This is not a bad book, it just wasn't the book for me.
How to Break an Evil Curse is a fantasy with fairytale-like writing. It is a story of princess and king, with some other speculative characters.
I found the beginning to be extremely confusing. The book feels way longer than it needed to be, but that is a personal opinion, since I'm not a fan of extremely flowery writing style. I can still tell that the author put a lot of work and soul into it, but I just felt very detached from it and it was quite a struggle to read enough to turn a page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Laura Morrison for the chance to review a complementary advanced reader's copy of the book, in advance of it's October 2020 publication. This will be on my list to purchase.

The book largely focuses on two characters. Princess Julianna is the daughter of a king, who was cursed by evil Wizard Farland Phelps, former friend to the king. Warren Kensington is a member of a seafaring traveling theater troupe and the anticipated magical cure to the curse. Other family members and characters are introduced and developed as the book proceeds. The book reads like the authors of Princess Bride and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy got together over drinks with the writers from The Office and wrote the book on the backs of bar napkins. There are lots of fourth wall breaks, witty footnotes, and narrarator comments throughout that are very entertaining. Despite all of the comedic interruptions to the narrative, the book action maintains a pace that keeps the reader engaged and entertained.

In Goodreads, How to Break an Evil Curse is described as the first book in a fantasy series about a princess who may be cursed to live in darkness, but refuses to let her curse define her life. While the book addresses a variety of possible trigger topics, such as violence including drug use (including poisoning), domestic violence, social injustice, gender and sexuality issues, and kidnapping, amazingly the author presents these topics in a way where the matter is not graphically described or glorified. Again, I'm going to draw a parallel to Princess Bride, in that there are abductions and attacks, but none of that was graphic or sensationalized in the movie, and was not in the scenes in this book. I think this book could be a great way to introduce some social justice topics to children and adolescents, without it being preachy or boring. The princess does not await saving by someone else but takes initiative to save herself. The author identifies several positive virtues within the book, which can serve as role models for children and adolescents.

I recently reviewed a dark Young Adult/Fantasy book that was at the opposite end of the spectrum from this book. While both books are good in their own rights, How to Break an Evil Curse will over time compete with Princess Bride as a household staple of a book to read with children and adolescents. I think How to Break an Evil Curse provides more socially relevant and positive content and is more useful as a teaching instrument, while providing more entertainment than the Princess Bride. If I could only keep one of the two as a classic to read to my grand children, I'd keep How to Break an Evil Curse, because it has good content applicable to all gender identifications, while is entertaining to children, adolescents, and adults alike.

How To Break An Evil Curse has such a strong premise that it's hard to really critique it because I wanted to love it solely based in it's concept. The writing took some getting used to but I did start to enjoy it about halfway through.

Unfortunately, I really struggled with the characters feeling a little flat and not fully realized.

Unable to finish this book, after getting through about 50% of it. The story was predictable and the Princess fell flat with me. The wording wasn’t engaging and the pace was just too slow to be enjoyable.

DNF at chapter 10. the story is nice, but the way it's told and the way the narrator keeps commenting the events it's a no for me.

Princess Juilianna was born under an evil curse. The curse was if she was ever touched by sunlight she would die. This curse was caused by a wizard the king had fired. The wizard Farland Phelps was angry about losing his position at the castle. As Juilianna grew up in her room which was originally a dungeon, she was able to talk to the three ghosts that had not left the dungeon for reasons known only to Juilianna. At the age of 19 years old, Juilianna was tired of never being allowed to explore the community she lived in. Why she could not go out at night was something she didn’t understand. So she dug a tunnel out of the dungeon and hid it from everyone. Only the ghosts knew about it. As Juilianna went on her first adventure, she had a few surprises she didn’t expect. What were they? As Juilianna goes out again, she finds herself unable to return. She meets new friends that have her going on an adventure that lasts for several days. Why did it last so long? Will Princess Juilianna be able to break the curse? Will her friends help her?

A fantasy novel that has several characters with twist and turn adventures. There is a mystery, some romance, magic and true, loyal friends. There are many unique characters as well as skills. It was fun for me to red as I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The ending has me wanting the next book to read. I hope there will be a next book as I don’t want the story to stop!

This was an all-around good, solid, fantasy read. It was quick to fly through and had entertaining characters and a plot that kept me on my toes. I don't think that I will be continuing with the sequel (if there is one), but I overall had a fun time reading!

Entertaining satire of high-fantasy and fairy tale novels. Our protagonist, Julianna, is an unloveable, soulless (literally) and exiled princess with a sarcastic demeanor—the opposite of what a "good" princess should be. She has as retinue consisting of a ghosts and guardians and they go on a quest to find a prince that can break her curse (but she doesn't want it broken). All standard parts of the fairy tale canon. Throw in an evil wizard with dashing good looks, sprinkle in some women's rights movements, pirates, and you have the Chronicles of Fritillary.

