When I first heard about this book I was so excited to get it into my hands. Retellings of Beauty and the Beast are some of my favourites, and the boarding school setting of this one sounded like a unique addition. Unfortunately I didn't like it at all. The dialogue was clunky, the word choices were absurd at times and I didn't really care for the heroine at all. She was judgemental and unlikeable for most of the story and the relationship between the two main characters just seemed to happen without any buildup or realism at all. I'd probably pick up one of the author's other books, but I definitely won't be reading any more in this series.

Fun and cute YA romance. Features typical teenaged drama, like gossip and love triangles. But what I really enjoyed was the story of the necklace and the curse.

A must read for anyone who is into diverse books! The characters were all very fun to read about, as was the plot. I haven't read very many books by Sandhya Menon, but after Of Curses and Kisses, I'm really looking forward to reading all her other books too!

I love Sandhya Menon's work, specifically any of her books set in the Dimple & Rishi universe. But Of Curses and Kisses wasn't my favourite of her works. I think it's because this book appears to be written for a younger audience than that of When Dimple Met Rishi. I felt the same way when reading From Twinkle, with Love but I couldn't handle how cheesy this book was.

Of Curses and Kisses is a YA Beauty & the Beast retelling that focuses on the enemy-to-lovers trope. I liked Jaya, who cares about her family's reputation and loves reading, but did not like Grey, who is written to be one of those broody YA male types and I'm kind of over it. There was nothing wrong with this book whatsoever, I was just a bit bored. It was cute but not mindblowing.

Thank you to Netgally, the author and the publisher for the free review copy.

Retellings seem to have picked up steam in the past year and a very popular one to "retell" is Beauty and the Beast. I adore Beauty and the Beast. It's possibly my favorite Disney movie.

The issue is a Beauty and the Beast retelling is a very "crowded market". I've read some great ones and some not so great ones. This one was okay but when I compare it to others I've read that I gave 5 stars it falls a little flat.

3.5 stars. Not great but not bad either

Since “Beauty and the Beast” is my favourite fairytale, I’ve read a number of retellings of it over the years. It got to a point where it got a little too predictable for me and I wanted to take a break. Something about Of Curses and Kisses‘ cover and synopsis really intrigued me, though! I’ve also read every one of Sandhya Menon’s books published so far, so I decided to have faith one of my fave authors and requested a copy!

And I’m so glad that I did that because Of Curses and Kisses turned out being one of the more unique “Beauty and the Beast” retellings that I’ve ever come across! I really enjoyed a lot of the tropes that were used and I also enjoyed the characters. I’m especially excited to see which characters will be featured in the second book of this series and how that will look. But back to this book, and the start of the St. Rosetta’s Academy series. I enjoyed Grey’s broodiness and I enjoyed Jaya’s fire and determination.

I also wanted to note that I audiobooked some chapters from this book while driving, running errands, and while at work and wanted to say that it was very well done! There were different narrators for Jaya and Grey’s parts which was great, and both voices really matched how I saw and felt about the characters.

This was definitely a fun read for me, and like I said, I look forward to the next St. Rosetta’s Academy book and where Menon will take the overarching story! I recommend this book to those who enjoy contemporary YA romance with a dash of magic!

There are so many "Beauty and the Beast" retellings out there. As a fan of the original story along with the various retellings, I LOVE that there are so many. However, with such a saturated market, it makes for some steep competition. There are some great retellings and there are some not so great retellings out there and for me, this novel lays somewhere in the middle.

I wish that I truly got captivated and enchanted by this story but unfortunately I didn't. For the majority of the book, the story came across as lacklustre and mediocre. For the last quarter of the novel I was very invested in the story and the outcome of these characters but not enough to make up for the rest of the novel.

I will say that Sandhya Menon did make this retelling uniquely her own. It felt unlike any other "Beauty and the Beast" retelling that I've read in the past.

***Thank you to the publisher for supplying me with an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

This new Sandhya Menon book definitely lived up to my expectations!

