A little Dragon walks into an alley...

That's basically what happens in the first few pages and what followed just had me laughing constantly.
This book is a funny fantasy story with exciting plot twists, a queer edge to it and a found family that just
keeps on growing.
It does play in an alternative London

The writing is well done and the world building is really easy to understand.
Sometimes it can be really overwhelming if a book has different supernatural species and POV's but that is not the case here.

So if you are a fan of the following tropes this book is definetely for you:
- Queer romance
- Found family
- Urban Fantasy
- Supernatural vibes
- The cutest smallest dragon ever!

This was a cute and cozy little fantasy with a cool cast of characters and an interesting mystery plotline! In "Cursed Under London", we follow two men in a version of 16th century Elizabethan England that includes fantastical creatures such as dragons, vampires, zombies or ghouls. These two men have one big thing in common: Both died during a vicious attack by gangsters, and both somehow managed to un-die immediately. This convenient coming-back-to-life incident also gives them new powers - Lazare, a French actor living in London, gets some big vampire wings, while Fang, as mysterious and grumpy as one can be, can suddenly create rather disgusting illusions. This strangeness is also what brings them together in order to find out what happened to them, and on their journey to that goal they are accompanied by a tiny dragon and an apothecary.

The characters were all well-written enough to care for them and want them to succeed. Their dynamic is a lot of fun, and the romance between Lazare and Fang is enjoyable as well. The pacing here is a little off (it's a big case of instalust that very quickly turns into love, which didn't feel earned) but the banter is worthwhile.

What dampened my enjoyment heavily was the world building.
Most notably, there is just no reason whatsoever to make Elizabethan era London the setting of your novel if it's not recognizeable at all. Throwing in some known names, like Elizabeth herself or a really weird version of Christopher Marlowe is just not enough to establish a setting. At no time did it feel like I was actually in 16th century England. The characters speak in a way too modern language, there are anachronisms all about, everyone is openly queer with no repercussions, and this would be fine if Hutchinson Crouch had decided to just built her own fantasy world. Even a fantasized alternate universe 16th century England has to be reminiscent of real life 16th century England or it just doesn't make sense as a setting.
The plot was also a bit meandering with really low stakes, and the big villain wasn't built up well enough to make the final revelations and the big fight interesting. It was alright, all in all.

I'd give this 2,5 stars, rounding up because I enjoyed the general feel and vibe of the story and the characters were mostly fun to hang out with. I probably would have enjoyed it more had it been set in a fantasy world.

Cursed Under London is a first book of a rom-com series. The book follows Fang, Lazare and Nell through Elizabeth London. They are struck with a curse of immortality. Throughout their attempts to reverse the curse they meet some friends along the way meanwhile failing in love.

The description of the book alongside the title and cover really drew me to this book. The idea of Upper and Deep London had me intrigued and wanting to read as soon as I got my hands on it.

The book starts off with some cringe (for lack of better word) humor. The book felt quite young from the start to me which I pushed through because I had high hopes. I got to about 70% and unfortunately had thoughts to DNF the book. I found stakes too low for my enjoyment and in the end wasn’t overly enthusiastic about finding out how to reverse the curse.

I did enjoy the found family aspects. Amber is my favourite! The writing of the book was also easy to follow. That being said I found that I was left with quite a lot of unanswered questions which I can only hope will be answered in the next book/books within the series.

Overall if you enjoy a witty rom-com this may be the book for you.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy.

This was a fun romantasy adventure story. Fun storyline and characters you can't help but love.

In this story, we follow a group of misfits in Upper London. Lazare (the Frenchman actor), Fang (the sexy grumpy Easterner), Nell (the Welshwoman apothecary), Amber (the lil dragon), and Tem (the fae child).
This group of unlikely characters are trying to figure out the strange happenings in Upper London, minus the normal happenings of living amongst Vampires, Werewolves, dragons, etc. Lazare and Fang have been inflicted with an almost "undead" curse that they go on an adventure to solve. This leads them to Deep London where the laws are different and the undead rule.

I had a fun time with this novel and would definitely recommend for feel good silly fantasy readers :)

'Cursed Under London' was delightful. I honestly could not keep my book away. It was my first book from this author and let me tell you, I am curious to read her other series. It was well written and the characters were well developed and endearing. I can't wait to read more about their adventure.

Light and playful tone with a good amount of whimsy. I loved the assortment of supernatural creatures, and I really adored the dragon, Amber.

