Read from June 27th, 2024 to July 3rd, 2024. Written on July 4th, 2024

NEW BOOK RELEASE ALERT!!

A trip down a fantastic Elizabethan London from the 17th century that will surely get you deep inside an adventure to remember.

With multiple POV's, unique characters, twists and turns and an ending to crave more, the author takes us to a London filled with vampires, zombies, fae, and other creatures from folklore.

I do have to say, I felt like the romance between the two main characters was a little bit forced, since there is almost no build up to it, or so I felt it.

I'm not sure what else to say though, I do hope there is a sequel because I am interesting in how the story can evolve.
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Signing off,
B.

(Free ARC from NetGalley and Farrago Books that I chose to review after reading)

Dark, witty, funny and adventurous, anything you could want in a dark fantasy with a pinch of romance!

Follow weirdly immortals, ghoul but not ghoul, vampire but not vampire, Fang and lazare, with the help of Nell the apothecary and Amber, the little fiery but sassy dragon, on a quest to find out why Fang and Lazare died but didn’t die.

On their journey they encounter many many otherworldly beings, and maybe find some answers to their many questions.


This was easily a five star read for me, the witty responses, the fight or flight behavior (so relatable), the little romance snippets, the tension and obviously AMBER!! I love her to bits!
I can’t wait for everyone else to fall in love with these characters as I did!

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

3.5/5
This was a really fun fantasy, set in a uniquely imagined version of Elizabethan London. It was funny at times and also sweet. The characters are somewhat odd at times but it all adds to the unusual tone of this queer romcom fantasy mish mash.

The pacing was good and held my interest, I enjoyed the plot and while I would have like to see a little more character development and depth I did really enjoy the characters. I particularly enjoyed the back and forth banter between the main characters, written in a way that was easy to follow it was a quirky fun quick read.

Really really enjoyed this. It had a fun and interesting plot, some fantastic characters and a brilliant sense of humour throughout. I loved Fang, and can’t wait to learn more, especially about the budding friendship with Lazare and their unusual affliction. Nell and Amber were equally as fun, and I’m already eager for the second instalment.

Cursed Under London is a funny and endearing tale of the adventures and misfortunes of two characters with very opposite personalities. Perfect for fans of Good Omens (both the show and the novel) and The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy.

Gabby Hutchinson’s style is incredibly fluid, combining both humor and action effortlessly. The pace doesn’t lag at any point and still the novel is fairly easy to put down and pick up again. The world she has built is rich and colorful, filled with creatures and the perfect amount of description to let the reader understand without being to overwhelming. It was fairly easy to fall into the politics and what-nots of both London without missing a beat.

The characters are a little underdeveloped and one dimensional, but it works for the tone of the book. My only complaint is that I felt the romance got a little bit lost among the action and was too rushed and at times hard to believe. I would have preferred if it went slower and we actually got to see the the attraction develop over time. That being said, I did enjoyed very much, especially their banter.

The secondary characters were mostly used as comedic support, but I found them adorable and hilarious in equal parts.

Overall it was a relaxing and enjoyable read. I would recommend if you love fantasy and are looking for an easy and laugh-out kind of book.

I did not finish this book because it did not hold my interest at all. I just couldn't get into the plot or connect with the characters. This story wasn't for me.

This is written by one of the writers for Horrible Histories, and that’s a pretty accurate representation of the tone of this book. This story is like random, quirky, 2010 humor on steroids. It’s quirky and pithy and just plain odd in many places, a historical fantasy queer romance that’s written in quite a modern tone, and yet it kind of works? I do wish the romance had been developed a bit more - the deep feelings kind of sprung out of nowhere. Feel like this is one I’ll have to process for a bit longer, but it’s definitely one of the more original stories I’ve read this year. A solid 3⭐️ read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrago Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fun and witty historical romantasy series with a range of unique features. Cannot wait to see what the rest of the series has to offer. Charming and cosy all the way through. Will definitely recommend to my friends.

This was an amazingly unique kooky paranormal story of mystery and found family set in the depths of both upper and lower london.
In a world where humans live above ground and there is a below ground equivalent of london for the paranormal so they can survive side by side in peace, we have a collective of characters who dont quite fit the norm of paranormal but also dont seem to be human fully anymore.

