The Cup and the Prince

Kingdom of Curses and Shadows, Book 1

By: Day Leitao

Narrated by: Marlies Dubois

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Throne of Glass meets Minecraft in this exciting romantic YA fantasy.

One prince wants her out.
Another wants her as a pawn.
Someone wants her dead.

Zora wants to win the cup and tell them all to screw themselves.

Yes, 17-year-old Zora cheated her way into the Royal Games, but it was for a very good reason. Her ex-boyfriend thought she couldn't attain glory on her own. Just because she was a girl. And he was the real cheater. So she took his place.

Now she's competing for the legendary Blood Cup, representing the Dark Valley. It's her chance to prove her worth and bring glory for her people. If she wins, of course.

But winning is far from easy. The younger prince thinks she's a fragile damsel who doesn't belong in the competition. Determined to eliminate her at all costs, he's stacking the challenges against her. Zora hates him, hates him, hates him, and will do anything to prove him wrong.

The older prince is helping her, but the cost is getting Zora entangled in dangerous flirting games. Flirting, the last thing she wanted.

And then there's someone trying to kill her.

The Cup and the Prince is a YA fantasy with romance, action, and intrigue, for listeners 15 and older. It's Book 1 in the series Kingdom of Curses and Shadows.

©2020 Day Leitao (P)2021 Day Leitao

Amazing!

I couldn’t stop this story once I hit play. It was so much fun to listen to and kept me on my toes at times. Zora took the place of the champion of her village and she was such an amazing character. I loved her so much and her willingness to do what she thought was best. Her interactions with others were a lot of fun. The plot had me wanting more and more. I definitely need the second book to find out what’ll happen next.

I highly recommend it to have a good time

I read this story and later heard the audiobook. It just made the story even better.

I honestly find it incredibly cool to pull out a complete story inspired by the idea that monsters can appear in dark places.

I was a little scared when I started reading this book because I saw a pretty bad review. I'm very glad I didn't listen to it because my only critic to this book is the fact that it ends on a cliffhanger, and I only complain because I suffer a lot when the next part has not yet come out.

But really, it blew my mind.

For starters, I loved Zora. She is very brave, super intelligent and life in the Valley has given her many resources. However, she is not indestructible and knows it. She suffers more than one collapse in the book and I love that, because it makes her feel so much more real.

It reminds me a lot of The Hunger Games, apart from the competition itself. This is done to entertain the subjects of the kingdom. It also made me think of Mulan. Although she does not disguise herself as a man, she must prove her worth in front of them, in addition to wanting to win to honor her people.

The Dark Valley is very well-built. When I was reading I kept thinking of "mistakes" for things that would inevitably make a shadow like the sheets, however, it is explained that, in fact, they do not use them.

Now, it is true that there are TOO MANY "sexual" jokes in the style of a 14-year-old boy, but for me it was like listening to a friend telling bad jokes 🤣.

Finally… Are there clichés? Yes. Do I care? No 🤣. I love castles and balls in books, competitions too. Also, while you could say there are clichés, I feel like Day gave all of them an original turn. And fear not, there is no love square between princes and Zora 👌.

DARK THRILLING ADVENTURES

IT'S VERY WELL WRITTEN WITH A DARK AND FORBODING ROMANTIC ADVENTURE
THRILL AND INTRIGUE MIXED WITH BETRAYAL AND LOVE WITH LOTS OF HUMOR AND LAUGHS
THE NARRATOR IS GOOD AND EASY TO FOLLOW

Intriguing

This was a well written book, thrilling with great characters and a very intriguing plot. The narrator did a spectacular job bringing these characters to life and I would recommend this book.
I am voluntarily leaving this review for this review copy of this audiobook.

Trials

This was a interesting listen for me. The three brothers were interesting from the beginning and I liked the MC. I appreciated the fact that instead of crying about her situation, she took charge and took matters into her own hands. The writing was very light and its a fast pace read.
I think the narrator did okay. I had to listen very carefully or else I would miss who was supposed to be speaking. I would have liked to see a bit of inflection or tone difference when that happened, but overall it was a enjoyable listen.
I would recommend this book to teens who enjoy fantasy reads with magic and trials throughout the book.

Great first book in the Series!

This is the first book in the Kingdom of Curses and Shadows Series, a Fantasy Romance. The characters are well developed. Zora is smart and strong. The world building is intriguing, filled with action, intrigue, and mystery. Marlies Dubois did a good job with the narration. It was a fun listen. I would like to listen to The Curse and the Prince, the next installment in the Series. I was given a free review copy of the audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Sped through this in three days

I enjoyed Zora for a being a girl protagonist who starts out wanting revenge for a pretty good reason while still being kind of petty about it - yet, she never becomes an unlikeable character. I also quite enjoyed the worldbuilding of the shadow valley and how it affected Zora's upbringing.

Still a lot of questions about the royalty left unanswered at the book's end, which I'm looking forward to getting more answers about in a later volume. I do think the book suffers in spots when people doubt Zora's ability in part because she's a woman, just because that's been done so often it's difficult to spin anything new from it. I guess also the book kind of tries to intrigue me about the other main woman character, Allegra, with its ending... but to be honest she's been so awful I really don't care to learn more about her. A lot of what she's done seems inexcusable, though I guess that also makes her an interesting foil to Zora.

The audiobook narrator also does a good job of infusing the text with added dimension and life. Definitely worth a listen, not just a read! I received this free for an honest review.

Good story

I really liked this story as Zora fights to prove herself in a man’s world in hopes to bring help to her people of the Dark Valley. I am interested to see how the story plays out in book 2, that twist at the ending was not expected!

Loved it

Enchanting story of a young woman (17 yrs old ) that has an opportunity to improve her valley's inhabitants. She makes some mistakes but tries to correct them as she learns.

I look forward to continuing the books

It took a few chapters to really get into the story (more so because of the narrator), but once I did I had started to see the characters growth and really got into the story. I definitely liked the surprise twists, and the cliffhanger at the end! I look forward to the next book, and all in all I liked the book and will listen to this one again.