The Cup and the Prince by Day Leitao is a YA fantasy focused on 17-year-old Zora who enters the Royal Games in her ex-boyfriend's stead due to wanting to prove that she has the strength and brains to compete (as well as his unfaithfulness, the jerk). She is met with opposition including from the younger prince who sees her as a fair damsel and sets challenge after challenge against her. While the older prince is helping her as well as offer dangerous flirtations. Either way, she is faced with danger including an assassin.

Zora is sassy and resilient, which is why I like her. I enjoy that she was focused and determined on proving herself. The side characters were boring to me and when there was something interesting, the shadow creatures, it doesn't unfold. This is a fairly short installment for the beginning of a fantasy series - stay tuned for the sequel.

The book is an entertaining and fast read, however, it is ripe with cliches and tropes that don't have original shapings. I do feel like this would like it is an addictive read for people who want a read meant for fun.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sparkly Wave for sharing the ARC with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not keep reading this one, it was not for me. Thanks!

I ended up liking this book and I hope to read more books from the author in the future. I do hope that the author ends up writing more in the future.

Huge thank you to the publisher for sending me this book for an honest review! This is was such a fresh and unique book that I enjoyed reading. There's action, magic, intrigue and romance - everything you need for a fantasy!

Writing wise, the plot and writing style felt choppy and the intrigue wasn't quite there for me. Having read the full book I understand what the author was trying to do and while it was fast paced and there was lots of action, I felt there was a lot was left out that could have helped develop the plot and characters along. This is true of the world building as well, which once again felt a bit underwhelming. I'm intrigued to see whether this is developed on in the next book.

Character-wise, I really liked the main character Zora and enjoyed her point of view. The idea of a badass woman trying to fight the limits put on her gender is always a must read. Whilst she felt naive and maybe slightly unreliable in places, I loved her bravery and desire to prove her worth. Other characters such as Griffin and Larzen were mysterious and intriguing enough that they kept you reading. The romance wasn't quite there, but again I'd love to see how this goes in the next book.

In conclusion, The Cup and the Prince is an action-packed, entertaining and fast read. It has a lot of potential that could make this an epic fantasy series and I'm intrigued to see where the author takes it.

The Cup and the Prince is your typical YA Fantasy novel with romance. I found it rather entertaining, and that it was overall a pretty decent story. Nothing impressive, but nothing damning either.

3/5 stars

Thanks a bunch to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this e-arc

I unfortunately was a bit disappointed by this book as i was expecting more. The characters weren't my favourite which insinuates my menefreghismo towards them

I was torn between rating this 3 or 3.5 stars because, based purely on entertainment, I’d rate this higher than 3 stars for sure - it was fast paced with lots of action and a good plot - but there were a lot of aspects that could have been improved.

I wish the characters had been better developed. Zora is a reliable narrator but she reads younger than 17. She’s too naive and her actions often reflect that. By the end of the book we still don’t know much about Griffin as he spends most of the book being manipulated. Loretta was the most useless and pointless character in the book.

The only characters I cared for were Mauro and Larzen. I thought there was enough of them for me to be intrigued and want to see more of them in the story.

The romance was pretty meh. There wasn’t much to begin with but the pairing didn’t have much chemistry IMO and I thought Larzen would have been a more interesting option tbh.

I also wasn’t a fan of the writing style, although it was fairly easy to read and follow. Sometimes it just sounded a bit awkward and there was more telling than showing, which I’m not a fan of.

I thought the challenges of the games were pretty tame and not that dangerous, as we were told they would be. That kind of disappointed me. The lack of tension and real challenges was underwhelming.

Griffin’s reason to keep Zora out of the tournament didn’t make sense either. Not just because the games were anything but dangerous, but because I don’t think the audience and these so called “visitors” would much care if a peasant girl died. It would make more sense if Zora was noble.

The work building was lacking and underdeveloped but I hope that will change in the second book when we are back in the Dark Valley.

I do want to continue reading this series but I thought this book could have been better executed than it was. It was still entertaining and interesting enough to make me want to read the sequel so I’d recommend it for that.

This book was described as a combination of Minecraft and Throne of Glass, and to be completely honest, I’m not really sure where the Minecraft part came from. Throne of Glass I can definitely see, but Minecraft? A bit odd.

This book was pretty good overall! I liked the pacing, the plot was fairly strong, and the characters were like able. I am a sucker for a good fantasy book, and I certainly was not mad at this one. I liked Zora, and I liked her fire and spark. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, and while she did have her flaws, I feel as though she was very well written.

The book is pretty standard YA, but that’s not to say it isn’t unique! It has a wonderful world, and I think many people will enjoy this book. It’s a very solid fantasy novel!

This one was a lot of fun! Thanks so much to the publishers! The main character was so BA, I wanted to be their friend. I really enjoyed the fantasy setting, but I felt like it was a tad short. I'm hoping that the next book is longer and we can get more from this world.

In all honesty I was not a real big fan of this one. I understand that it was supposed to be a strong female lead, who does not let anyone or anything get in her way. And I'm all in for that. It was just the writing style that took it down a notch I'm me really enjoying this book.

Unfortunately I was unable to download and Review this book. I have thus given this an impartial 3 star rating for this book review.

An interesting plot, The Cup and The Prince starts reasonably well with a main character that I really stated to empathise with. Unfortunately, the world building was lacking and it places I found myself confused about what was happening, which reduced my enjoyment.

