspenseful take on 'Beauty and the Beast' out of my head." (Sara Holland, New York Times best-selling author of Everless)

"Absolutely spellbinding." (Stephanie Garber, number one New York Times best-selling author of Caraval and Legendary)

Not Beauty and the Beast...BETTER!

This book was fantastic. It starts quick and exciting however there are moments in the middle where I want more detailed emotion and interaction from Ren and Grey and Harper. That’s just me. This book is fabulous! The readers could have had a bit more emotion hence the 4 and not 5. Regardless love love love and on to A Heart So Fierce And Broken. Thank you Brigid

1 person found this helpful

I felt nothing

I had a hard time feeling for the characters in any way. All of the characters would just randomly changed how they behaved without any warning or real understanding. The take on a classic tale was interesting, but that is all this book has to offer.

fun read

I liked this book a lot. fun read with a. nice twist at the end. hope there is a.sequel

AMAZING!

I loved this story so much! It left me on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend this book!

Loved this!!

One of my favourite YA books I've read in a long while. Got me hooked from the first page and I honestly couldn't stop as I had to know if the main characters would be okay... the end had me wanting more!

Wowowowow

This was a totally unexpected delight! I can’t believe I waited this long to read this- but I’m also glad that I did so that I don’t have to wait too long for the next one! Highly recommend!

Fast paced

At first, I thought this was going to be a Beauty and the Beast rip off. But it quickly became clear that the story had many of its own elements and I quit comparing it. It was fast paced and held my attention. I loved that the main characters had a relatively healthy relationship with each other - I don’t feel like I see that as much in young adult novels. Will be recommending this for sure!

Unimportant spoiler- at one point the reader misread a characters name by reversing the first two letters so Keris Lorin (spelling??) became Karen Loris and I found this quite comical. It had no bearing on the story :-)

best retelling of beauty and the beast

love it best retelling of beauty and the beast way better of court of throne and roses ,my heart goes for grey

Wonderful!

I really enjoyed the story! This had romance but an amazing adventure to keep me enthralled. The narrators were great. However, I would have liked for all the male parts to have been done by the male voice actors and vise versa. It was hard to get use to hearing each character being done by different voice actors.

Loved it!

This is not my normal genre AT ALL, but I loved the characters & the story. This was a quick, mesmerizing listen. When it gives me all the feels, it gets all the stars!

Above was pretty much my original review from when I read it the first time. This go around I listened to the audiobook version. I still loved it, still gave me the feels I wanted from it. Still gets all 5 stars. Looking forward to listening to book 2!

An easy listen

The performances on this are great and make it an easy listen. The story is Enjoyable, but not brilliant.