Of Curses and Kisses is a loose Beauty and the Beast (Disney edition) retelling set at St. Rosetta's, a boarding school in the remote mountains of Aspen, Colorado. Our main characters are an Indian princess and an English Lord whose families hate each other. The princess, Jaya, comes to enact revenge on our English Lord, Grey. Things don't go as expected.

I normally love Menon's books, but this one really didn't do it for me. It was too predictable, and it lacked Menon's telltale humor and charm. The fairy-tale retelling elements, while occasionally employed in a fun way (Jaya's necklace, for example), went largely underutilized. Jaya is really buttoned-up and stiff for understandable reasons, but it did make it hard for me to root for her. I just never could relate or care for any of the characters in the story. Oh, and there was a very obvious solution to their problems that never occurred to them, which is something that I find to be really frustrating to read.

That said, teens who like romance and/or will adore this book. It was not for me. 2 stars.

Sandya Mehnon's latest YA contemporary romance is...nice. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast reading it. It was a fantastic piece of escapist romance, and trust me, I am cool with that.
But. I didn't feel for Jaya and Grey as strongly as I've felt for Mehnon's protagonist in the past. They're, again, nice but I didn't feel it.
I'm looking forward to Future outings at St. Rosetta's, as I foresee the author going with some future pairings. Again. Nice, jus rdifnt do it for me.

I have liked Sandhya Menon's other works a lot! This one I didn't connect with as much. Jaya, even though family is important to her and she stands up for them at all costs, I didn't totally like her character.
I liked the conflict between her and Grey and how strong willed she was, but in some things she was somewhat insufferable and annoying.
I think this will be a hit with teens who like fairy tale retellings, and I will be purchasing it for our library, but it just wasn't my favorite.

I really struggled with this book in the beginning. Jaya was absolutely insufferable and even though I knew she would grow throughout the course of the book, there were times I wanted to throw across a room.

I was a little disappointed in this book because I felt very little connection between the characters and felt that the (few) interactions they had were forced. I think I would have enjoyed this book when I was much younger, but it just wasn't for me!

I was very excited to be able to review this book. Unfortunately, like several others here, the secure PDF format is incredibly difficult for me to read on my phone and cannot be transferred to my Kindle, and I can't read on my computer for long periods of time. If a Kindle format becomes available, or if I can acquire a physical copy, I will be happy to review it at that time; otherwise, I'll review after the publication date. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Over the years, retellings have come to be one of my favorite types of novels. Of them all, <em>Beauty and the Beast </em>is one that I've always been rather eager to pick up. With its added diversity, there was no question that I'd be incredibly excited to pick up Sandhya Menon's <em>Of Curses and Kisses</em>. A modernized <em>Beauty and the Beast</em> with a little twist in the form of feuding families, this story had all the makings of a fun tale to fall in love with. For me, unfortunately, this novel didn't live up to its potential.

It is incredibly difficult to appreciate a story when you don't like the main character. For me, this was <em>Of Curses and Kisses</em>' biggest flaw. Jaya, unlike her sister Isha, simply was not a character that I could like. She was rude, controlling, and constantly presented an "I'm better than everyone" attitude on many occasions. I also never really believed that she cared about anyone other than her family. This would have been fine had it not been for the fact that she was supposed to have a strong relationship with many of the other characters in the story.

Worst of all, Jaya's motivations were <em>awful.</em> They are laid out in the synopsis, so I suppose I should have expected it. The entire plot is centered around Jaya enacting revenge for her family's embarrassment by breaking the heart of a boy she doesn't know. All that matters to her is that he is a member of the family who wronged her's in the past and that a reporter gave her minimal information that made her suspect he was the one who hurt her sister. Her motivation to be rude, hurtful, and controlling to her sister came entirely from the concept that her family needed to be, or at least appear to be, literally better than everyone around them.

Though I suspected early on that Jaya would learn throughout the course of the novel and become far <em>less </em>awful--obviously, our heroine can't continue hating the love interest and go through with breaking his heart--but she was so pretentious in the beginning that it was incredibly difficult to appreciate any growth she made. Add in the fact that half her growth was so <em>rushed </em>and I was left feeling as though every piece of her development was incredibly contrived.

Also, her concept of flirting was somehow synonymous with Jaya making herself seem like a meek woman who needs help from Grey. I don't really think I need to dive deep into why this was such a massive problem.

I did like Grey, though, for the most part. And I loved Isha and Leo whose characters, while not present very often, were actually fantastic. The aspect of the curse within the novel was pretty brilliant and I <em>loved</em> how it tied into a conversation about the awful way India was treated by the British during colonization years.

Overall, though, the story was somewhat dull. Thinking back, not much really happened at all aside from a side plot involving a rather problematic love triangle. There was truly very little magic in the whole novel which I found disappointing, the only magical aspect being Jaya's rose pendant. This rose fell apart slowly and turned rather frustrating as Jaya's solution to the rubies falling from her necklace was not to try and collect and save all the rubies in order to have it repaired, but rather to have a jeweler put in brand new ones. Rich people problems, much?