With gangs as our villains, we see our squad of main characters go against them to save Tem, a child who is half fae and half human and being used as a weapon. I loved how Tem and Fang one of our MC's bonded in this book and how our main gang ultimately became a close found family dynamic. This tale was unique and unlike any other id read and a great shelf filler at only 220 ish pages as an ebook. Overall, I would definitely reccomend it to fans of the paranormal and found family who want a bit of a mystery set in old england. From paranormal counterparts of Kit Marlowe and Shakespeare, to all our characters being a bit fruity, theres nothing more you could desire from such a tale.

Headlines:
Identity changes
Capers
Banter

This was a historical paranormal romp that was fast-paced and lively. At the centre were two men, Fang and Lazare alongside a dragon called Amber who was just so endearing. There were few serious moments, lots of peril, a bit of chemistry and a mystery about how Lazare and Fang had evolved.

Set in London, I did get a feel for the grim, dirty streets of London and the danger they held. The world was an odd place full of different paranormal creatures that kept to their own ends of London (supposedly). What had happened to Fang and Lazare was out of the norm, they hadn't been turned into the usual paranormal creatures, they were different and that was the puzzle of this story.

The banter was full-on in this book. Most lines brimming with wit and after a while, I wanted that pace of banter to settle. The connecting moments between Lazare and Fang were hampered a little by the fast pace, so that I didn't quite feel their chemistry.

I'm not sure what comes next in this series, but things aren't neatly tied up and I might read on.

Thank you to Farrago Books for the review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this will be a neutral review as I did not finish it. While the idea itself is fun and Amber the dragon and Nell the apothecary seem like intriguing characters, the rest…. Fell flat.

The moment ‘Bill and Kit’ were introduced, I knew I wouldn’t be finishing the title but I simply couldn’t persevere.

This book may be for someone, but it wasn’t for me.

3.5/5 stars

Cursed Under London is a cosy queer historical romantasy set in an alternative Elizabethan London where magical creatures coexist with humanity. Frenchman actor Lazare and handsome Asian man Fang are both attacked and killed, only to wake up as sort-of supernatural creatures with inexplicable immortality. Despite being strangers, they must work together to figure out this curse alongside a loyal apothecary and a small in stature dragon as they dodge rival gangs, avoid the deputized aviary royal police, and venture into Deep London, the underground dwelling of supernatural beings.

I actually wouldn’t consider this book a romantasy as the romance was very secondary to the main plot of the curse with very little actually developing in the romance department. Lazare is what you would call a debonair man who wouldn’t mind tumbling either a man or woman and prides himself as being a great lover. Meanwhile, Fang is an attractive man who has been traumatized by a past lover and seeks some instant gratification and subsequently quick rejection. While both men are attracted to each other, their competing philosophies don’t mesh initially and their shared curse certainly isn’t helping. Their relationship honestly never felt all that romantic—it felt more friendly with a heavy dose of lust.

The book itself is quite funny and very unserious. The cast get themselves into some pretty hilarious situations along with some fun banter and even funnier awkwardness. It’s pretty fast-paced and always progressing forward with delightful interactions and action.

I wouldn’t say the book felt cosy to me, but its low stakes and found family dynamic does go hand in hand with most cosy fantasies. The writing is accessible, if not particularly Elizabethan, but the author does switch perspectives unexpectedly between paragraphs so it’s sometimes confusing to tell who the PoV character is at any time. Mostly though, I think it’s just important to note that this book feels like a set-up novel for a series (which its actually is).

Cursed Under London lays the foundation for a cosy queer romantasy while actually being more of a low stakes fantasy comedy.

There’s a few bits of this that didn’t quite HIT it with me. There’s lots of funny bits, but I think it could’ve been funnier at times. The characters were kept fresh by the fast pace of the story, and it felt cosy and cute. But yeah something was just missing

This was a fascinating and intriguing fantasy novel. The book did start off a bit slow but the pace picked up as the story went on. The characters were well developed and lovable enough to make me really enjoy and appreciate the storyline.

There’s also great lgbtq+ representation which I loved! The romance was great, I loved every bit of it! Truly a book worth reading.

