When Estela lost her parents in a freak, unexplained accident aboard a New York subway, she was thrown into a system that pretended to care but was ultimately powerless to do anything to help her. She was an undocumented immigrant, after all, because her father apparently never filed the proper paperwork to change their status. As well, her parents’ claims that they were from Argentina prove to be false. They are actually from Spain, she learns, when the System finds an aunt in the small town of Oscura, Spain and promptly ship her off to that place.

Aunt Beatriz Brálaga is a doctor, living in the run-down ancestral castle named Castilla Brálaga, and she welcomes Estela with the promise of a Spanish tutor, a list of rules (including a specification of absolutely no visitors), and an aloof demeanor. It’s not a loving house Estela has come to.

However, she does find some friendship in the form of Felipe, a tutor whose family owns the town’s bookstore. He is obsessed with the castle and the family who live there, as his own shares some historic ties to them. Through him, she will come to learn many elements of the strange history both of the town of Obscura as well as the castle overlooking it.

While all of this seems nice, normal, and possibly boring, Estela finds herself increasingly involved with an unseen, strange world. Castle Brálaga is home to odd phenomena and a terrible shadow beast, which resembles a man but is not. This last can only be seen by Estrela and threatens to kill her if she will not remove the spell put upon him. Is this bloodthirsty creature real or a creation of her own imagination? And what of the purple room, where she recalls herself playing as a child and possibly being set on fire? What about the death certificate she finds with her name upon it? And what secrets are found in the phrase, “No hay luz in Oscura” (There is no light in the dark)?

Estela is more than up to the task of figuring out these mysteries. The one reliable aspect of her time with her parents is how many lessons she learned from her detective father. He may not have been a police officer in the States as he claimed, but he had the right mind for questioning suspects and witnesses as well as assembling the pieces of a mystery to build a picture and form a solution.

Still, Estela is left with plenty of questions and suspicious circumstances to comb through.

Is she being gaslit or is there something else happening here? Does Castilla Brálaga actually hide a doorway to another world, or is that mere history, hearsay, legend, and lore? And the more she learns, the more she discovers that her parents were lying to her about the past. What else have they withheld, and what secrets await her investigative mind? Romina Garber pens a sly fusion of gothic nightmare, dark fantasy, and psychological horror with Castle of the Cursed.

Gothic horror is a comfort food for me. And a book like this, while not quite as given toward the gothic side as Donyea Coles’ Midnight Rooms as it is the more supernatural terror side of Catherine Cavendish’s Those Who Dwell in Mordenhyrst Hall, is nevertheless an intriguing exploration of those tropes as seen through the eyes of a young woman who has come of age in America returning to Spain and discovering European roots. The gothic elements do not overwhelm the narrative but add an additional layer to an already intriguing stew. In addition to the gothic stuff, Castle of the Cursed contains some romance elements, some paranormal ones, and even a touch of portal fantasy,

Romina Garber uses a first-person perspective for this novel’s narrative, which provides us with both a heightened level of intimacy with the protagonist, but also holds us at arm’s length when we realize that not everything Estela tells us should be taken at face value. The opening prologue and chapters paint our protagonist as a victim, possibly hallucinating, potentially of psychological instability. She flirts with self-harm, she can be brash, her perspective includes elements that don’t seem real for other, objective viewers (mysterious purple smoke is something that comes and goes during the stranger parts of her life). However, she has an inquisitive mind and a natural inclination toward investigation. When posed with a mystery, she cannot help but want to worry it and see it through to the solution.

By its very title, Castle of the Cursed suggests a cast of characters who are reeling from bad historical decisions and suffering from the aftermath of worse choices and greater powers. While this is certainly a castle populated by the cursed, surely, but it is also a cursed location in its own right. The curses involved are not only those applied by witchcraft woven by others but taken on the self by choices made without full awareness of the consequences.

Estela is our entry level point of view character, and the first-person narrative offers us an experience filtered through her own perceptions. She enters the story with heavy doses of guilt and despair, psychological curses she has draped upon her own shoulders without either a support system or an ability to communicate effectively. As the story progresses, she learns of more challengers.