This story is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Jaya is a princess, who chooses to attend the same boarding school where her family’s rival goes. She thinks that he leaked some photos of her sister to the press, so she wants to make him fall in love with her so she can break his heart and get her revenge. At the same time, Grey lives with a family curse. His father ignores him because Grey’s mother died in childbirth and he is destined to be the end of their aristocratic line. When he sees Jaya’s ruby rose necklace, he suspects that it is the jewel that sparked the rivalry between their families. If it is, that means that when the last piece of the ruby falls off the necklace, his life will be over.

I loved the way this story borrowed from the tale of Beauty and the Beast, but it wasn’t an exact copy of the story. The imagery of the rose really reminded me of the original tale. It was a clever way to include the rose as a necklace that slowly drops its jewels. There was also the added drama of Jaya’s and Grey’s families being rivals, which really increased the tension of the story. Another great dramatic addition to the story was that Jaya was getting revenge on Grey to protect her sister, rather than the way she wanted to protect her father in other adaptations of the tale.

I really loved this book! It was a great retelling!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m going to preface this review by saying I honestly think a lot of how I felt about OF CURSES AND KISSES comes down purely to “it’s not you, it’s me.” A reading victim of circumstance, if you will. I picked this up directly after reading two back-to-back high fantasies, where the writing was very lush and grand, and it took my brain over a third of OF CURSES AND KISSES to fully adjust to the contemporary-leaning shift in writing style, and character dialogue.

Unfortunately, I think the largest struggle I had was that for every element that I enjoyed, there was something that prevented me from loving it completely. The story’s main romantic element relies on several well-loved and tried-and-true tropes, but for the most part they fell flat. Jaya and Grey’s “enemies to lovers” arc falls more on a misunderstanding and bad family history, and is overcome rather quickly as they become friends and then, ultimately, fall in love. The romance was the soft, cute sort of way I’d have eaten up many years ago—but reading now, found it too cheesy for my personal taste. And while the boarding school was intriguing, and yet it never seemed to properly or fully embrace that setting. It felt more like a mountain retreat for wealthy, prestigious children than it felt like a school, despite the mention of classes and tests. I wasn’t able to suspend my disbelief far enough to believe this could be a real place in the world. I also had a hard time swallowing the stereotypes and side arcs for our secondary characters, particularly where the cheating scandal was involved. And while I absolutely loved how Menon visually integrated the curse into the story with Jaya’s rose necklace, I wish the stakes around its resolution had felt higher (which feels like an odd thing to say since it appears to be life-or-death).

The pacing also felt choppy, which I think was emphasized by the changes in perspective. They happened frequently, and were often quite short, which rendered me with something akin to reading whiplash. We’d jump back and forth between Grey and Jaya so quickly, you barely had time to get into one’s head space before you were bounced back to the other.

The true strength that I found in OF CURSES AND KISSES is that of family, and the struggle between doing what your family wants or expects of you, and making your own future based on what you want. Both Jaya and Grey are faced with choosing between these two paths, and it is their individual journeys here that held my interest most. Jaya and Isha’s relationship is fabulous, and the sisterly struggle of wanting what’s best for both your sibling and yourself, and wanting to protect them, were relatable and genuine. I admired the sacrifices Jaya made for the good of her family, even though they broke my heart.

In the end, the happily ever after came together a little too abruptly, and perhaps a little too easily. However, I think that Menon has laid the groundwork for a really promising series, and I’m excited to see which fairy tales she chooses to reinvent next.

I love Sandhya Menon’s books so when I saw that she’s launching a new series (and one based on fairytale retellings!), I knew I’d love it. While Beauty and the Beast isn’t my favourite fairy tale (sacrilegious, I know), I loved Menon’s take on it.

Princess Jaya Rao is starting at a new elite boarding school full of international royalty and riches. Over the summer, her sister was the target of a centuries-old feud between the Raos and the Emersons. When Jaya finds out that she’ll be attending school with Grey Emerson, she decides to get her revenge by making him fall in love with her then break his heart. But as she gets closer to him, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him. On the reverse side, Grey believes himself to be cursed by the Raos. He’s lived in isolation and sequestered himself from his friends, though that starts to change when he meets Jaya. Of Curses and Kisses is a modern retelling of a classic tale that many will surely recognize.

In terms of the retelling, I think Menon did an amazing job updating the fairy tale but also including crucial parts of it in a fun modern way. The bit about Grey believing in the curse perhaps requires a slight suspension of disbelief but I really think that readers will find Grey’s reasoning believable, even if they don’t quite agree with it.