The omniscient narrator has a quick, dry humor reminiscent of Good Omens but alas not as funny. His humor and the characters were often very similar so it was hard to discern who was speaking.

I would recommend this for fans of Shrek and Disenchantment who are looking for a nonstandard adventure.

A super fun and clever book! I really enjoyed How to Break an Evil Curse! I particularly liked how carefully the book was plotted that every storyline wove together really well - the book felt very cohesive even as it drifted between perspectives. I also thought the narrator was very amusing and the book had a humorous tone throughout. The plot was fun and full of an interesting and self-aware fantasy world that never felt too committed to the usual reliance on strictly more medieval attributes. Though the main characters are in their late teens / early 20s, I still think the tone of the book makes it accessible to some Middle Grade readers as well as YA readers. Overall, I thought it was a fun read and I enjoyed my time reading the book!

This was a very very good book. I loved the theme and I loved the plot. It was definitely different from a lot of books I read but it the best way.

Clever and unique. Morrison has created a story perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett and the Princess Bride.

A solid read for tweens and teens who like fantasy. A quick and fast paced book.
Thank you for the E-arc copy of this novel.

Funny fairy tale parody.

This is a fun, quick read. It follows the typical fairy tale story; princess is cursed at birth, needs a prince to break the curse, and has to fight the evil wizard. There are some crazy twists though, there's modern language sprinkled in, an omniscient narrator with a sense of humor, and a talking pool of blood. I liked that the book skipped around to different characters to show the whole story.

At times it got a bit over the top ridiculous and pulled me out of the story. The footnotes weren't really necessary either, but a couple made me chuckle. One part of the ending made me infuriated at a certain character and I am looking forward to book two.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. The first thing that drew me to this story was the cover. I love a good fantasy and evil curses, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to hold my interest. I found myself getting a little confused with the story and I wasn’t able to relate with any of the characters. I ended up not finishing the remaining 30 percent of the book.

Thank you net gallery for this book in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely LOVED the narrator. I love that funny snark type of humour and really found myself giggling while reading. I thought the characters were great and very likeable. While this story did touch on some serious topics it really was lighthearted and fun to read. Perfect pick me up book.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How to Break an Evil Curse had it's cute and funny moments. In it, you will meet Princess Julianna and she has been cursed. Just your average first born is going to die thing.. so nothing too fancy. She lives in the dungeon.. because what child doesn't dream of that being their ideal room? Well, I mean.. it does help that the sun could kill her.. or maybe it was just the outside world? Either way, the dungeon life was for her but hey - she had her ghost friends to keep her company?

To say that everyone was completely normal in this book would be a lie. I feel like people were on drugs most of the time because things just weren't making sense to me. It was entertaining to say the least but sometimes contradicting? For example, her dad didn't like she was hanging with a commoner but somehow forgot his wife was a commoner? Yeah, didn't make sense to me either.

Other than that, it was an interesting story and I'm a big intrigued by what the next book will give me. Mostly because of how this one ended. I just hope that it doesn't fall to the second book syndrome.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. "How to Break an Evil Curse" should have been everything I wanted in a book. A fairytale-retelling about a princess cursed to live in darkness. But the book fell a little flat for me. I want to emphasize the 'for me' part. My complaints were the sarcastic, funny tones throughout the novel which I'm sure tons of readers will embrace. It just wasn't something I was expecting by reading the synopsis. There was room for more character development and I never truly felt connected to Julianna and that is important when the character is your main narrator. Still it was written well and I know this will find its audience.

If you enjoy satire and fantasy this might just be a book you enjoy. As I started reading the book I couldn’t figure out if I enjoyed it or was annoyed. My 13 yr old decided to read this and I heard her rolling in laughter throughout a lot of the book. She picked up so many things that I had missed and it made it funnier for me when she was telling me about parts that went over my head. Snarkiness abounds and even though there were parts that I didn’t care for and my daughter says its a 4 star book and since this is marketed as a middle grade book we are going with her opinion more than my own.

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A fun read. This book covers all the areas; pirates, royalty, wicked wizards, and more. The book's only issue is the main character's name changes throughout the book without reason or explanation. I still don't know what name the princess ought to be called.

I have seen this book at Netgalley and I really love the cover work and thought, that story sounded quit cool. And I asked if I Could read it.
And what can I Say, I wasn't mistaken. This is such a fun story. I always been a big fan of the princess bride from William Golden. And this book has the same charm , esprit and humor.

You are flying through this story, because you have so much fun reading it.

Thanks for letting me read this story.