This was not my favorite book. The writing could have been neater and the plot, though it sounded promising, couldn't hold my attention. I ended up DNFing this one. I try to finish all the books I start, but this one just couldn't keep me interested.

Thank you for an e-arc of this book. The synopsis sounded promising, but even though I tried to read this book a couple of timesit didn't fully stick with me.

I got far into the plot (more than 60%), but I had no motivation to continue it. I am sure other people will enjoy this way more than me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read and review this. "In the city of flowers, anything is possible, but nothing is real. In Kamali's hometown, everything is made of her magic. Every home, every plant, and even the sun are part of an illusion her family cast a century prior to protect the city from the royal family. As the last illusionist in town, she's entrusted with keeping this magic alive—and keeping it a secret."

The premise sounded interesting and fun, but I didn't enjoy it that much. I thought the characters were okay, yet a little dry and basic. And the world was a little confusing.

DNF around 75%

There is something very complicated about reviewing this book. Especially since it is the first one in a long long time that I actually had to put away and could not finish.

First, I want to start with the positives.
I adore the magic system of this world. I love how everything is built up, how the magic works with the world and its users, and I love the idea of this whole fake but beautiful kingdom. LOVE the thought of creating magic- illusions - through music. It is absolutely beautiful.
I also love the main characters and how they play togehter - to a degree.
Of course I loved the queerness of the story, but that is an afterthought here.

On to things that didn't quite work.
It's been a moment so everything's not quite as present in my mind, but I wanted it all to settle.
The base story of this book was okay. But it wasn't well executed. It felt repetitive, like everything was happening over and over again, more and more problems popping up when they seemed to have just been resolved. Secrets were being kept a bit too secret, where characters would seemingly keep secrets from themselves, just so the reader wouldn't find out and it didn't make sense. The twists and turns were...too much, too many and...somewhat illogical.

I don't enjoy reviewing books I didn't like, which is why I put this one off for so long, because I really, really wanted to like this book.
But looking at the page count again and again to figure out when it's finally going to be over is not a good sign.

I’ve picked up this book five separate times and I’m finally admitting defeat; we’re just not a match. It feels like the author is trying to pack a LOT of complex world building into the first few chapters and it’s just not well done. Not for me!

Thanks NetGalley!

A fun fantasy novel to read if you have a free time.
Loved certain characters and the story was interesting.

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

I really wanted to like this novel, especially because the concept seemed really interesting. Unfortunately, I struggled to finish it, primarily because of the confusing plot/magic system, inconsistent characterization, and excessive length.

In theory, the idea of a city that is built on magic, on powers that must be sustained and are subject to failing. But the explanation of Kamali's powers made little sense and was inconsistent. Her magic is supposed to be illusions, but they are fully corporeal, which sounds more like a sustained conjuring rather than the intangibility of an illusion. Additionally, she claims at the start that people can eat and drink her illusions of food and water, but that they will not actually provide people with nutrients. Given that most of the city is illusion, and that they primarily consume illusions, how would they even survive? Also, she is able to create illusions of people, but the rules of this are very poorly explained. She sometimes loses control over these human illusions, but it isn't explained how or why. The only exploration of this aspect of her powers happens 60% of the way into the book, at which point many readers will become frustrated and give up.

The characterization was also incredible shallow and inconsistent. Saira, especially, lacked meaningful depth. She begins as an assassin with no memory of her past before two years ago, and her relationship to Vincent is not exceedingly close. Then, out of nowhere, she is in love with him just after halfway through the book. Suddenly, her motivations are about him and her desire to make him proud, even though that was not established in the first half of the book. Her actions in the second half of the book are largely informed by her sudden love of Vincent and thus make little sense. Kamali is better characterized but still generally quite shallow. Side characters are completely inconsistent, ricocheting from loving Kamali or Saira to wanting to kill them with seemingly no reason. This made the book very hard to follow and get invested in.

The book was also incredibly long where it did not need to be. Many chapters had no purpose in the overall plot, though what the plot was beyond a goal to save the city is unclear. Each scene dragged, largely because they felt disjointed and aimless. This, combined with how long the book was, made it difficult to keep reading.

This was clearly an earnest effort by the author, and she should absolutely keep writing. That being said, I was not a fan of this book.