I really liked Jaya and Grey, they both felt like real characters and I felt that they definitely had depth. They were quite cute together and I really enjoyed reading about their journey together. The one thing that I struggle with this book is the ending. As a romance reader, I know to expect a HEA (happily-ever-after) but even so, I felt that the ending wrapped up a little too neatly. I think for a series starter, the ending makes sense and I’m sure readers will enjoy seeing more of Grey and Jaya in the next books.

Overall, I really enjoyed Of Curses and Kisses. I can’t wait to read the next books in the series & see who all of the couples are!

I liked the idea of this book. It was a cute story.. But personally I wasn't 100 % about the romance itself.

I loved this! It didn't feel that much like a retelling, except for the necklace and curse part, which I liked, because I do enjoy new spins on stories! The whole cast was great, I especially liked DE. I'm super excited to see the rest of the series!

This book was a little bit of hit and miss for me but I ended up really loving it regardless of the writing style so I'm rating it a little higher. This is a beauty and the beast retelling which was really well done. There were integral parts of the original story that were included in this retelling such as the rose and Grey's character. I found that Menon wrote his character very cleverly because he was never actually a beast but he was always described using wild animal characteristics and he referred to himself as a beast because he believed that he killed his mother. Jaya annoyed me so much in the beginning because of how she acted towards her sister and not letting her be herself because it wasn't the proper. But as the book progressed, she ended up going through some much needed character development. One thing I didn't like was that the conversations between characters seemed a bit mechanical, like it didn't feel like people talk like that in real life. It seemed a bit forced or just very explainative conversations. They didn't seem to have much emotion when they talked. If you can get past the dialogue though, the story was very good and I enjoyed the plot twist at the end. I didn't really like the end end because it didn't seem very realistic with what Grey and Jaya were telling their parents and their parents' reactions but I guess since it is supposed to be a fairy-tale happy ending then it made sense.

This story was cute but I found the romance wasn’t all that great. Maybe it is just me but I found I had a bit of a hard time getting into this story.

I know some will enjoy it but for me it was just a ok book. I don’t think I will read the next book in the series .

I highly enjoyed this book and I will 100% be adding a physciall copy of my personal library.
It was a cute Rom-Com like read and I couldn't of asked for anything more then that. Grey was everything and Jaya was just amazing.

Would reccomend reading!

This book was such a fun read and I'm very excited for the rest of the series. There are many Beauty and the Beast retellings, but this one really stands out. It takes place in a unique setting at a boarding school and I loved that the Beauty was in no way trapped or held hostage by the Beast. The romance was woven delicately throughout the book, making it a very sweet read.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher, Simon Pulse, and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Of Curses and Kisses is a Beauty and the Beast retelling that follow Princess Jaya Rao and Lord Grey Emerson as they attend St. Rosetta’s Academy together. Jaya follows her sister, Isha, to St. Rosetta’s Academy after the media attacks Isha for behaviour that is unbecoming for a princess. Jaya could have finished her senior year elsewhere, but a source told her that the story was leaked to the media by an Emerson, and Jaya wants revenge. Princess Jaya and Grey Emerson have never met before, but their families have been enemies for generations, and legend has it that the Raos placed a curse on the Emersons that is still plaguing them to this day.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favourite fairy tales, and I loved that this was a contemporary retelling of it, with just a hint of magic in it. I know that there have been a ton of Beauty and the Beast retellings in recent years, but a lot of them have been fantasy, and as someone who struggles with fantasy books, I really appreciated this contemporary story. This book was predictable to a certain extent because it is a retelling, but I really enjoyed what this book did with this tale as old as time.

My favourite thing about this book was the strong female characters. Jaya is smart, strong, independent, caring, and protective. Throughout the book, she’s coming up with unique solutions to problems, and she goes out of her way to help people. I loved Isha’s passion for robotics and engineering, and I loved that she was able to talk some sense into Jaya near the end of the book. I liked the relationship between Jaya and Isha, and I enjoyed the scenes where they got into it over their actions and what was expected of them as royals.

