I listened to the audiobook and wanted to like this book more, but because of the narrator's voice I kept picturing Estela to be around 14 years old or even a little younger. The romance between her and Sebastian fell flat for me - he seemed to be much older, and I didn't feel a connection between them. The premise grabbed me, and I liked the author's writing style but between the narrator's younger voice and the slower pacing, this novel just wasn't for me. That certainly won't prevent me from checking out this author's future releases.

This is a very dark book. Not only is it in the Horror / Fantasy genre, but the subject matter is on the grosser side.
To be fair, this is not they type of book I usually read but I was intrigued by the description and the writing was really well done so I kept at it until the end.
I enjoyed the descriptions of Spain and I loved the Spanish dialogue thrown in throughout the book. It really captured my attention and introduced me to new things. The story line kept me wondering what would happen and brought me into a new world. But that was a double edged sword because the other worldly-ness of it went to much into fantasy and it didn't seem to make sense. It was just gratuitous violence and people doing things with no grounding.
Overall, kudos to the author because the writing was very well done. But the story needed a tighter plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I honestly don't have too many thoughts about it, it was intriguing at first, and then in parts it really dragged for me. The concept of the gothic horror, gothic paranormal and the castle was such a spectacular idea, but it just didn't end up working for me.

This had some Twilight Zone like feelings, but I just...I didn't get into it like I had hoped.

I think there will be a subset of people who will enjoy this book, it just ended up not being for me.

I really wanted to like this one — the premise had me hooked. An old castle and mystery and romance — all the gothic vibes that I crave! So, where did it go wrong for me? I felt like the events of the story were hard to suspend disbelief for — I tried, I really tried but I didn’t feel Estela processed events in a way that felt natural. The dialogue felt stilted and I just couldn’t connect in the way I’d hoped. I know this book will find its audience, it just wasn’t for me. My warmest regards to St. Martin’s Press for the arc.

This genre-bending gothic tale was equal parts captivating and spooky. The writing is so descriptive and engrossing that it kept me reading til the end.

I enjoyed the experience of reading this book, though I struggled just a bit with the romantic aspect. I wasn’t quite sold on the chemistry between Estela and Bastian. There just needed to be a bit more between them for me to feel like I could really buy in to the romance.

Nevertheless, this book was very enjoyable and has only expanded my interest in reading more work by the author.

Beauty and the Beast, the R-rated version?

I just didn’t love this book.

The entire story is told from Estela’s POV. I wish we’d had another POV to offset hers. Being stuck in her head the entire time was a problem for me.

The “silver-eyed boy” she falls for is not a boy at all. He’s very mature, and the pairing was odd. To make matters worse, there is absolutely no buildup to the romance, if it can even be called a romance. It’s instalust, followed by instalove. Their connection came out of nowhere and didn’t make sense to me. We also have a couple of steamy scenes that come out of nowhere. Like, literally, just plunked into a scene for the sake of some spice.

The other characters sort of did what they were supposed to do to keep the plot moving. And that’s about it.

I could go on, but I’ll leave it there. Unfortunately, not a book for me.

Love the Gothic feeling of the castle, the characters, and the way you’re not entirely sure what is going on. The more the story unfolds, the more drawn into the story you become.

If there was anything I didn’t love, it was the rapid speed of love that happened, but once it was there, it worked well.

Overall, this story was a super fun blend of heartbreak and creepy. Garber has you wanting to give Estela everything good in the world.

🏰 Castle of the Cursed ARC Review 🏰

Thanks so much to Romina Garber and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Castle of the Cursed is a dark gothic standalone YA romance. 17 year old Estela has lost everything - her family, her home, her safety. Now she finds herself in Spain, living in a spooky castle belonging to family she never knew existed. Can she figure out the mysteries of the castle before it’s too late??

This was an interesting read. I liked the historical lore and magic system surrounding the castle. I liked Estela as a character overall, but struggled with her age and maturity in this book - as she is 17 through most of it. I enjoyed Bastian as a character too, but would have liked some chapters from his PoV as well

Overall this was a three star read for me. I liked the world building and general story, but struggled a little bit with the age and maturity levels of the characters. This book has some darker elements, so please check triggers if you’re sensitive. This book did have a romantic subplot with YA levels of spice, so overall one flame for spice

If you’re a fan of YA fantasy with gothic lore, engaging world building and interesting magic, then definitely pick this one up.

Please note: review will be posted on Amazon upon publication

Gothic telenovela meets Twilight in Castle of the Cursed!