Outside of that, I had a number of issues with this book. Despite an interesting premise, this book rambles...a lot. Some parts were so haphazard and unfocused that I completely zoned out. There were also areas that felt overly abrupt—like an idea was dropped on the page and then abandoned before being fully realized.

Generally, there was a lot going on—lots of action, adventure and intrigue—which normally would be great. But, in the case of this book, it was too much. The almost continual onslaught of action felt shallow and the characters lacked development. It's hard to care about the plight of a character that you don't care about.

Lastly, the writing felt subpar. It was clunky and unpolished. There were numerous grammatical errors. Lack of sufficient punctuation. Overly long and conflated sentences. Just generally hard to read.

Good ideas, but I wasn't a fan of the execution.

i liked this book!
the story was very interesting, the main characters were well written and really likeable.
unfortunately i didn't really like the ending, i was hoping for a big plottwist, but it was foreseeable and cliche.

I was excited to read Cursed Under London when I realised the author Gabby Hutchinson Crouch was a writer for the series Horrible Histories - a tv show adapted from the much-beloved books of Terry Dreary that I grew up with.

Cursed is billed as a historical romantasy in lots of its press, but I must say the historical setting fell flat for me. I note at the end of the book it’s actually described by the author as a fantasy rom-com and I feel that’s much nearer the mark.

I didn’t mind the modern language or even the anachronisms within the story (business cards? Passports? Boiling water to sterilise it?) but what disappointed me was the lack of world building and scene setting which could have immersed the book in a parallel Elizabethan London. There was so little detail it could have been in any time period.

That said - I did enjoy the book once I got over that. I loved the idea of an upper London inhabited by humans and a lower London full of magical creatures, and the storyline of the two protagonists who had to unravel the mystery of why they kept failing to die properly was great.

Hutchinson Crouch’s humour runs through the book which made it an easy, entertaining read, and I loved the supporting characters of Nell the Welsh almost-witch and Amber the far too small dragon. Appearances by Bill Shakespeare and an annoying, randy zombie Christopher Marlowe made me chuckle.

In a similar vein I liked how the author poked fun at romance tropes like ‘only one bed’ and the romance between the two protagonists was complicated and sensitive. Underneath the humour, the message of inclusivity and the importance of found family was sweet and really satisfying to read.

I will post my review across my social platforms on the 4th July and on retail sites the day after publication. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this title.

I enjoyed this book. On the positive side, I found the story interesting. The protagonists were well-developed and I liked their relationships. There was also some humour. I generally don’t like romance stories, but I thought that the romance was written well and not overdone. On the negative side, I found the villain was cliched and the ending was predictable. I also wasn’t a big fan of the reveal. But overall, I did enjoy the book and I was glad that I read it, hence the 4-star rating. Thank you to Netgalley and Farrago Books for the digital review copy. .

2.75/5 rounded up. Thank you Netgalley and Farrago books for allowing me to read this book early. From the get go the reader is thrown into the depths of Elizabethan England, specifically London, as we see one of our main characters dice with ‘death’ and meet a dragon. We soon switch narrator and find ourselves with another man who is afflicted with the same ‘death’ as our first character which unfolds into an alliance. Unfortunately for me the comedic writing was a downfall to the book for me, and came across as childish rather than comedic.

The blurb for this book sounded intriguing, and hinted at the book being somewhat comedic, but sadly it failed to deliver.

This book is meant to be set in Elizabethan times, yet the author mentions passports, business cards, coffee, hypnotism, and even fatty acids. It gave the book an overall feeling of deceit and falseness. The supposed setting of the Elizabethan period seemed to be an afterthought.

The characters were rather uninspiring, and there were a number of grammatical issues that would benefit from further editing. There were also a number of shifts in POV mid-way through chapters which I found irritating.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in return for my honest review.

I thought this was pretty different, and showed great imagination.it was light hearted and a fun read, not to be taken too seriously. Overall not a bad read.

*Firstly thank you Netgalley and Gabby Hutchinson crouch for gifting me this book in exchange for an honest review*

I did not finish this book so my review is based off the first 27%
If you like dungeons and dragons I think you'd enjoy this book, I play D&D and that's the vibe this book gave me, although not necessarily bad, it's not what I look for in a book.
I didn't care about any of the characters, and the plot didn't grip me, although it was written with humour which I enjoyed.

This sounded so much fun. Love the Horrible Histories-books and you could tell that Hutchinson Crouch has a background in writing comedy. Initially I really enjoyed the story but the more I got into the book the more bored I got. I felt like the world and its lore was the most interesting parts of the story and didn’t really care for the characters much.