I liked the friendship between Daphne and Jaya, and I liked that the reader was able to see Daphne’s struggle with following her heart or her head when it came to her relationship struggles. I liked Catarina, even though she was a bit of a villain and pretty terrible at times. I appreciated reading about her internal struggle and trying to keep a calm front while everything was falling apart around her. I also liked that Jaya kept on extending olive branches to her, even though she didn’t really deserve it.

Grey Emerson is a character who I just want to wrap up in a blanket and hand a hot cup of tea to while telling him that everything is okay. I can’t even begin to imagine how lonely he must have been, especially with how his father treated him. I loved watching him slowly blossom as he grew closer with Jaya, and I spent the whole book rooting for him to get through all the problems his father put him through. Grey and Jaya are definitely OTP material, and I like imagining them taking on the world together after they graduate from St. Rosetta’s Academy.

The other thing that I liked about this book is how many villainous characters there were and how there were different villains in each storyline. Alaric made me want to scream because he was such a jerk, especially to Daphne and Catarina. Grey’s father was frustrating because he was such a coward and so dismissive of his son. Finally, every time Kiran Hedge was mentioned, I thought of Gaston and I’d start singing “no one fights like Gaston” to myself.

Overall, I thought this book was fantastic. The characters were brilliant, and I loved the dynamics between them. I thought the romance was super cute, and I was rooting for Jaya and Grey the whole time. I liked that this book had a magical element in it, but that it was still a contemporary story that takes place in the real world. This is supposed to be the first book in a trilogy, and I can’t wait for the second book to be announced and released.

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada and Netgalley for a copy of Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon.This YA slow burn romance was a good choice for me because it was an easy read and I did not get more than a page or two in at a time the whole week. It was not my usual read and I am not sure that it completely worked for me. It was a good retelling but the main character Jaya really annoyed me throughout the book. She was quick to point out she was a princess to everyone she met and always telling people what a princess could or couldn’t do, especially her poor sister. I expect some of it in a story like this but it eventually became repetitive.

Overall, it was a nice light read with a diverse main character and set in an elite boarding school. The little hints of Beauty and the Beast were fun and I will read more if the series continues

3.5 / 5

A sweet "Beauty and the Beast' meets 'Romeo and Juliet' reimagining taking place at a boarding school that caters to children of wealthy and prestigious individuals. There was some stuff that I really enjoyed in this (female friendships and empowerment, details about the school) but as a whole it was a novel that will not stay with me for very long. That being said, I would be interested in reading more stories about several of the side characters so will probably keep an eye out for the sequel. Light and entertaining, an overall fun contemporary / somewhat fantasy YA novel.

I received this arc through NetGalley in return for a review…. I received this in October … unfortunately, I had to get foot surgery and totally forgot about the novel until a few days ago! Due to this being published before the novel comes out, I will not be releasing any spoilers!
For those who don't know, this novel is primarily based on Beauty and the Beast and is YA contemporary! while I have read a few retelling of Beauty and the beast in the past year, this one stands out a bit more. It's not your classic caucasian woman meets broody caucasian man, it's interracial which I appreciate! This novel is also first-person perspective, which I find is important to state if you're like me and prefer first-person, it does though switch perspectives between the two main characters Jaya and Grey!
I believe that this is going to be a classic YA contemporary romance novel and with valentine's day just passing, who wouldn't want to dive into more romance?!
Here is a little blurb about Of Kisses and Curses!
Will the princess save the beast?

For Princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart. But much to Jaya’s annoyance, Grey’s brooding demeanor and lupine blue eyes have drawn her in. There’s simply no way she and her sworn enemy could find their fairy-tale ending…right?

His Lordship Grey Emerson is a misanthrope. Thanks to an ancient curse by a Rao matriarch, Grey knows he’s doomed once he turns eighteen. Sequestered away in the mountains at St. Rosetta’s International Academy, he’s lived an isolated existence—until Jaya Rao bursts into his life, but he can't shake the feeling that she’s hiding something. Something that might just have to do with the rose-shaped ruby pendant around her neck…

As the stars conspire to keep them apart, Jaya and Grey grapple with questions of love, loyalty, and whether it’s possible to write your own happy ending.
This novel is fantastic!!! It is the first in the St. Rosetta's Academy series and I am now anxiously awaiting news on the second novel!