The book and the characters read young, which isn't necessarily a problem but causes a bit of a disconnect when some of the things happening in the book feel like they're for more mature audiences. I enjoyed the story enough to finish, but wouldn't rush to pick it up again!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

ARC from NetGalley

3.5 stars

This was a nice quick read. It had magic and royalty and mystery and romance. Nothing was over the top bad. Nothing was amazing; I find myself saying that a lot lately. I found the magic system interesting. I am curious about the history of the shadow creatures, of the curse, the siren song. The ending was a bollocks cliff hanger, but here we are. It could use another round of edits, but it's an ARC, so that could very well be in the pipeline. An all-around good YA fantasy novel. I want to read the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free e-arc copy to review!

I found this to be an overall enjoyable read. While not my favourite read of 2020, I found this entertaining enough to enjoy my experience reading it and I'm interested in the rest of the series to see how it goes.

The main character, Zora, was very unique and I loved reading about her. She is very badass (for lack of a better phrase) and a good feminist character to look up to. She really is a wonderful character and very inspiring so I'd read on just for her!

I would recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy and is looking for a new novel with a very strong and intelligent female MC! 3.5/5!

Another young adult (YA) novel with a female protagonist fighting against patriarchy? Sign me the heck up!

*Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review*

This one was a good one. Magic, princes, romance and challenges. I was hooked from the very first page to the very last.

I couldn‘t get far into the book.
The cover is absolutely stunning and the blurb sounded promising, I just immediately disliked the protagonist and the writing feels incredibly flat.

*Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own*

This book has a very good premise, but I still don't know if the execution was done well.
The book is very fast to read, the author's writing is simple, which makes the story go fast.
The characters are not bad but they were not well developed, in fact, the story itself was not well developed.
The plot was a mess, the author tried to bring a lot to a book alone and in the end did not explain anything right and was unable to make her plots develop in a way that makes sense.
I'm giving 3 stars because the book is not bad it has great potential to improve, the ending leaves a taste of wanting more, and the plot of the story it is interesting if the author is able to develop her characters beyond stereotypes and make enemies to lover and love triangles in the next book less awful, the series can be excellent!

I'll be honest, 2020 has been the year of "gorgeous covers with meh stories" but this one was a surprising exception.

Zora is a warrior from the Dark Valley, a region where shadow monsters run rampant. And she is out for revenge - because her boyfriend doesn't know that "no means no" if you catch my drift. So she does what any normal girl her age would do - she drugs him and steals his one way ticket to a kingdom where she can participate in a bloody battle royale for riches and glory and the all-powerful "blood cup." While there she is ensnared by three crafty princes that try to manipulate her in different ways for their own agendas. Teenage drama, am I right?

I took offense to a couple of things here - mainly the ridiculously modern verbiage that Zora tends to use in this very medieval styled fantasy world. When someone mentioned something obvious for example, she combated with a "Fact" and I pulled a muscle in my optical cavity from the sheer force of my eye-roll.

The shrewd brother princes sound the same on paper and treat Zora with various shades of mysogyny. The "competition" rounds are just various obstacle courses that make "the floor is lava" seem exciting except for the gruesome and pointless animal brutality.

My decent rating comes from a solid pacing and entertaining narrative. The end twist was satisfying and left the story off in a way that gets me to want more. I found myself liking the main character despite her penchant for talking like a valley girl circa 2003.

Overall, I'm intrigued and interested to know how things turn out. I would certainly recommend to those who like a little fantasy but don't have to take it too seriously.

Thank you to netgalley for prividing a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Cup and The Prince is the first installment in author Day Leitao's Kingdom of Curses and Shadows. 17-year old Zora Sunborn lives in a place called Dark Valley where dark magic created strange creatures. People in her village always have lights on, they don't use any covers, skirts, or even tables because it creates shadows, and the creatures can be born in these shadows. Zora teaches self-defense techniques to younger students to protect themselves against the shadowy creatures that come in (4) different types: Humans with gray skin, claws, and sharp teeth; 4 legged wolves that are fast and dangerous; spiders the size of an apple with sharp pincers and deadly poison; and balls which are round and small like a spider or large as a human. They can literally explode like a bomb.

Dark Valley is a literal prison, a punishment for their descendants who created the shadow creatures from dark magic. After Zora’s boyfriend Seth cheats on her and demeans her worth for being a girl, she decides to pay him back by stealing his invitation, ring, and golden rod which gives her entry into a champion’s only royal games. It's a competition that is held every 3 years, but this year’s competition will be a bit different. With Zora being the only female champion in history, the stakes get even higher when Prince Griffin decides the winner will get the Blood Cup. The Blood Cup demands a sacrifice.

To win the competition, you must also kill a Lion and wade through all the politics that comes with the competition including finding a possible partner for the future. Zora is underestimated from the start because she’s short and a female. Zora's competition comes in the form of Prince Griffin who really wants to win the cup as readers will soon discover. There’s an assassin who apparently wants her dead, and Prince Larzen who she is forced to strike a bargain with after he uncovers her lies. She becomes immersed in court politics and later catches the eye of King Kiran, who, of course, wants something from her.

To win the competition, she must fight her way through a series of challenges, as well as the machinations of two princes, a King, and a third party with an agenda. There are many shady characters in this story. I honestly did not know who the good ones were and who the bad ones until the ending when Zora discovers that for herself. There’s another character who readers should pay close attention to. Her name is Alegra and she may be the most important character outside of Zora herself. In fact, the cliffhanger ending taunts you of things to come and what danger she brings to everyone, including Zora.

This will be a quick turn around since the sequel, The Curse and the Prince, comes out in January.