However, the author never lets us lose hope altogether. Instead of a gratuitous delve into despair and a darkness that crushes out all hope of light, Garber’s novel allows light and love to peek through various chinks in the castle and town’s oppressive gloom. We witness redemption, we witness characters struggling to do the right thing even when facing daunting odds, and we see the goodness in some of the most standoffish individuals. As well, we find evil in the antagonists. However, there is no foregone winner in this battle between good and evil.

Readers looking for a layered text, a narrative that weaves together some familiar elements from a variety of subgenres in such a way to make them work together in unexpected ways, will find much to enjoy in Romina Garber’s latest offering.
Readers looking for darker descents in which each step of the journey serves to erode all hope and whittle spirits down to guttering candleflames will probably best be served elsewhere.

Castle of the Cursed is a cleverly constructed gothic horror and fantasy work, which slowly introduces its protagonist to a shadowy realm of dark magic, dread, and wonder. The elements are there from the beginning, but the author enjoys teasing the reader with questions of reliability. Through a first-person perspective, a history of instability, and threats that only she can see, we are never quite sure whether to commit to Estela’s story fully. However, the prose is seductive, inviting us to shed our rational world and dive deeply into a wholly irrational one. With a twisty plot built on paranoia and instability, Castle of the Cursed offers its readers a chance to enjoy supernatural wonders and psychological complexity.
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A special thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A spellbinding gothic romance with a web of mystery, supernatural allure, and shadowed secrets. It is atmospheric and dripping with suspense..
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Fantastic gothic adventure! Be prepared to laugh, cry, and experience rage with Estela during her adventure.

Estela experiences the horrible tragedy of the death of her family, before eventually moving to a remote Spanish castle with an estranged aunt. Nothing Estela knew before could prepare her for the wild ride her life has become.

I lost many hours of sleep because I could not put this book down. Before I even finished the book, I was suggesting it to many friends and families. Cannot recommend this book enough for lovers of fantasy, adventure, and the macabre.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

I received an ARC copy of Castle of the Cursed from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who has Jane Eyre in her pantheon of favorite books - the promise of a gothic romance drew me to Ms. Garber's Castle of the Cursed. In style, it features many of the features of a gothic novel with broodish male characters, confusing/forgettable characters, and convoluted and shielded motivations. The execution of the gothic style is solid.

However, the twists and turns of the novel make the worldbuilding choppy and interwoven into the twists of the storyline. The setting is as much part of the storyline, but the text itself becomes dizzying and scattered. Garber contends with strong themes by addressing grief, responsibility and feelings of abandonment, but the incorporation of love feels rushed and disjointed.

I enjoyed the cultural aspects of the some of the tale, but the elements of Spanish culture felt like more of the foreground than the cultural makeup of the characters or the ties that bind them.

This novel started out a bit slow, but I was interested, so I kept reading. However, the further this book went on, the more of a mess it became. I saw another reviewer say the narrative felt like a fever dream, which I'd have to agree with. The romance was way too rushed and felt quite immature. This also felt like a book where too many ideas tried to be incorporated, but they all felt too jumbled when they came together.

Castle of the cursed

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review. 

This book wasn’t what I was expecting at all… in a good way.

Estela loses her parents in a train accident, she was the only survivor. She later finds that she has an aunt in Spain, that’s where this story begins.

Once in Spain Estela finds out that her parents weren’t honest with her and she wants to find out why. She embarks on a journey of magic, betrayal, love, and loss.

What is really happening in Oscuro? Read this book to find out.

This book was good, if a little too long. Which is a weird thing to say when I wanted to spend more time on the town and the lore (which was very confusing). It has elements of Mexican Gothic and ofcourse the enemies to lovers thing happening. The twist was well played but felt a bit muddled with everything else happening.

2.5 stars.

What would you do if you survived a tragic event and was forced to live with estranged family in the ancestral castle that was being haunted by a vampire only you can see? You would probably think you are as crazy as Estela feels.

