Castle of the Cursed is the story of Estela and how she comes to find out who she is and the secrets of her ancestral Spanish castle, la Sombra. While reading this I felt like I was reading 3 different stories. It changes at about a third of the way in and then again at about two-thirds. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Did I laugh at how oddly it was written in spots? Also yes. The romance did not work for me at all. Tela comes across as much younger than Sebastian. Their interactions were very weird and did not feel authentic, they felt rushed. The other characters were also kind of strange, in particular, Felipe who goes from a nice helpful neighborhood book guy to a nutcase at the drop of a hat. I know this will work for a ton of people, but for me, it was like three separate stories forced together. It is a great gothic story though.

I devoured Garber’s gothic tale within a day. I loved the strength within the protagonist, the unexpected twists and turns, and adorable romance. Not to mention the allusions and descriptions of Spanish culture. Garber is an author I will always say yes to reading.

LOVED!! This novel follows Estela who discovers a whole new world when tragedy hits. A world of self discovery, found family and new friendships. All white living and navigating through a cursed house. This story was truly magical and such an enchanting book.

The plot line was incredibly well detailed, and left me with no questions on what was happening. The creepy castle vibes was a perfect setting, but some moments threw me off.

~I want to start this by saying that there is heavy and dark mental illness rep in here. Our main girl, Estela, spirals and struggles so much with depression, grief and suicide after her parents death. It is not a one off and is throughout the entire book. Please take your mental health seriously and make sure you're ready before reading this book.~

Now my thoughts! I LOVED it. I DEVOURED this absolutely amazing book. It's my first Romina Garber book and it was just *chefs kiss*

Estela's parents are killed by a "freak" accident on the Subway and she is sent to a hospital as a ward of the state. While there, she receives a letter from an estranged aunt who lives in Spain. When she arrives, weird things start to happen and she can tell everyone in this small town is hiding something. Estela quickly starts to unravel the mysteries that surround her family and childhood, only to find something so much more sinister going on. With the help of her "Shadow Beast", a man she's been seeing in her dreams, they unravel the truth while finding love in the most unexpected ways.

I loved all of the characters so much as well as the mystery. The first few pages had me immediately hooked and kept my attention throughout the whole book! There wasn't a single boring part. I felt all of the emotions. I laughed, giggled, cried SO much, felt Estela's anger and frustration.

Bast is so swoon-worthy too!😍 Like, corporeal being who shows his feelings after he tried to kill me? Yes, please. He's so protective of Estela, physically and regarding her mental health doing everything he can to show her that she's not alone.

"I choose you over ... over everything."
MY HEART ❤️❤️

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. If you like gothic romance novels with interdimensional vampires than this book is for you. When Estle moves to Spain after her parents are mysteriously killed, she finds her self having to solve the puzzles that surround her in her new home. I liked the magic and gothic feel to this book. I was not really into the interdimensional vampire part.

Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber is an awesome dark gothic romance that will keep your interest from the first page to the last. And what an ending! Give this story a chance: it’s dark and twisted, with a fantastic world building and well developed characters and nothing is what it seems to be.
As an Spanish-speaker,, I LOVE the use of Spanish throughout the story. It’s well employed and absolutely correct. Well done!

SO GOOD. A little dark and full of turns, this was a really great read, though not that memorable. As I was reading this, I really enjoyed it. I basically read it in one sitting, as I just couldn’t put it down. I felt that everything was very well thought out, and plot points weren’t made just to fulfill tropes. It didn’t feel like insta-love from the way it was written, but the whole book happened over two-ish weeks so I guess it was. That’s a mild issue I had since I felt like they moved way too fast, but it didn’t have any impact on my enjoyment. Such a great book! 4.5 ⭐️

Wow. This book had me captivated from the very first sentence until the very end. I couldn't put it down!! This book had everything I absolutely love, from the Gothic romance to a mystery thriller and so much more. I devoured this book and absolutely loved it. The plot twist will definitely have you on edge and will make you want more!! You should definitely pick this book up once it's released ❤️

This books setting was absolutely lush and breath taking. It made me feel like I was right there alongside the main character on a journey that I could not stop thinking about.

This book was mainly confusing to me. I will attempt to get my thoughts together.

We follow a girl by the name of Estela who is preparing to stay at her family's ancestral castle. Spookiness and mysteries abound, and this also comes with discussions of boss, death, and—of course!—love.

I'll start with something good. The writing of this book was really beautiful and atmospheric. The descriptions were vivid that I felt like I was IN the castle with Estela, and the creepy vibes were most definitely achieved! The plot was gripping and I was hooked at many points throughout the book. However, there were moments that prevented me from feeling fully invested. Firstly, Bastian, my main problem. He is the love interest and I just want to say that he is definitely the "dark and questionably toxic" type. Morally grey enough to be almost indistinguishable LOL and there was just not a single quality that helped me to feel invested in their relationship. I had the major ick throughout and was cringeing at many of the descriptions and dialogue throughout. Secondly, there are a lot of double standards in the book concerning sexual assault and murder that I am just not here for LOL, it makes it very difficult to understand what the author is trying to do. I could've done without the epilogue as well; it complicated things for me and left more unresolved than I would've liked, which is the main source of my confusion; but it is a mystery, and I can absolutely understand how certain things might be murky.

