Yes, this is the type of book that's written just for me - competing in a tournament, only one kickass girl in the tournament, love triangle/quadrangle/parallelogram/what you want to call it, magic, deception, girl falling in love with the prince.... All signs point to me.

This was a fun, fast read and I was definitely into it. I think some areas could have used a bit more bulk or character development and I did need some more explanation about the Blood Cup. I have a guess about what it can do for Griffin, but it felt weird to not have that specifically stated when the entire tournament is about getting the cup.

Alegra's choice at the end took me by surprise and I liked that these characters weren't completely predictable. I also think there's a lot more to Larzen we haven't discovered yet. As for Zora and Griffin, you can pretty much guess what's gonna happen there, but I still did appreciate the slow burn.

Totally a book for me and I'll definitely read the next one.

At first, I wasn't sure where this book was heading. The main character is scorned by a guy she is dating and finds out he's cheating (ouch), so she gets her revenge by taking his place at a national competition, where all the best warriors will fight. She's headstrong, naive, and comes across as one of those girls who tries to be anti-feminine just to spite people, but soon evolves into a character that I really enjoyed.

The beginning of this book made me question if I was going to like it. Sexist and ableist comments are not how I want to start off a book and I was a bit nervous. As we move along, the comments turn more sexist and directed at our main character, which pissed me off, but gave Zora motivation to win the Blood Cup. After 10% into the book, I became really invested and this turned into a favorite for me!

I loved the alternating POVs in this book, especially since we get a good look at some of the other characters through a different lens. The plot is really interesting, but the constant sexist comments towards Zora irritated me so much. I understand she's trying to prove that she can do anything a man can, but it felt overdone for the same people to make the same comments over and over again towards her.

Overall, this was a fun fantasy and I'm interested to see what happens next! 4.5 // 5 stars.

This book sounded great but unfortunately fell flat for me.
The world building is weak, and I found the writing repetitive, a little childish, and at times contradictory.
I wanted to like Zora, as a strong female character but couldn’t really connect.
There was an attempt to get you on her side by a somewhat demeaning almost encounter in the first chapter, but that wasn’t enough for me.
I think with a little more time and development this book could be good, but as is, isn’t great. Sorry!

The Cup and The Prince was a largely enjoyable read that featured charming characters, an amazing world, and a strong plot. The idea of winning a competition under false pretense was really interesting.
The plot immediately separated itself from other titles because of the pretense. Since Zora technically lied to compete for the Blood Cup, she's put into a more precarious position than other characters. She must keep her reasoning a secret from other characters, causing tension. Being tied to all three royal characters was also a good choice because it showed the contrast in each of Zora’s relationship and helped establish her newfound importance within the royal court.
While the book took an interesting look at competitions in YA fiction, (hunger games, etc.) its plot and characters were negatively affected by the length of the book. It was a good book to sit down and read in one sitting but I had trouble with the relationship and pacing of the story. More time should have been devoted to the characters and their relationships. Instead, by the end of the book, I found myself questioning the character’s interactions. I had a hard time believing they formed any real relationships because things seemed to move so fast.
The plot is also negatively affected by the book’s length. Some major plot points weren’t as hard-hitting because there was no real build-up to them. Zora leaves the Dark Valley very early in the book, so the readers don’t have a good idea of the hardships she faced there. As a reader, I didn’t feel like Zora leaving her home was very important because I lacked information about the life she was leaving behind. That event should have felt scary or intimidating but instead, it just felt like another part of the story. There were several more moments like this in the novel.
Overall, however, the book was very good. It had a good idea behind it and was well executed. While the length of the book negatively affected my experience, it was still very enjoyable. The series is promising but still has room for improvement and I’m excited to read the follow-up.

I was super excited to have been approved for this book, and it didn’t let me down!!! I loved the characters, all of them, and enjoyed going on their journey with them! The plot was creative and well executed and I already recommended it to some friends I think will like it !

Thank you netgalley for giving me an earc of this book
I'm gonna try summing up my opinion on the whole book without spoilers

The Characters
I loved the main character zora she had her dumb moments but overall she was acceptable. There were also the 3 princes they had a great impact on the book and I loved how everyone was different from the other.

The Plot
The whole storyline was pretty amazing I know it's based on Minecraft but I've never played it and don't know the story so this was completely new to me and I enjoyed it so much. The twist was mind blowing and this is why I love the book cause for me it's the twist that matters if there's no twist then there's no book. I love to be surprised.

The Writing Style And World Building
The writing style was pretty simple I would have loved for it to be more complex but it was suitable overall. I also would have loved to see more of the world. The world building in the book in my opinion wasn't much and it needed more focus.

Finally it was a great book overall and I really enjoyed it and really really can't wait for the second part 😬 if you know you know.