Elizabethan London? CHECK! Fantasy rom-com. CHECK!

This was such a fun read! I laughed out loud so many times and the characters were so well-written and the romance was so sweet that I found it hard to put my Kindle down. It totally gave me cosy-fantasy vibes, which i'm such a fan of right now!

This is the first book i've by this author by it 100% won't be the last!

Had a bit of a slow start but once the story got going the pacing was great. The cast of characters was chaotic and fun and I enjoyed how everything collated together at the end and left off for the sequel

This was a great disappointment. The plot was uninteresting, the comedic bits didn’t work, and the characters were two-dimensional one-trick ponies, with one of my pet peeves of keeping the backstory from the reader until it doesn’t matter and hiding pertinent facts about the character’s looks. There was insta-lust and love based purely on looks—and with the bland characters, it couldn’t be based on anything else—and a lot of talk of sex, but nothing delivered. Instead, we got a puritanistic moralising about bare male bits and buttoks, as if those weren’t the stable of Tudor comedy. But the worst was the worldbuilding.

I simply cannot understand why the author had chosen alt-Tudor England for the setting and then didn’t use any elements of Tudor world. Mentioning Marlowe, Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth is just name-dropping, not world-building. Instead, there were anachronisms that were probably supposed to be funny, like gluten, tourism, and Chinese on the other side of the world, although the book lost me already at Blackfriars Bridge.

If you can’t make your chosen era work for your comedy and fantasy elements, choose a different era or create your own world. This combined with the failed mix of comedy, romance and constant peril made everything seem tone-deaf. And then, the book just ended. While it was a blessing, it didn’t solve anything. It didn’t make me want to find out where this all leads either.

The story was nice and I liked the LGBTQIA representation but the story overall felt too childish for me. The characters didn’t draw me in and the fantasy element was both too simple but also confusing at the same time. I think this book should have been flagged as YA as I did expect it to be more grown up than it was. I wouldn’t want to continue with the series.

I received Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch for free by Black Crow PR & Farrago Books for an honest review, thank you so much for my beautiful copy!

It was so fun being part of this cover reveal, it is absolutely stunning and the concept of this book is so much fun! I really enjoyed the cosy vibes of this story but unfortunately the story wasn't my cup of tea. I would’ve loved some more worldbuilding and found the first half of the book to be rather slow. However, I did love the characters. They were so fun and I really enjoyed how they became a ragtag group on an adventure! Plus, I really liked the use of one of my favourite tropes - the grumpy guy having to become a father figure - it was so CUTE!

If you’ve read "Neverwhere" and wished it had a heavier dose of humour, this book will be a delightful discovery. The novel offers a captivating blend of urban fantasy and sharp wit, set against the backdrop of an imaginatively re-envisioned Elizabethan era. It's a refreshing departure from the usual contemporary or Victorian settings, breathing new life into the genre.

One of the standout features of the book is its immensely likeable cast of characters. Each member of this motley crew is well-developed, with unique quirks and personalities that make them feel real and relatable. Their interactions are a joy to read, filled with humor, warmth, and occasional poignancy. The author’s skill in worldbuilding is equally impressive, crafting a richly detailed environment that draws you in from the very first page. The Elizabethan setting is vividly brought to life, with intricate descriptions that evoke the sights, sounds, and smells of the era.

The novel is also notable for its frequent breaking of the fourth wall, which adds a delightful meta-dimension to the narrative. These moments are cleverly executed, often providing humorous commentary or ironic insights that enhance the reader's engagement. Additionally, the creative use of the Tube as a narrative device adds an extra layer of intrigue and charm to the story.

However, there are moments when the book’s humour feels a bit forced, teetering on the edge of cringe. While these instances are relatively few, they can momentarily disrupt the otherwise smooth and enjoyable flow of the story. Despite this minor flaw, the overall tone remains lighthearted and entertaining, ensuring that these lapses do not detract significantly from the reader's experience.

In conclusion, this novel is a highly enjoyable read for fans of urban fantasy, especially those who appreciate a good laugh. Its unique setting, endearing characters, and inventive narrative techniques make it a standout addition to the genre. I am eagerly anticipating further adventures of this charming band of misfits, whose endearing flaws and heroic exploits have left a lasting impression.