This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the book; it was still really fun! The plot was compelling and well-crafted! There were just certain moments that felt questionable enough for me to not feel fully sold by the overarching ideas of the story. Still, the themes of grief and recovery were nice to see. I think this book will absolutely find its audience and deserves all the love; even if certain aspects were not my cup of tea, I still think that this book has readers who will find this perfectly aligned with their tastes. Just be warned that if you don't like shady (pun intended heehee) love interests or open endings, this may not hit as hard.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this early copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

I really enjoyed this romantic, twisty story! The gothic castle setting is so enthralling and a bit alluring and I am absolutely OBSESSED with Romina’s prose. Loved!

I feel like the book is trying to do too many things at once when it comes to the gothic sub-genre. It felt like the book itself was confused, as even I struggled to really fall in love with something before the novel switched directions each time. It was an alright book, but I will be honest that I would have likely dropped it if this was something I borrowed from the library.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for sharing this ARC!

DNF'd at 30% - While Castle of the Cursed has an incredible premise and sounded intriguing to me, I think it struggled with whether it wanted to be a gothic horror or gothic romance novel. There was so much thrown at the wall that it felt like the author was trying to find anything to stick.

I wasn't expecting this book to thrill me the way it did. I had seen some mixed reviews for it and dove into it skeptically.

The book: A cursed castle with an attractive vampire and a woman determined to solve the mystery of her parent's death.

Thoughts: It was more of a romance storyline than I expected it to be. The setting was painted perfectly, making it easy to immerse yourself along side the characters. Some of the plot was easily guessed, but the storyline managed to still enchant you.

An easy recommendation for any gothic supernatural fans.

I found this book to be up my alley and a page turner. The mysteries presented in this book had me wondering to the point , I lost sleep over what was going to happen. The writing was clear, informative and very well written. I love gothic stories and this is the first book from this Author I have read and I will be reading more.

What a fascinating read! Dark and captivating and unapologetically twisted, it was easy to enjoy The Castle of the Cursed once the secrets started to spill and the true story began to unfold.

Honestly, I struggled with the first maybe 30% of this book but ended up devouring it by the end. The story is unlike anything I have ever read before and is really unique and absolutely enthralling once you get into it. I unfortunately didn't connect well with the characters and a lot of the emotional bits of their relationships seemed to be either lacking or underdeveloped. I would have loved to have it just a smidge longer with more detailing and connection between the characters, but everything to keep the story rolling was present and certainly never dull.

Also, I expected some Spanish (obviously, from the synopsis) but I was skipping chunks of dialogue because I don't actually know a lick of Spanish. But that's my bad for not paying attention to Dora in my younger years.

Give it a read if you want something unexpected and quite satisfying.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read a book I may not have picked up. I wouldn't have know what I was missing

A bloodthirsty family legacy calls a girl back to her ancestral castle after a tragedy. But this castle is more than haunted - it's always hungry.

In this gothic supernatural romance, Estella is the sole survivor of an accident that killed her parents. She is institutionalized from the shock and struggles to find the will to live, when a mysterious letter arrives from her aunt, inviting her to the family castle in Spain that she can only barely remember. In true gothic fashion, her aunt forbids her from exploring the castle beyond the main rooms. Of course, that's the first rule Estela breaks, finding hidden rooms and secrets all over.

But when the handsome shadow beast (vampire) that Estela has been dreaming of comes to life within the castle walls, she finds herself drug into a web woven by others. Sebastian's convinced she is the bruja (witch) who has trapped him in her dimension and keeps threatening to kill her. But as Estela investigates to keep herself alive, both seem to feel complicated emotions towards each other.

This book was pretty well-paced, with just a few sections when we were in someone's memories that seemed to drag a little. There were some good twists, as well as some great gothic elements. All in all, an enjoyable mash-up of dark fantasy and paranormal romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A YA gothic horror that reminds me of fanfiction set in Luigi's Mansion with an unhealthy dose of Alex Jones conspiracy theories.
- The Good -
The general idea was solid, and the author does a fairly good job of incorporating Spanish throughout to add to the authenticity of the setting and general sense of place.
- The Bad -
The book was a slog. This is mostly due to the first person POV that facilitated an outbalanced focus on the MC's inner world and kept the town from really reaching the rich but concise levels of detail that the story needed to build up the gothic atmosphere. The characters as a whole were fairly flat.
- The Ugly -
The ending was bad. Because so much of the story relied on romance to propel the plot, the ending (more or less a bog standard psychological thriller ending) failed to feel like it fit either the genre it advertises on the tin or the foundational plot that it relied on for it's guts. There is also the issue that two parts of the ending conflict, but whether that's because what the author was going for wasn't clear or the story was purposely lying to the reader is unclear. Overall the writing was clunky. There were no grammatical errors or things like that, but the prose didn't flow and the dialogue tended to sound the same for all the characters.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. Castle of the Cursed was EVERYTHING I wanted in a gothic fantasy. I really liked everything about it. Estela is on the subway with her parents and others when she sees a mysterious black smoke. Seconds later when her vision clears, everyone is dead except Estela. Estela and her parents always moved around and was told she was of Argentinean descent. So, imagine her surprise when she finds out she has a long-lost aunt in Spain. Once Estela moves to Spain and arrives in the castle: La Sombra, things start to become weird. Her aunt gives her a pill saying it's the equivalent to what the Americans were giving her, but at night, Estela sees red lights and a shadow beast. As Estela begins unraveling La Sombra's secrets, not only is she in danger, but everyone on Earth is too.