I wish I had known going in that this was intending to be over-the-top, almost campy much like a telenovela. I knew it was a darker gothic romance with vampires, but there were some twists that kind of threw me tonally until I figured out what the book was doing. I think I especially wasn't expecting it because the book begins with content warnings- the main character deals with major mental health issues including suicidal ideation, grief, etc. So it's an interesting blend of serious and over-the-top.

I liked the idea of this book, but I have mixed feelings about the structural execution. The beginning is a little rushed with a lot happening that's important, but doesn't feel like it gives us quite enough setup. Then in the later part of the book, there is a big twist that kind of info-dumps a lot of information and history with a mechanism I'm not really a fan of. I don't want to spoil anything, but I think there is a world where this could have been a much better book by seeding some of that information earlier without revealing what it actually meant. It is on the darker and sexier side of mature YA romantasy and I kind of liked the relationship element. I feel like this one is going to be polarizing, but it's decent and had even more potential. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

3x listening speed was not fast enough to finish this book. This is my second time reading this author and I am very sorry, but I think her writing is just not for me. This was kind of confusing with the magic and the castle, and it kind of had the dumbest instalove romance I've read in YA in a long time.

One of my favorite subgenres recently has been gothic fantasy. There have simply been so many good ones of late that I almost have gotten to the point where I just expect them all to be amazing, simply by definition. I was also intrigued by the promise of a murder (?) mystery regarding the loss of Estela’s parents. And while I knew that a romance would be involved, and often I like a good romantic subplot, unfortunately the loves story brought it all down for me.

But let’s start with some positives! Of the three primary aspects of the story (gothic, mystery, romance) the gothic portion of the story fares the best. Once Estela gets to the estate, the author’s style of writing seemed to come more to life, effectively building tension and creating an atmosphere of barely-concealed horror. Second to the gothic aspects, the mystery was also compelling, especially in the beginning of the book when Estela is first beginning to realize that there is more going on here than a random, tragic accident. Once certain elements were introduced, I did feel like the big twist was a bit predictable, but on its own, I think this was a creative turn to the story. I wasn’t expecting the book to go quite so far into the fantastical as this one went, and for the most part, much of this was successful.

Unfortunately, the romance really killed it for me. A large part of this comes down to the fact that much of the story takes place over a very compressed number of days. I always struggle with love stories that develop this quickly; I can’t quite turn of my own skepticism over it all. That’s not to say, however, that a fast love story never works, but I do think it takes a very solid hand on characterization overall to pull it off. And here, neither Estela nor Sebastian were up to it. Both felt very flat, especially in their interactions with one another. Estela’s original arc, her struggles with the guilt of surviving the deaths of her parents, had a lot of potential. But the minute the love story started up, she seemed to lose much of this inner character work. And, again, this all happens rapidly, so it was difficult to believe in the sincerity of these emotions.

I also don’t want to get into spoilers with regards to some of the major twists in the end. But, essentially, I felt like the explanation for the resolution to the final conflict to be fairly ridiculous. It pretty much required the reader to disregard everything we’d seen from Estela up to this point and pretend that she was a very different character than she was. One of the things that I appreciated initially with this character was the struggles that she continued suffer through in the beginning of the story. But as the story went on, because the character became so consumed by the romance, we didn’t see the necessary growth to justify the things we were being told about her in the end. In fact, only a few pages before the fact, the character behaves in a manner that directly contradicts what we are later told is a crucial trait she contains!

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by this read. After a promising start, the story quickly began to fall flat and the characters were unable to hold my interest. The writing was strong enough and particularly shone with regards to the gothic/horror elements of the story. But the romance was uninspiring and dull, and as that ended up taking up a large chunk of the story, that killed it for me a bit. That said, romance is an incredibly subjective element of storytelling, so other readers may enjoy this one more than me!

Rating 7: While the gothic/horror elements were interesting, the characters and the love story failed to capture my imagination.

Link will go live on July 24 on The Library Ladies blog.

This was a giant "Huh?" there were way too many plot devices and plot elements in this book. You can tell a lot of the meat of the book that allowed some of the bonkers plot elements to be somewhat agreeable was completely edited out. The relationships between the characters were very shallow and some of the more horror elements of the book weren't given the space to grow to have a full pay off of the reveal.

Thank you so much Romina Garber, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for the eARC of Castle of the Cursed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Raise your hand if you’re a lover of mysterious castles, dark hallways, hidden rooms, magic, a hot paranormal man, and secret tomes. Raise your other hand if you’re a fan of Mexican Gothic, Stalking Jack the Ripper, and What the River Knows. If your hands are up, please add Castle of the Cursed to your tbr!