After a subway accident, Estela is sent to live with her aunt in Spain at La Sombre, a castle that has been passed down in her family for generation after generation. Estela does not know Spanish, nor the village history, so her aunt sets up Spanish lessons with Felipe, the son of the local bookstore owner to help her acclimate. There Estela learns that besides being the mayor, Estela's aunt runs the village clinic, where the villagers donate blood for free health care. Cue the spooky music and the vampire ghost. Estela is visited by the ghost of Sebastian from dusk to dawn. Is he a real ghost or a made up figment of her imagination brought on by the trauma of the subway accident or the interdimensional being he claims to be? Estela also finds several secret passages and hidden rooms that prove that something mysterious is going on in the castle. When her aunt goes away hurriedly for a medical convention, Estela meets her uncle, Teo. He knows more than he lets on about the castle and the mysteries that it holds. Will Estela be able to solve the mystery before she either goes insane or falls victim to the castle's terrifying legends?

Absolutely loved this book!!! It started as a tragic mystery, almost Dracula-esque, then twisted into a gothic romance, reminiscent of Warm Bodies with some sci-fi interdimensional traveling. I went in to reading this blindly, without reading any reviews or blurbs, and I'm so glad that I did. Estela is a strong female character without being whiny, even after all she is put through. The sexual tension between her and Sebastian builds without being smutty. La Sombre is a character in it's own right, growing as the reader learns more about it, both past and present. Garber did a wonderful job of weaving all of the multi-generational storylines together in a fluid form that leaves the reader wanting to know the answers to all of the mysteries. Could definitely see this made into a movie!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

Content Warning: violence, kidnapping, death, loss of a parent, depression, grief

+ The gothic vibes in this book is nice. Estela moves in with her estranged aunt who lives in a Spanish castle called la Sombra. It’s dark, it’s falling apart, it’s old and she feels like someone is watching her. The town around la Sombra, feeds into the lore of the castle and the families that have lived there, almost like they are the rulers of the town. Estela learns about her family’s dark past and I thought where the story took me was quite unexpected.

+ Estela feels like an unreliable narrator at first because things that have happened in her life without a normal explanation. Also, because of her parents death – she’s being treated for PTSD and she doesn’t at times trust her own memories so I thought that made more engaged in the story because I didn’t know where it would be heading. I thought her growth and journey was strong though.

+ I did like the twists in the story, especially the ones I wasn’t expecting. There is a whole theme of family in this story that I thought was done well, especially when it’s about family secrets and there is a lot that Estela uncovers about her family, good and bad.

~ There is a paranormal romance in this story. Sebastián is a dark presence in the castle that is trapped and only Estela can see him. She finds out that he’s a vampire which even more fantastic given the gothic atmosphere of the book and I love paranormal romance. But I didn’t love the romance in this one. I didn’t feel the chemistry between them, even though there were heated moments, it fell kind of flat to me. It’s a bit too insta-love for me especially for someone like Estela going through so much trauma. I wish there was more build-up to their attraction.

My Thoughts:

I like how this book took me on an unexpected, twisty, and mysterious journey with Estela who is overcoming some difficult things like grief and trauma. I thought the gothic vibes were great and la Sombra was definitely creepy but I felt like I needed more from the story and wish the romance wasn’t so insta-love.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!!

This book was so good. It took me a minute to get into it, but after the first like two chapters I was absolutely hooked. I wanted to know what was going on in the castle that Estela was living in, why her aunt was acting the way she was, and what the heck was going on with Sebastian! The history of the town that Estela lived in after the accident involving her parents was well thought out and I really liked uncovering what was happening and learning along with Estela. It was a creepy vibe throughout the book that I was absolutely here for, it kept me on my toes the whole time and gave me the same feeling as watching a good horror movie. The twist towards the end? Absolutely killer. And then the last word of the book? I’m dying over that, and for my own peace and sanity I have decided not to read too much into it (after I went back and reread a certain scene like three times to try and make sure I knew what had actually happened).

I absolutely would recommend this book to anyone who likes romance, suspense, mystery, etc. because it had it all and it was such a fun and entrancing read!

