I volunteered to read and review an advanced readers copy of One Cursed Rose through Net Galley. I enjoyed reading this story so much . It's an interesting and entertaining suspense romance . A unique twist on Beauty and the Beast . I found this story action packed and Suspenseful . The characters and the story is so different than anything I've read in a good way . So much goes on in this story . It's dark and dangerous. I highly recommend taking the time to read .

I enjoyed this book. I’m a sucker for retellings. Beauty and the Beast are one of my favorite love stories. This book was a dark retelling with suspense, fantasy, magical elements, romance. It is a love story with SPICE. I like the romance between Alana and Thorn. This story is a uniquely modern Beauty and the Beast.

Well that was a pleasant surprise. A little darker than what I am used to from Rebecca, but I quite enjoyed it.
The magic element took a little longer for me to understand but like any good math question, when I figured it out? It was worth.

In this dark and erotic retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale, social Media princess, Alana Beaumont, is now the heir apparent after losing her brother in what seems at first to be an accident. Her father's company, Aquarius Social, is one of four ruling family's who get their power from precious stones as well as interaction online with billions of followers. Alana is told by her father that she will marry another family’s odious son as Aquarius Social is in trouble needing to shore up power. When someone attempts to harm Alana, she is saved by the reclusive rival Thorn Beathach, who is know as the Beast for his appearance as well as the brutal tactics in the near war between the four ruthless and the seriously moral lacking families.

Once in Thorn’s secret castle, Alana does her best not only to escape but learn all her captor’s secrets. Thorn tells Alana from the outset that she is his to keep giving her strict rules to follow that come with punishments for infractions. Those penalties are of the S/M Fifty Shades kind which is all new to the virginal Alana. Alana is vital to her company because she “charges” the gems that keep it running. Thorn has been physically afflicted by an enemy; his time is running out to find the perpetrator and the cure before it takes him out.

This story, the first one in the Grimm Bargains series, is much darker with violence, brutality, and eroticism than other of the author’s fantasy romance books. The next one looks to be a take on the Cinderella story focusing on Ella, one of Alana’s close friends and an internet hacker stepdaughter shunned from another of the dominant families. I usually enjoy Ms. Zanetti’s writing and am a fan of her other works; however, this one was too dark and too much sexual exploration in the land of kink for me. The setup for the world building is somewhat hard to follow as well.

Loved the main character and the idea but I had a hard time following the themes of social media / platforms / tech. Otherwise I really liked it, just definitely might have needed a bit more "follow-able" plot for me :)

One Ccursed Rose by Rebecca Zanetti is a dark and twisted reimagining of Beauty and the Beast. I am all for fairy tale retellings, but not so much for dark mafia romance so this was going to be an interesting challenge of a read and to be fair, I was intrigued. Is dark mafia my jam? No, does it work in this context? Kinda. Is it better to spearate it if you are not into Dark Mafia and enjoy it as a really well-written retelling? By eckers yes!

This retalling is absolutely brilliant. The character dynamics are strong, the dialogue equally so. The plot flows naturally and oh my, well, oof, keep a glass of water to the side to cool off!

The Urban/ Paranormal Fantasy vibe is definitely where I found my pace in reading One Cursed Rose and it works so very, very well.Unique, original, shimmering, angsty, morally grey and oh my crikey the slow burn is fire!

Thank you to Netgalley, Kensington Books and the amazing author Rebecca Zanetti for this fantastic ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

I’d like to say Thank you to Rebecca Zanetti and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review One Cursed Rose!

I was very intrigued by the idea of a dark retelling of Beauty And The Beast. (“Tale as old as time” right ?! ) This one was very unique. I really enjoyed the fantasy element added to the story and the murder and mystery added to it made it thrilling.

I do wish that the magic of the crystals had been a little bit more elaborate. I would have liked to see that mapped out a little more. But the social media aspect was very interesting.

I think dark romance , mafia , fantasy , billionaire , and mystery is a lot of themes happening at one time. It made the plot points a little thin in some places. I wish that there was more back story of the crystals. I would’ve liked some kind of fated mate story line.

Overall I did enjoy it. It has lots of dark spicy scenes and plenty of twists and turns!