Castle of the Cursed contains so many secrets, shocking twists, and tense moments, that you’ll want to keep turning pages until you reach the end. From the first chapter when 26 out of 27 people shockingly died in an instant in a subway train, I was hooked. I had to know why FMC, Estela, survived when no one else did.

I think one of the more unique aspects of the story was that the castle, La Sombra, is essentially a character, as well as a setting, in the book. So many unanswered questions revolve around this revered, yet terrifying, castle that you can’t help but want to jump into the pages and explore its mysteries for yourself.

Finally, can we talk about Sebastián for a moment🔥? Paranormal romance fans, you’re going to love this intense, enigmatic, and striking character. I loved getting to know his character because he kept me in my toes. I never knew exactly what to expect from Sebastián, which kept things very interesting 👀!

In the pages you will find

🏰A secretive castle
🔎Mysteries
💔Heartbreak/loss
🤯Shocking twists and turns
💪A brave and strong FMC
❤️Romance
👻Paranormal characters
📖 An atmospheric gothic/paranormal romance that will be hard to put down!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

An eerie story that sucks you in. The main character, Estela faces many hardships in life and trying to solve and navigate why it may be happening to her. The story was an unexpected surprise. The magic that comes into the world is pretty well explained. I just found the main character a little lacking especially with dialogue with other people. It does start of slow but the plot does develop fairly quickly. The way the story is divided is unique and helps get to know Estella better. The ending has me wondering if there will be more and I very much hope so!

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this e-arc!

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. Castle of the Cursed was SO. GOOD. I loved this way more than I was ever expecting to. I loved the mystery (didn't expect that ending??) and the atmosphere was so well formed. I really felt immersed in the story, I can't wait to reread when I get my hands on a physical copy. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

This story was a lot of fun to read. Although not typically a fan of YA, the story was less a coming of age story and more of a surreal mystery involving magic, vampires, and nefarious intentions. Enjoyed every second. 10/10 no notes

I really enjoyed the writing of this book, but ultimately it was difficult for me to get through because of the dark content. I liked the main character but I felt like she was written kind of young even though she's supposed to be almost 18. The setting was really interesting but I think the plot fell apart a little after the halfway point.

This new YA book is set to release at the end of next month. I could not stop reading until I finished it.

The story is set in modern time and the main character Estela losses both of her parents in a mysterious way. After months in a psych ward, she is invited to Spain to live with her aunt in a a castle.

While there, Estela comes across strange things and people. She soon realizes that the castle is actually alive and she was brought to it for a reason.

Now I need to know-is it a series or was this all we are getting. So so good!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Romina Garber for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Castle of the Cursed coming out June 30, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This was a really fun read. I still love vampire stories after reading hundreds of them. I think the first half of this book was fun and mysterious. It starts off with a bang! I thought the set up getting Estela to the castle in Spain was really interesting and sad. The second half of the book went in a direction I wasn’t really expecting. I loved all the mysteriousness of the town and castle. I loved the Spanish history thrown in and I think it adds a lot to the story. I thought this was more of a book for teens, but I think some of the themes are a little more mature. I wasn’t expecting some things that happened between Estela and Sebastián. But overall, I enjoyed the book and would definitely check out other books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves vampire stories!

♡𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 &| 𝐞𝐀𝐫𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰♡
3.5 🌟
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𝑰𝒇 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝑴𝑬! This cover is just gorgeous 😍 to me! The cover peaked my interest, and I'm happy it did.
The audiobook production did a good job. The narrator, Ana Osorio, did a phenomenal job. This is mostly 90% in English and 10% Spanish! Ana did a phenomenal job translating and switching languages. Highly enjoyed the audiobook.
The storyline itself could be a little confusing because in the beginning the language switches between English and Spanish and if you don't understand spanish it could be a little difficult which I think the audiobook is a great additional to the book. It's also a slow-medium pace and could be a little dragging, but once you hit 50% of the book, the speed pick up and increased my interest in the book. I do recommend if you enjoy gothic ya romance.
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𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•duel timeline (past and present)
•gothic YA
•YA romance
•hidden secrets
𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 :
•grief
•mental health issues
•death of a parent
•suicide
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𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 July.30
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Thank you, Netgalley, and MacmillanAudio for the (ALC)-audiobook and St.Martin Press for the (eArc)-eBook for my honest review.