Castle of the Cursed follows Estela, the sole survivor of a mysterious accident in which her parents died. She arrives at her ancestral castle, la Sombra, in Spain where she begins to suspect that her family may have secrets greater than she could have ever imagined. As Estela aims to discover the truth about her parents' death, she embarks on a supernatural journey with unexpected twists and turns.

While I was immensely intrigued by the premise and anticipation in the first half of the book, I felt as if the second half did not live up to my expectations. A lot of what happened, especially closer to the end, felt a bit random and forced to me. However, I did enjoy Estela's romance with Sebastian, and I thought their chemistry and tension was exciting! Overall, it was still a good read that had me flipping the pages as fast I could.

I would recommend this book to fans of Holly Jackson and Cassandra Clare!

Whoah.

Just...

Whoah.

I knew this book was going to be a good one. I really enjoyed the cover so I decided to give it a shot and either this book is just that good or I got out of my mood for anything other than contemporary romance. My bet is the former. This was a fun read that felt very gripping. I was on the edge of my seat and needing more more more more. I think this is going to be a popular one for sure. There were some instances in which it got a little dull but it was worth powering through at the very least. Thank you!

The story starts off with a bang of the first chapter in which we see Estela riding a subway when something inexplicably kills all of the subway car’s occupants, including her parents, leaving Stella as the sole survivor. Sent from a mental institution to her estranged aunt at her family’s ancestral castle, prickly Stella is left with some very strict instructions. The Spanish castle serves as the perfectly creepy setting for this novel about grief and recovery. During her stay with her aunt she discovers dark family secrets and picks up a forbidden love interest along the way.

I started this book confident this was going to turn into a new favourite and by the end I thought it was just okay. The first half of the book had been wrapped up in the possibilities of the setting, the plot and the relationship but as it unentangled itself it began to loosen its hold on my interest. I think I would have enjoyed this more had it been a horror novel instead of setting its sights on being a romance. There’s a morally gray love interest but I’m not sure the black and the white of his personality was ever really balanced enough to make me root for him as a love interest for Stella and their relationship ends up being critical to what unfolds in the later half of the book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was provided an ARC of this book through Netgalley for an honest review.

The biggest draw of this book is absolutely the incredible atmosphere. Dark, gothic and immersive, the castle, and the town by extension, stand out as characters of their own. I enjoyed the mystery unfolding as Estela slowly explored the castle and got to learn about the town's history. Her aunt and the other townsfolk's odd behavior kept up that off-kilter feeling that Estela was going through as her whole life was turned upside down.

Estela is a compelling main character and her grief and mental illness hit hard. Her feeling so alone in the world and then experiencing even more losses on top of everything, things she didn't even know she had to lose, absolutely hurts. The way she grapples with whether it's even worth it to fight or to try to win adds to the conflict she is facing.

The romance in this book and Bastian's character change fell flat for me. His personality and priorities change too much too fast for it to make any sense to me. I don't understand how he lost so much ruthlessness and then fell head over heels for Estela. I like Estela as a character but I don't understand what he specifically would see in her. The build up for his devotion to her to make sense just wasn't there.

I had the fun experience of being a Spanish learner at a similar level to Estela when I picked up this book. I enjoyed trying to translate and parse what characters were saying and then reading on to see Estela having a similar thought process and strategy as I did. It was a delightful little aspect of the book that I was pleasantly surprised by.

Pick this book up if you want to read about a creepy, gothic castle and a sinister, supernatural plot. That is absolutely where this book shines the most.

Thank you so much Netgalley, Romina Garber and Wednesday Books for the ARC!

This book had such potential...I remember reading the synopsis and being over the moon excited, but sadly I was let down around the mid point.

The beginning of this book did a great job at pulling you in and holding your attention with the mystery, but then we got to the halfway point. From there on, it took me a long time to get through. Everything felt like it was all over the place. Suddenly, Sabastian is madly in love, a miscellaneous character (the uncle) appears, and then everything goes wild from there. I think this book could have been an incredible read if it had just a bit more consistency and a better bell curve to the narrative.