One Cursed Rose is different from the other books by Rebecca Zanetti that I have read. It is a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast with Mafia ties. I liked her unique take on the story; she blends fairy tale elements with computer science, crystals, and magic with hints of Camelot. There are four prominent social media families. Alana is the heir of the media giant Aquarius Social. Her father wants her to marry a revival media family to combine their empires to help take down the company run by Thorn Beathach. Thorne has other plans for Alana. He needs her to help save his company. Even though they are enemies, Alana can't fight her attraction to Thorne, and he can't let her go. Word of caution: this is not your typical Rebecca Zanetti book. The romance gets very dark, and Thorne has a strong possessive quality. I loved her take on this classic story and can't wait for the next book in this series. I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. A big thank you to Rebecca Zanetti, Kensington Books, and NetGalley. #OneCursedRose #NetGalley

I loved the Dark Protectors series, so when I saw that the author is writing a dark fairy tale series, I couldn't wait to read this! Thorn is truly a beast with dark urges, but he also uses his power for good. The four competing social media giants have discovered that the more followers they can attract, the more that energy powers their crystals. Thorn has never shown his face in the media, but when his obsession Alana, heiress to her family's media company is almost kidnapped, he rescues her... only to keep her captive himself.
In a world with so much competition for power, Alana's father plans to marry her off to forge an alliance, but she's kidnapped by Thorn before that can happen. Is it Stockholm syndrome or is the attraction she feels to this frustrating man real? And will the discover the cure to his curse before he's taken from her forever?
I've read several Beauty and the Beast retellings but this one was truly unique. The use of magic crystals and social media made the story more modern. Thorn was truly the dark hero you hate to love and Alana was perfect for him. There are so many great side characters in this story that I can't wait to catch up with in the next books!
Thanks to Kensington Books through Netgalley for the advance copy of this book. The opinions in this review are my own and given voluntarily.

✰⋆☾ ⋆ One Cursed Rose ⭑☽ ✧˖°. R. Zanetti ✰


🕮 Romantasy
🕮 Beauty and the Beast retelling
🕮 Enemies to lovers
🕮 Magic
🕮 Touch her and die
🕮 Dark Romance
🕮 Murder mystery
🕮 🌶🌶🌶/🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶


Really liked this retelling of Beauty and the Beast, It was beautifully written and LOVED the spice! ♡
Was a bit of a slow read though as I was confused in the beginning and had no idea what was happening. 🙈

I'm sorry to say that this is my least favorite Rebecca Zanetti story that I have read. It is a fantasy, in a world in which four families with an affinity with gems, which gives them power and long life, rule the world. It is a dark world. The families are ruthless, like mafias. In the modern world they spread their power with the use of the internet and social media. Someone has poisoned Thorn, the head of Malice Media, by setting a virus into their server and his body parts are freezing. He has become obsessed with Alana Beaumont, heir of Aquarius Social, stalking her to keep her safe and kidnapping her when an attempt is made on her life. He is a bully, but just being near her warms him. I do not care that he was abused and kidnapped himself when he was a child, there is no excuse for his sadistic behavior to her or her response to it. I do not care to read sadistic/masochistic relationship. So basically the story is about finding who poisoned Thorn and a cure, who killed Alana's brother and Thorn teaching Alana to be submissive, when that is not her nature. She is more spunk than submissive but she has come to love him.

Nevertheless, the story is engaging, fast paced and a page turner. Like most of the author's books, the villain was the last person that you would suspect. It wasn't until I got to the author's Acknowledgements, that I found out this was suppose to be a dark Beauty and the Beast. I hadn't caught that. Oops. OK, so I now see it in a different light, but still do not like their dark relationship.

I read a gifted advanced readers copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.com. This is my honest, unbiased and voluntary review.

A massive thank you to Netgalley, Kensington Books and Rebecca Zanetti for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

WOW. What a book! I absolutely LOVED it! I raced through it, but I also didn't want it to end.

When I read the synopsis for One Cursed Rose, I instantly wanted to read it. A dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast? Yes please!
It was everything I wanted it to be and more.

Rebecca has an addictive writing style that grabs you immediately and doesn't let go. I loved everything about it: The magic, the romance, the characters and the storyline.

Alana and Thorn were magnetic and their chemistry was off the charts.
I loved their friends and family too, especially Justice, Ella, Scarlett and Quinlan. I found Stacia intriguing too. I'm hoping this is just the start of an epic dark romance series. 🤞 I definitely need more.

I highly recommend.

5 well deserved stars from me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(I'd give more stars if I could)

This book was a challenge for me to get through. I have read numerous books by Rebecca but I feel that this dark Beauty and the Beast retelling just wasn't done well. The writing in the first third of the book was elementary and hard to read through. I couldn't believe this was the same author who had written the deep ops series. The sentence structure was really basic, didn't flow in a way that seemed to convey a story. Instead it felt like bullet points to just get to the next section. The way the author chose to describe Thorn's Synesthesia was also extremely confusing.

What tipped it over the edge for me were the names of several characters. Yes it is a beauty and the beast retelling but please do not use names from the actual Disney Movie - The FMC's dad is named Maurice, her brother is Gast, the MMC's friend is named Coggsworth and his "housekeeper/estate manager" is Mrs. Pottsdam.

The storyline with the crystals and the four families and the way their social media companies was also confusing. The way the social media companies were driven by emotions, time, memories etc just didn't seem to meld cohesively for me.