I recieved an e-arc of this from netgalley for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First off, this line, "Contrary to what stories told, being petty, revengeful, and deceitful felt amazing."

Secondly, Zora is so badass. She took that betrayal from Seth like a champ. I liked her quick wit, smarts and her courage in the first chapter. She demonstrated courage and skill in fighting which I thought brought her character to life.

Our meeting of the Prince was amazing and Zora was just "showing him her sword skills" I laughed so much.

The court intrigue is very good and kept me entertained. I liked the princes and their introductions to the story were very good. I liked how Zora engaged with the other champions and how she was in the competition.

The magic system in this confused me, the talk of dark magic, shadow creatures, potions and spells. Its confused me for half of the book but I got into it and started to understand it more as time went on.

I LOVED THE ENDING and I can't wait to continue with the story and see how Zora and Griffin get on.

DNF @ 46%

I was genuinely surprised when I looked into the author and found that this wasn't her debut. So much of this book screamed debut to me, from the overall fairly derivative world-building and plot to the flatness of the characters to the weird, anachronistic writing style.

The Cup and the Prince is about a girl named Zora who lives in the Dark Valley (yep, that's what it's called) and spends her time fighting shadow monsters and spending time with her asshole boyfriend, the "hero of the valley." When she discovers he's been cheating on her, she drugs him and takes his place as the Dark Valley's representative in the Royal Games (the imaginative naming continues) where she'll be competing for the mysterious Blood Cup.

Zora is very #notlikeothergirls. She lives in a world of sexism to an absurd degree (she's allowed to literally be a professional fighting teacher but everybody, and boy do I mean everybody, states bluntly to her face that they do not believe she could possibly be a competent fighter) so she spends at least half of her time waving around her sword and saying things like "What? You think a girl can't fight?" The other half of her time is spent tending her own bleeding heart, as she condescendingly remarks about how clearly nobody else cares about homeless children but her and pats her own back for protesting the fact that one of the tasks in the Royal Games involves slaughtering a lion without actually refusing to participate. She cries at the drop of a hat which she refuses to apologize for because #feminism. (It's not the fact that she's emotional that's annoying, though, it's that she thinks being emotional makes her better than everyone else)

I was halfway through the book when I quit and...what happened? Zora competes in a ridiculously easy first task, meets some people, and has shady dealings with one of the princes, who's blackmailing her over the whole drugged-her-boyfriend-and-took-his-place thing. That's literally it. So not only was the main character one of the most insufferable I've read in a while, but there was no plot to distract me from it.

I also mentioned the anachronistic writing style above. The setting feels like a fairly typical old-timey fantasy: the people fight with swords, attend balls, and live in villages. So why on Earth do the people talk like they're modern-day teenagers? It was incredibly jarring to hear these people walking to the bathhouse talking about how sometimes, you just wanna bang. (Yep, bang)

Overall, it reached a point where I wasn't enjoying myself AT ALL and I decided ages ago that I'm not going to spend my time reading books I'm not having fun with, so that was the end of that.

I cannot recommend this book to anyone - the genre of YA Fantasy Involving Some Sort of Royal Tournament and Also Swordfighting is vast. Find something else.

ARC copy provided in exchange for an honest review by Netgalley and the publisher.

First, I have to say that I'm in need of book II like right now. How can you do this to your readers ?

I really enjoyed this book and I liked so much this story. I could not stop reading, it was a real page turner. I wasn't bored while reading it and that's what made me give a book 5 stars. When I had to stop reading in order to do something else, I was always so eager to get back to this world and Zora .

This book as a start for this series, was memorable, intriguing with all the entangled situations MC found herself in all along the story to the last twists at the end, It got me hooked.

I loved Zora, our female MC is something else, for me she was a real 17 years old. She had to be strong all her life due to her village being attacked continuously by some shadow monsters and like she said in the book that you are taught how to fight from a very young age, so that's why she had to learn how to protect herself with a sword.
She is not an orphan thanks god for that! When she is betrayed she retaliates, you don't mess with her if you're wise. At the same time, she is a girl who is not afraid to show her tears when she got hurt or overwhelmed by emotions or in some difficult situations and that's what I loved so much about her , she is human unlike some unreal female MCs that we have in some fantasy books. Zora has doubts, made mistakes and try to fix them or hide when she could not face what she has done, she has this naivety that is normal for a 17 years old girl. She is smart and knows her way around potions thanks to her parents, she doesn't have some super outstanding magical powers that she got from some elves or whatever. Zora wants to prove that being a girl doesn't mean that you're weak. Even if a girl cries doesn't mean that she won't be able to beat your behind.