I just finished Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber. The eARC was provided by NetGalley.

Estela Amador is the lone survivor of a freak subway accident that killed 25 people-- including her parents. Shipped off as a ward of the state, Estela is devastated by their loss, and wracked with survivor's guilt. Convinced there's something supernatural at play, Estela is frustrated when the police declare the incident as a gas leak. Thinking she's all alone in the world, she's surprised when her mother's sister contacts the hospital that she's in to offer her a chance to start over. The only problem, her Aunt owns an historic castle in Spain, Estela doesn't speak the language, never met any of her family, but agrees to go to solve the mystery of her parent's death. By digging into the past, Estela hopes to figure out what really happened to her parents, and why the locals all think her ancestral home is cursed.

This book was.. odd. The initial mystery pulled me in, and I had expectations about haunted castles, blood curses, etc. But instead, we got a labyrinthine plot that spans dimensional travel, vampires, and non-magical magic? Estela is both too smart for her own good, and also not very smart at all. Which, to be fair, is a trait a lot of teenagers have. The dark sinister foreboding never really reaches an actual feeling of dread, it mostly just leads to confusion. I think this book probably started out as a great idea, and then there was another one and another one and another one and it ended up just bogged down in side plots and weirdness. The character development is forced, it doesn't seem like any character is more than two dimensional, and the love story doesn't feel earned. The biggest issue that I had though, was the dialogue. It was frequently awkward and stilted-- there were whole conversations that were too stiff and formal for the characters who were doing the talking. Estela would sound like a normal 17 year old on one page, and the next she would sound like a 45 year old woman. I am very big on magic systems, and there was no consistency in the system. SPOILERS: Twins could wield magic, but also they couldn't because magic doesn't exist on Earth? The house is an entity that is attached to the Grandparent but also IS the grandparent and a dimensional portal? and also helps Estela? I wanted to love this book, but it was just a little too messy for me.

"La Sombra" presents readers with a hauntingly atmospheric tale of family secrets and supernatural intrigue set against the backdrop of a Spanish castle shrouded in mystery. While the novel boasts an evocative setting and an intriguing premise, it falls short of reaching its full potential.

The protagonist, Estela, grapples with the aftermath of a devastating attack that leaves her orphaned and plagued by survivor's guilt. Her journey to uncover the truth behind her parents' deaths takes her to the enigmatic la Sombra, where dark secrets lurk beneath the surface. The author skillfully builds tension through vivid descriptions and a sense of foreboding, drawing readers into a world filled with secrets and shadows.

However, despite the atmospheric setting, the pacing of the novel often feels uneven, with moments of slow buildup interspersed with bursts of action. Certain plot twists and revelations may come across as predictable, diminishing the impact of the mystery at the heart of the story. Additionally, some characters and plot threads feel underdeveloped, leaving readers wanting more depth and complexity.

The romance between Estela and Sebastián, while adding an intriguing dynamic to the narrative, feels somewhat clichéd and lacks genuine emotional depth. Their relationship evolves in a predictable manner, failing to fully captivate the reader or elevate the story beyond familiar tropes.

Overall, "La Sombra" is a decent read that will appeal to fans of gothic mysteries and supernatural thrillers. While it may not break new ground in terms of storytelling, it offers an engaging escape into a world where secrets lurk in the shadows and reality is as elusive as the castle's namesake.

Appreciate the trigger warnings early on. Loved the cover and the idea but it just didn't work for me. Enjoyed the vampire prince. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

When Estela and her parents are the victims of an train accident that leaves her the lone survivor she is left speechless in a hospital to recover. An aunt she doesn’t know finds her and offers her a home in a mysterious castle in Spain. The first half of this book was very engaging and I was interested to learn about Estela and her new mysterious home. The second half left me confused and lost at times. I felt it picked up to quick and got needlessly complicated trying to incorporate too many elements.. For me this made it hard to follow and difficult for me to be able suspend belief since there were too many fantastical concepts occurring all at once that I had to try and accept and move on from. Overall this story had a good start but it just felt like it was trying to incorporate too many different elements.