The last 2/3 of the book seemed more in a writing style of what I would expect from Rebecca and it became easier to read. I did find myself just reading quickly to get to the end to see what would happen.

It also became clear that the author plans a Cinderella retelling with one of the characters - but it's also so close to the fairytale that it is cringeworthy for me. The woman's name is Ella and she has two step sisters and a step mom who have taken over her family company and kicked her out.

Overall it was a decent story but I won't be continuing the series or recommending it to friends.

“One Cursed Rose,” by Rebecca Zanetti

I really liked this book. I liked the magic through crystals powered by social media which is unique and modern. It gave me less of a regular fantasy book but more magical realism. The book was well paced and had so many tropes and characters that I really liked. I cannot wait until the second book comes out. 4 out of 5 stars.

-Dark Romance
-Magic
-Mafia/Gangs
-Billionaires
-Kidnapped/Forced Proximity
-Touch Her and You Die
-Beauty and Beast Retelling

Thank you for the ARC!

Ok, I'm totally intrigued! I don't think I've read anything like this before. This is a beauty and the beast retelling with a very unique twist to it. It's a bit mysterious with the crystals and why some families have an affinity to certain stones. It seems there is great power with the stones, but a lot is unknown in this first book. I enjoyed the main characters. Thorne was obsessed and I like that he took what he wanted. He's dark but I a good kind of dark. Alana is more than what she shows to others. She strong and smart. I liked them together. I'm very interested to see where this series will go. This was a great first in the series!

A sexy and sizzling modern twist of beauty and the beast. If you are in the mood for a dark romance, this will hit that mark.

It was an easy read, not boring or bland but well written novel that flowed easily. The two main characters are Thorn and Alana. Alana is naive and innocent, trying to find her strength to stand up for herself, to find what she truly wants in life and for herself. Thorn is a man who knows exactly what he wants. He has a strong empire but someone is trying to weaken and destroy it and Thorn himself.
The dynamic of these two polar opposite characters was electrifying!

Will these two find something together or will corruption and greed destroy everyone and everything?

I love Ms. Zanetti's Deep Ops series and Sin Brothers series. This book was a bit of a different type read for me but overall I enjoyed it. After seeing it was a twist on the Beauty and the Beast story I had to give it a try. It took me a bit to get into the book but once I did I didn't want to stop reading until it was finished. Thorn and Alana were intriguing characters and the other characters (supporting cast) were interesting additions to the story. Thorn's obsession with Alana kept me reading (kidnapping, chipping her, etc) and his flaws (physical and social) made the story even better for me. This one is a bit steamier than some of her other books I've read so keep that in mind if that bothers you. I especially loved the conclusion of the story and how Alana, with the help of the others in the book, "save" Thorn. I've already been thinking of other characters from the book who might be the main characters in the next book in the series.

Sexy, steamy, and just the right amount of dark. Thorn and Alana had me hooked. The world building is unique. It took me a little bit to understand what was going on, but once I did I was intrigued. This retelling of Beauty and the Beast is a great kickoff to a new series that has a lot of promise. There are several interesting characters. I really want more of Justice. It also kept me guessing and I was stunned by the reveal. I can't wait for more!

This book has literally everything. Fairy tale retelling, magical realism, serial killers, dark romance, mafia-y storyline, it's even sort of local to me :)

In this new series, Zanetti introduces a group of four families that run all of social media out of the "Silicon Valley". A few cities are mentioned but for the most part if you're local it doesn't take you out of the story. Alana Beaumont is the strongest member of Aquarius Media - she's the biggest influencer and can keep the crystals that run the entire internet (?) charged.

Alana's father tries to marry her off to a son of another family but she is kidnapped by Thorn Beathatch, the head of Malice Media. Thorn decides he and Alana are fated to be together.

Meanwhile Thorn and his crystals have been cursed and he is slowly dying. He trades Alana back to her father in an attempt to heal himself and the company.

There are backstories about how the mothers of both families died, and the makeup of Aquarius Social changes a bit adding some more distant relatives. Alana is also friends with Ella, who has a stepmother and 2 stepsisters that have taken over her father's company and kicked her out of the family.

Overall Zanetti got me interested in the series by it being a fairy tale retelling (Beauty and the Beast is my favorite) and even though I don't generally like fantasy or magical realism, that portion of the book didn't affect my enjoyment of the story and characters. I really enjoyed Alana and Thorn's relationship and the fact that the story had a little bit of everything in romance-land.

I can't wait to read about Justice (Thorn's brother) and the other characters introduced in this book in future retellings.

Music tie in - "I Wanna Be Software" by Grimes.

I received an advance copy and am giving an honest review.

One Cursed Rose unfolds as a captivating tale, blending romance and mystery seamlessly. The author's vivid storytelling and well-drawn characters breathe life into this enchanting narrative. The interplay of blossoming love and fantasy creates a compelling and magical atmosphere, making it a delightful read.