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

The Cup and the Prince

I really enjoyed this book. Zora takes the place as the champion to represent her village; The Dark Valley. She however was not acutely chosen to be the champion originally. During the competition strange things keep happening to her. This dropped a huge game changer at the end, leaving me hanging off the cliff! I am very interested to see what happens in book 2.

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!

Problematic story lines

I hate giving bad reviews but I did not like this book. The narrator was hard to listen to as she runs all the sentences together. She is just not a good reader. Her performance is okay-she does attempt to give each character a distinct voice but all the male characters end up sounding like poorly educated frat boys.

The rest of my review contains MAJOR SPOILERS so don’t read more unless you want spoilers:


Let me preface my review by saying I read a lot of romance fiction-I do not have problems with sex in books. However, in my opinion, the sexual situations discussed in this book definitely cross a boundary as they violate consent.

The story starts with a boy cajoling a girl, the main character (MC) to have sex with him because he’s going away and she promised. The MC has changed her mind and does not want to have sex but says in her internal monologue that she understands she promised. Just ew. It was very cringe-y. This situation is interrupted not by her standing up for herself but by a well-timed attack on their village. Afterwards the MC overhears her boyfriend telling another boy that he has another girlfriend that is prettier than the MC but sex with her is boring so sex with the MC will be a fun going away present. In revenge, the MC decides to drug him and take his place as the Dark Valley champion. We as the observer just have to take her word for it that she’s a good fighter. The author made some attempt at a rallying cry that girls can do anything boys can do but it falls flat.
The MC goes on the meet a prince-who is usually shirtless. It seems to be his defining characteristic. This poor prince is being regularly raped by his brother’s fiancé, who is enchanting him for sex when he says no. Forced consent is still rape. I found the causal way this was dealt with in the story to be uncomfortable, especially since this book is marked for younger audiences. I would not want my kids reading/listening to this without talking to them about consent and how poorly this book portrays the complex issues around consent.
Honestly, I did not want to finish this book. However, I received a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion and I wanted to be able to speak to the whole book.
I found this story very simplistic-it’s a story that just skims the surface but lacks real depth. There is no real character development or growth. It’s a fast paced story and the plot suffers for it, in my opinion. This is book one of the series and perhaps in the next books more of the story will be explained/fleshed out but I have no desire to read the rest.
Maybe a younger audience would find this more enjoyable but I would caution parents to read/listen first to make sure it’s appropriate.

Quick but Enjoyable Read/Listen!

It was a relatively short listen at just over six hours, and I thought the narrator did a fabulous job adding inflection and tone to each POV.

I really enjoyed this book! There were some interesting twists and turns in the overall story and was enhanced by the character development. The political intrigue was predominant, which I enjoyed; however, I think the competition aspect was a little lackluster towards the end as the intrigue took over the narrative. The early challenges showed great character interaction while the latter ones were barely on the page. It was a little disappointing since I really like the competition trope.

The magic of the world was not explored very much. It’s clear that the author plans to reveal things as the story progresses. After the conclusion, I am very curious to see what the author has in store!

Great

A wonderfully written and paced first book to this trilogy. I enjoyed the journey the characters went on and their different stories and reasons for being the way they are. I’m so excited to find out what happens next!

Clean YA

A novel with a sassy heroine and a competition full of alphaholes! Reminds me of Throne of Glass by SJM!

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.

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.

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.

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.

what started

what started as revenge turns out to prove that females can be more and just as good as any males can be.