I think that the author did a good job in keeping us interested by not giving everything in the first book, you have to keep some mystery going on around the characters' stories and the villains if you're thinking about a sequel.
Now, I want to know what's the story of Alegra if she is the real villain of the story, about Griffin's curse and the Dark valley, that's why I will be waiting for the next book because I'm sure that's what we will be learning.

I enjoyed the author's style, it was simple and she didn't overdo it with some long and tiring descriptions just to fill the pages .

Anyway, I'm happy that my request for this ARC was accepted and I got to discover Day Leitao and this amzing book "The Cup and the Prince". I had a nice time while reading Zora's adventures.

Thank you to Victory Ediing Netgalley Co-op for providing me with ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely devoured this book in no time!
Easy flowing writing style , intriguing setting and world building makes it such a compelling read.
Our main female character Zora - living in the isolated part of the kingdom ( the Dark Valley) is a teacher to the children in her community, helping them with self defense against the dangerous creatures that can spawn from dark spots in this dangerous place.
She's charmingly naive , but sassy and brave at the same tame so it's impossible to leave you impassive. (little fun fact - in my native language Zora (Зора) means dawn so it's a nice meaning given the shadows in the Dark Valley).
On the other side we have prince Griffin...i really had a love/hate relationship with his character...good hearted yes but incredibly foolish and all over the place so you get a little frustrated at his reactions (but again no matter the emotion he evokes,since there is one its a good thing right?).
The one thing that bring them and the other compelling characters (the other brother and also prince - Larzen and the third brother and a king - Kiran) is the dangerous Blood Cup tournament in which everyone has their own agenda and hidden motives.
I really enjoyed the journey and the reason I'm not giving full five stars is that i felt the real thing started at the end of the book and i really wish that it was longer(and i little bit more back story about the Dark Valley but given how things ended in book one i suppose we'll have more of that in the second book that i  can't wait to read).

'The Cup and the Prince' is the first installment of the series 'Kingdom of Curses and Shadows' aaanndd so far so good !!

Zora is a 17 year old girl, born in a world of shadows. She cheats her way into the Royal Games, in which she must win in order to bring help and glory to her valley. But this is not the only game Zora is playing, at least not the most dangerous one.

The story is intriguing and addictive, albeit a bit short. The plot and the storyline seems promising. Seeing this is the first novel of a series, it definitely merits attention. A world of magic, bravery, shadows and lies unfolds around Zora and I am hooked. Already looking forward to the second book.

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for providing e-ARC.

Wooo this story was too good to let go!

I didn't have so many expectations at first, but as it progressed, it intrigued me more and more until the moment came when I just couldn't stop reading.

and those last chapters let me shook that plot twist wooo! and that ending woo! I don't know how I'm going to wait for the next one!

I enjoyed the female strength and the main character's determination to show everyone that she could win and that it didn't matter that she was a girl. I did not enjoy the juvenile writing. Also, the characters weren't well done. Zora was an okay narrator but wasn't always likeable. It felt like all the side characters were underdeveloped to the point where you had no idea what their purpose was or what their goals were. It was a quick read, and I liked the main character's perseverance, but she made a lot of bad choices repeatedly, in fact so did Griffin.

I’d rather have spent the last three days reading literally anything else.

I very rarely DNF books. You can check my goodreads DNF shelf for proof. But no matter how hard I tried and tried to get through this book, I absolutely could not torture myself anymore. Finally, I got 1/4 of the way through the novel and allowed myself the sweet reprieve of DNF because dear me, that first 1/4 was bad.

I’ve never seen a book make it to publish so loosely developed. The world building was neglected, relying too heavily on its Minecraft comparison to hold its own in any novel. Even if the premise of monsters sprouting from the dark was intriguing, and the fact that they are a result of a dark magical history compelling, the rest of the world just fell flat.

But, if it were just the world that was left underdeveloped, I could have forgiven the author and possibly even finished the novel. But, none of these characters seemed to be anything beyond a caricature of stereotypes and tropes. Zora, our fiery feminist trying to survive in a male-dominated world, attempted to be both soft and powerful - traits that I admire, but she ended up just being naive and impulsive. Her motivations were flimsy. The buildup to this big important decision to steal away into a competition, stealing her lousy ex boyfriend's glory, was glossed over and empty.

The relationships seemed forced, sprouting out of nowhere (kind of like her decision to join a deadly competition). We were just told “this is this relationship” “this is how she feels about this person” with no evidence or explanations. In even the most basic of writing classes, we are told to “show don’t tell” and the first quarter of the book, I thought of taking a shot every time I was told how to feel about a situation, but I figured I shouldn’t blackout only 6 chapters in.

All in all, this book is a mega DNF. I will give 1 star for the misleading summary drawing me in with promises of a great, compelling novel.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.