The beginning was a bit slow, but it absolutely paid off to keep reading. The ending was very satisfying. I was pleasantly surprised! The concept of this book really had me intrigued. It is queer, has a very interesting magic system, and a strong female main character. But it lacked solid direction i really felt like the plot was a little all over the place

It was okay. I found it a bit hard to get through it, I found it slower, the plot really didnt called to me, it didnt intrigued me. I really liked the premise and was with some expactations going in to it., But what does not work for me might work for other readers.

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

A curse of illusions is an absolutely wild ride of a book. It’s a lot. The plot, the twists and turns, the betrayals, the triumphs, the action, the mysteries, the reveals, it’s all A LOT. I stopped reading at one point because I wasn’t ready for it to be over and I thought it was nearing the end. I couldn’t imagine where else the story could go from there because so much had already happened, only to find out that I had only made it halfway through the book. And I was very very wrong, there were so many other places left for the story to go. The characters were fun, infuriating, kinda dumb, and definitely badass. The magic system was really unique and interesting. And the setting was so beautiful and vibrant and I could envision it in my head so clearly.

I’m honestly in awe of what this book was able to accomplish. And at the same time, wishing there was still more to it. There was so much action and content, that I feel like this could’ve used a bit more fleshing out, spreading the story between two books so that all the pieces of the puzzle could really be drawn all the way through rather than rushed one after another. I felt like the relationships weren’t given enough time to really fully progress the way they did, so I would’ve liked to see more of that aspect as well. Overall though, I really loved it and would definitely recommend.

I’m afraid this wasn’t one for me. I really loved the concept, but the writing (especially the dialogue) was too clunky and impenetrable. It felt like it needed a really good edit and could have been a third shorter. The characters’ ethics were too black and white, and attempted depth felt forced. The story was too meandering. And the ending didn’t work well for me.

Good diversity. Romance was ok. Magical theory was decent. Great idea, but poor execution. I struggled to finish it

I really didn't like this book. I felt like the characters were so immature and stupid. There was no real character growth and hated it. The plot was a good idea, but the pacing was oddly weird and it felt like there were events that were thrown in just to make the story longer. I think the book could've been a novella that was a fifth of the length and it would have been so much better.

I DNF it at 30%. It was really slow, nothing really happened. The idea was really intriguing but the execution of it was really poor.

I received an ebook copy of A Curse Of Illusions by Vivian Sader from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Overall, I enjoyed the sapphic slow burn romance aspect of this book. It was well done and believable. Additionally, the magic system was well thought out and explained thoroughly as the story unfolded. For the most part, I liked how each character developed and the various plot twists that occurred. However, I did find the writing style a bit difficult to get into at times, with some passages just being too dense. With this being said, I think the book could have been a tad shorter as some plot points were dragged out a little too much. Overall, I did enjoy reading this book though and as such I do recommend this novel to anyone who likes creative magic systems and slow burn sapphic novels.

I have very mixed feelings about this book, and did overall enjoy it, but I would likely not read it again.

The positives; there was an interesting and cool magic system, I absolutely loved the concept and I really loved the sapphic characters

The negatives; the pacing was strange and that combined with the writing style made it hard for me to get into. Not that the writing style was bad, b/c it wasn’t, it just clearly wasn’t for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I’m glad that I read it !

4.5/5 ⭐️ rounded up

I’m very thankful that through Netgalley and Vivian Sader, I had the chance to read an ARC of novel “A Curse of Illusions”.
What intrigues me from the beginning was that magicians, who are broad in their magical abilities, are so different - as in: There is not one singular way of wielding it but so many. And what topped it even more - the protagonist Kamali (a beautiful name) is one who can create illusions which are so close to reality that it literally blends in with it. However, that this is an issue is wonderfully picked up throughout the story.
I can’t put into words how much I loved the slow burn romance between Mia and Kamali. My hearts skips literally beats when writers take the time to let their characters develop feelings slowly over the story. Also, adding to this: I like this strangers to friends to lovers concept. To me, with everything going on in their story, it was super well done!
Also, I need to emphasise how amazing the characters are actually connected to each other - Saira, Kamali, Vincent and then Mia, The King and so on.
I don’t know if I said it but I really want this book on my physical shelf.

I thought the premise of this book was so interesting, but unfortunately the writing style just didn’t gel with me. I tried really hard to get into this but had to DNF at 30%. :c