I really enjoyed this book - which is definitely the start of a series. The characters are extremely memorable and the world building was very compelling. I loved the idea of a the supernatural world existing below the ground with all of the non-supernatural folks being fully aware of it and engaging with it.

I appreciated the romantic aspects of the story - but it was definitely very lightly developed and was a bit too instant for me.

Overall this was a fun start to a series.

3.5 ⭐

Set in an alternate history London with supernatural creatures, this novel brings and adventure, mystery and romance with a sort-of-discworldy humour. I liked the story, sometimes I was thinking about giving it 4 stars but eventually decided to be a bit stricter.

People are saying this is cosy fantasy, which it probably is, but this is an adult novel with plenty of violence and some sex, so I think cosy might be a bit subjective, maybe I'd just say humorous. And the writing is funny: it's not absurdly humorous all the time, but still heavily comical. No complaints about the humour, it's pretty much what was promised.

There are several good supporting characters in addition to the two leads, I really enjoyed the diverse cast. We get some of their POVs here and there too.

I have a bit mixed feelings about the romance. While I think these two men are a good pair and there were some nice moments of Lazare dodging Fang's absolute self-sabotage, the ending felt a bit too inconclusive. It's not a cliffhanger ending and I know this is a first book in a series, but I've recently read so many great serials with satisfying endings, that I can't help feeling a bit let down.

The mystery plot was intriguing, though it became rather evident, and the protagonists were bumbling around stupid a bit too long. Though I still consider all these flaws pretty minor and am interested in continuing the series.

My thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

Set in Elizabethan London, this story follows two characters who can't figure out who they are in a world full of vampires, werewolves, dragons etc. and why they can't die. The romance side wasn't very convincing, it was basically one sided and even that one side only felt as though there was a physical attraction and nothing more. The humour wasn't really for me, it didn't really land well.

I did like the dialogue being modern even though it's set in the 16th century. And the book gave me Peaky Blinders meets What We Do In The Shadows vibes. The plot is unique. A nice, easy read.

I was intrigued by the description of this book (a version of Elizabethan London where paranormal beings exist) but I wasn't sure what to expect. This book turned out to be a lot of fun!

This book is certainly not going to be winning any prizes for historical accuracy (the characters use modern turns of phrase, the sexual morality is modern etc) but it is very obviously not trying to be. This is a completely alternate universe -- where swans can be the Royal Guard, where there's a Deep London, a dragon Queen of Wales and... you get the picture. Realism isn't the point.

Rather this book is full of an engaging mystery, a grumpy/sunshine MM romance, a great cast of supporting characters, and a well-developed world. My only criticisms are that I the ending felt a little rushed (and the defeat of the villain a little too easy?) and that I wish a little more use was made of the time period -- although the inclusion of Kit Marlowe and another playwright known as "Bill" was a fun addition. Given this is the start of a series perhaps we may see more Elizabethan influence in later books.

Overall a thoroughly engaging read and a solid four stars. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing this copy.

This is a fun and bizarre fantasy that follows a diverse cast of characters that unite on a quest to save Elizabethan London and find a place within the divided streets of London. I enjoyed the characters and how each were well-rounded and had their own quirks, especially Amber the dragon. The romance between Fang and Lazare wasn't well built up and seemed rushed, but I was still rooting for them nonetheless. I think the romance would have benefitted from the book being longer and taking more time to understand Fang and Lazare's background to appreciate why they would make a good couple.

The story starts quickly, but I think in some places almost too quickly. There is a lot of world building and context that the reader must grapple with, such as the upper and lower sides of London and how these places differ socially and economically, as well as separate groups of fantasy species, such as zombies, dragons, vampires etc. There is a lot in a short book. I loved the idea of the world but this isn't a typical historical fiction. The premise would have worked just as well in a modern setting. I think the plot needed to entangle more in the history and context of the time - such as. plot involving Queen Elizabeth I or the political issues at the time to tie to the period.

Overall, I loved the characters and the premise, but I did feel my eyes drifting over the text and losing focus. This could be that this type of writing style is not for me and dense world building. But the characters made me want to continue reading.

These two characters and this laugh out loud romance story was excellent !
It's also mixed with a well built fantasy plot which I found quirky and fun to read .

Overall I liked all of the main characters on the quest featured in this book with my favourite being lazare.

The story of book 1 ends as a cliffhanger so i already can't wait for book 2 to come out !!