And so I'm left wondering how anyone reading this book is meant to relate to it.

Then there's the conflict revolving around Jaya's family and expectations. While I appreciated some of it and I was grateful for Jaya's eventual development, it was predictable and contrived. The antagonist of it all was obvious and I managed to pick them out from the very first chapters. Everything was resolved so easily and quickly and there really was some deus ex machina involved in wrapping it all up.

And while the romance was, indeed, a slow burn it somehow still felt very insta-lovey. I think this comes largely from the fact that I didn't really feel there was a connection between Jaya and Grey at all. Though they spend time getting to know one another, much of the story is focused around how they avoid each other for one reason or another. There's barely ever the start of a relationship before outside factors get in the way and then somehow at the end they're declaring love for one another? It just felt so forced.

I won't say that this is a bad novel. It's probably something I would have <em>loved </em>when I was ten-years-old, back when I wasn't as well versed in recognizing flaws in the novels I read and really only cared about the romance piece of it. There were moments, albeit brief, where I really liked this story. But I think its merit comes more from the diversity and less from the plot and character development.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

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Unable to read due to it not being the correct format to add to my kindle, will read if sent in correct format

Unfortunately, I was unable to download this title. The format did not work on any of my devices. (Android and Apple)

Well, another winner from Sandhya Menon, to be sure! I had forgotten that it was a loose retelling of Beauty and Beast, which just happens to be my favorite of the Disney adaptations (animated and live). And it is ALL about the books, which also play a role in this rendition.
I especially love, when I read a title of Menon's, that I learn SO many things about cultures with which I am less familiar. This time, I learned more about the royal part of Indian life, as well as the ultra-wealthy kids that go to ultra-chic boarding schools. I come away from the experience of a Sandhya Menon book feeling as if I have actually visited a new place!
Finally, I just love the names of people in her books. It's a goofy thing upon which to comment, but it couldn't be more true! In this one, Isha and Jaya, Grey and Daphne Elizabeth (DE), Rahul and Leo, Alaric and Caterina and so many others! It's just a lot of fun to picture them as individuals with these cool names. ☺♥

A really good book! I enjoyed the characters and this new take on Beauty and the Beast. Highly enjoyable and definitely recommend

Really excited to read this new Menon book but I am unable to access this format. I will be looking for it when it is published! Thank you.

Sandhya Menon is back with a book I knew I was going to love the second it was announced. It has everything I love in a book: royalty, boarding schools, and romance. Plus, it's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I was lucky enough to be on Sandhya's street team and get an early read, and I absolutely devoured it. It's got sweet, slow-burning romance, a dash of royalty, a boarding school backdrop, and a nice HEA ending.

Princess Jaya is the heiress to a small, non-monarchical monarchy in India and has a lot of expectations about her life. Now, she's off to St. Rosetta's boarding school in Aspen, Colorado, a place where it's said parents ship the kids they need to get rid of. It's only...kinda like that for Jaya and her sister, Isha. Isha was embroiled in a bit of a scandal with some motorcycle mechanics and a crazy t-shirt back at home, and now she and Jaya are at St. R's. But...there's someone else there too: Grey Emerson, a moderate English aristocrat and the youngest heir of a family who was cursed by Jaya's family in the 18th century.  Jaya has reason to believe that Grey is the one who leaked the story about Isha to the press, so she's out for blood. She's going to start by making Grey fall in love with her and then breaking his heart into smithereens. But things don't go quite as planned. There's an enchanted ruby necklace, side characters with their own love plots,  a ski trip, and lots of swooning. Soon though, Jaya will have to choose between her heart and her home, and it won't be easy.

I am seriously a sucker for boarding school books and I loved the set up for this one and the characters populating it, but I do wish we had seen Jaya doing more school stuff-classes, homework, etc.  I loved the simmering romance aspect and how it felt so clean but so dirty at the same time, haha. This is definitely a book about 18 year olds that could be enjoyed by younger people, but it does have some F bombs. I'm really looking forward to seeing what stories the next two books in the trilogy are--I know one is about Isha, but I hope there's one about Rahul as well.

Okay, I'm done blabbering, but Sandhya Menon is great, this book is really good, and I can't wait for more books by her! Next up: 10 Things I Hate About Pinky. Obviously, I'm super excited since 10 Things I Hate About You is literally my favorite film of all time.

Of Curses and Kisses is on sale everywhere February 18, 2020.

I was so excited for this novel! However, I couldn’t get through it reading it in PDF format. I’ll have to wait to finish it when the book comes out!

I sooooo wan't to read this book but I can't read an entire book in pdf format. I look forward to the books release. If another format becomes available, I'll read and review it then.