Such a fun book ! I could not put this book down. It is a very easy going and addictive read with a feminist main character that I loved.
Do not hesitate... just pick it up !

I reviewed this book in my Goodreads account.

4 Stars

Absolutely loved this book. What a great first instalment of the series.

Zora is such a likeable character. The way she betrayed her boyfriend and took his place was amazing. I love an independent character. However the other characters weren’t as interesting as I would have hoped. I was curious about Griffin and all the mystery revolving around his supposed curse. Very curious how this is going to unwind in the next book.

Loved the idea of the shadow monsters present in Dark Valley, it was such an interesting concept but I wished there was more explanation and more details. It would be interesting to know more about how this ‘curse’ came to the Dark Valley. Overall a good idea.

The love interests weren’t a main aspect in this book (which I sometimes enjoy), only happened towards the end but it felt too predictable. I’m curious for the relationship development in the next book.

In conclusion it was a well written book, with interesting characters. Can’t wait for the next book.

I found this book very addictive and finished it in a day and a half. Like I seriously couldn't put it down. I can see where some of the more negative reviewers are coming from, but man, for me, I was completely captivated. I like the authors writing style and liked how fast paced it was, making a quick and easy read. I didn't necessarily love any of the characters, but I did find myself drawn to several. I do wish some part of the story had been drawn out a little more, like the competitions for example. Overall, I was very happy with the book though and when it ended I may or may not have internally groaned about having to wait to continue the story. Because I'll definitely be reading book two.

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

This book had a lot of new, creative ideas that it sadly didn’t deliver on. While I liked the concept behind the novel, everything else fell flat.

Our main character, Zora, was your typical impulsive girl trying to prove herself, and she was so insecure she literally held her sword at a then-stranger’s neck after he warned her to be careful traveling alone. She also initially thought that this same person was a jerk based off of his appearance, which I never approve of. Also, what was that whole thing with Seth about in the beginning of the book? I know it was meant to provide justification and context for Zora’s desire to win, but it is NEVER okay for someone to force themselves upon someone else. I mean, Seth would have assulted and raped her, and I hate that it was basically just written off.

The sentences in this book were also incredibly short and choppy, making this a very jarring read. It felt like a short story because of the way it skipped from one scene to the next and because of the relatively few number of pages. I’ll admit I started skimming towards the end.

I thought that the idea of shadow creatures was really cool, and I also liked the concept of a strong, warrior female protagonist prevailing against the odds. Sadly, everything else about this novel was either poorly executed or just fell flat. I feel terrible writing this, but I would not recommend this book to others.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Cup and the Prince is a good, quick fantasy read for anyone who likes the Red Queen Series. There is action, romance and a great female badass character. I enjoyed reading this book but gave it 3 stars because of some of the plot holes and the rushed ending.

We have our main character Zora who is just a badass (which I admire) and basically takes her ex-boyfriend's place in the prestigious Royal Games just to be petty and to show him that she(and girls in general) aren't this fragile little flower who can't do anything. Of course, no one knows that she isn't supposed to actually be there but she won't let anyone get in her way. I enjoyed seeing her use her wits throughout the games even when it seemed like the odds were stacked against her, she found a way which is admirable. In this world, there are 3 brothers who are apart of the royal family. The youngest, Griffin, doesn't want Zora in the games because he doesn't want her to get hurt (he is a traditional kind of guy) and Zora hates him (which can only mean one thing of course since there is a fine line between love and hate). The eldest prince, Larzen, is helping Zora with the games in exchange for her doing some tasks for him, which seems suspicious. Finally, we have the king and eldest brother, Kiran, who is just gross and creepy and thinks he can get any girl because of his position.

Pretty early on, I kind of made a guess with what was happening (with Griffin and his "secret" which wasn't really a secret in my opinion and Allegra and her attitude) and who was trying to kill Zora, but even as the events were unfolding, | was still taken aback. It was quite interesting and really did remind me of the Red Queen in some aspects. But throughout the book I found myself cheering for Zora, whether it was in the competition or just being kind of petty.

I feel like the last chapter was kind of rushed, and that the author was kind of just trying to explain some things that were happening throughout the book and then raised about 10 more questions in the last couple of sentences. That is one of the reasons I couldn't give this book a higher rating.

I would recommend this book to fans of the Red Queen because they have a similar vibe and plot. It was an enjoyable quick read that kept me hooked so that I finished this book in one sitting, I can't wait to read the sequel to this book to follow Zora and Griffin on their adventure.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me access to this book early.

I didn't feel like any of the characters had concrete reasoning behind their actions or solid motivations, and reading from one of the characters point of view made the story predictable. That being said, I enjoyed the background of the main characters village, however I wish there was better world building and character development

Thank you Negalley for the free E-ARC #netgalley #thecupandtheprince