Would upgrade my rating to 4.5 stars. This audiobook was a lot of fun! Great narration and easy to follow. So many twists and turns that I couldn’t believe but in a good way! This book was a combo of Mexican Gothic and Belladonna which are two of my favorites. Very atmospheric. I will be doing a review post on this one within the next week on my Bookstagram and will update this with the link.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the e-arc!
This is coming out at the absolute perfect time because the Castle of the Cursed is exactly what I want on a Gothic fall read! Play I already know that people are going to go absolutely nuts for this book! It has a bit of everything, such as horror, romance, fantasy, and mystery. Estella journeys to her family's ancestral home to figure out what happened to her parents and discover the secrets hidden inside.
This book really brings the Gothic atmosphere and mystery to life by toe-ing the line between reality and hallucinations. Sebastian is a really interesting character, with his dynamic in the house and Estella creating such an intriguing history. This is definitely a twisting and complex narrative to follow but it is extremely mesmerizing! There were parts of the families of struggling but I'm so glad I continued as the themes throughout the story really hit hard.

Thank you to NetGalley, Romina Garber & MacMillan Audio for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced.

The cover art & synopsis intrigued me, but sadly, the story that was delivered fell a bit short for me. This was one of those stories that was just so-so for me – I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t really like it either. Therefore, my rating is straight down the middle at 3 Stars.

I read 400+ books per year & I will have forgotten this one by the time I am done typing this review. It just wasn’t a standout story that will stick with me.

Normally, I really enjoy gothic, atmospheric stories with paranormal/supernatural characters. This should have been a slam dunk. The dual timelines were confusing at times because there really wasn’t any break informing the reader of the switch in timeline. The pacing was also much slower than normal for a book of this type & I felt like I was trudging through to finish it.

The narrator was amazing & the best part about his audiobook.

Overall, this book had so many positives going for it, but the execution & delivery fell a bit short.

I loved the setting and the family secrets. The creepy dark gothic castle was a great setting for a family that is unwilling to share their knowledge with each other. I like Estela’s determination to solve the mystery even if her family is lying to her. I didn’t really like the romance and the epilogue made it worse. Maybe this kind of supernatural romance isn’t for me.
So if you like a dark gothic everyone is lying type book with some steamy romance, you might like this one. I would definitely recommend this for older YA readers only.

I really enjoyed this one! Gothic fantasy… a bit of mystery. Who dunnit? Loved it. Definitely check it out. Adding the physical copy to my shelf soon, The cover is to die for,

This was a dark tale about a creepy castle and family secrets. This one sucked me in quickly. I listened to an ALC of this book and highly recommend the audiobook. It was really good.

This work started off quite strongly. The setting and castle were written well, creating a strong and gloomy atmosphere that had me excited. There were also several spooky and mysterious things happening that kept me waiting to see what would happen next. By about halfway through, these elements had completely disappeared, including the atmosphere, which was massively disappointing. The work then took a weird, multi-dimensional turn that felt out of place and odd.

The characters were very YA. They fell into standard tropes without adding anything new or interesting to the mix. Unfortunately, there’s also a standard YA romance that is massively insta-love (13 days from not knowing each other to being the only thing worth living for). There were also some explicit on-page spicy scenes that felt out of place and added nothing positive to the read.

I did love how the author chose to end this one, but it and the strong beginning weren’t enough to save the other 80% of the book. Read this if you’re looking for an odd YA read with insta-love and standard characters. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work, which will be published July 30, 2024. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is definitely not my kind of book, but I know many teens who will devour it. It's exactly the sort of dark, paranormal romance a lot of kids are looking for, and it has a little more substance than a lot of other books in that category. My biggest complaint was the ending where they decide criminals are okay to sacrifice for blood. Maybe readers who are in favor of capital punishment will have less of an issue with it, but that really ruined the book for me.

Castle of the Cursed started a bit slow, but once it set the stage and got our protagonist to Spain, it took off.
This gave me vibes of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Roshoni Chokshi, two of my favorite authors, and I loved the gothic meets campy meets vampires meets mystery blend.
Ana Osorio is a new-to-me narrator and she NAILED this narration. I was enraptured as she brought all of Estela’s emotions to life. I’m glad I was able to read this on audio instead of with my eyeballs because the narration absolutely enhanced the reading experience for me.
Castle of the Cursed absolutely worked for me, and this is one of my new favorite paranormal gothic mystery/thrillers. It was suspenseful and intriguing and just so fun.

I love gothic tales so I had to pick this one up. The story starts out with a bang and the pacing never really let up until the end. Normally that's a good thing but here, I kind of wish it was a bit slower so I could have digested it fully. I had to stop periodically to try to wrap my head around the "how" and "why." Maybe it's just one of those books that needs a second read through in order to pick up on all of the little details?
Despite that, I did enjoy Castle of the Cursed and the last paragraph left me reeling. Definitely one to add to your spooky season TBR!

I love anything and everything Romina releases, and this book is no exception. It’s dark and spooky, it’s fun and adventurous, and it’s full of secrets and silver eyed men. Loved it.

This book sounded really great. Who wouldn't want to read a gothic YA? This book had some good qualities. I think the mystery was really intriguing. The fact that the castle is a living entity, different realms, and vampire prince was really cool. The magic was really interesting too. You have dark fantasy romance aspects and the book does begin with trigger warnings.

The narrator did a great job. She didn't fall flat and even though it was one narrator I still felt like the characters were distinguished. I also appreciated that she explained the sentences in Spanish afterwords since I only know minimal.

The only thing I didn't really care for was some of the structuring in the book. It's dual timeline so some of the chapters jump right into it which can be a bit confusing. Also, there is some info dumping in some parts too which I think could have been better if it was sprinkled throughout the book. I wish it was a bit longer and more developed.

I recommend if you liked dark fantasy romance. While this is YA due to the themes and some content I'd hear more towards NA.

Thank you to macmillian audio for the gifted listeners copy

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁
✨Gothic, Paranormal Romance
✨Supernatural Mystery
✨Atmospheric + Dark
✨Slow Burn, Tension
✨Dark Secrets
✨Hidden Agendas
✨Past Comes to Light

𝗪𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗜 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱 👍🏻

“Castle of the Cursed” unfolds as protagonist, Estela grapples with the aftermath of a mysterious attack claiming her parents’ lives, propelling her to Spain to live with a long-lost relative, and plunged into the depths of her ancestral Spanish castle, la Sombra.

The castle cradles dark secrets, supernatural forces, and a family curse. Garber paints a vivid, gothic portrayal of la Sombra; both atmospheric and dripping with suspense. The vibes we love!

The introduction of Sebastián, a silver-eyed, shadowy enigma confined within the castle, put a fascinating supernatural element into the narrative, while seamlessly weaving in a tantalizing, slow-burn romance suffused with mistrust, tension, and the tantalizing thrill of the unknown.

Garber crafted a captivating tale that will immerse readers in a spellbinding paranormal world of shadows, curses, familial legacies, sacrifice, and love.

This book was pretty good, I would definitely recommend

~This was given by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I finished this audiobook a while back and I sat hoping I had words to express better than I do on my opinion of this novels. Ana Osorio The narrator did a fantastic job of capture the author’s intensions of this “dark” gothic romance.
But overall I struggled following the plot, I am not bilingual and with many sentences in Spanish and the FMC also didn’t understand I felt myself drifting from the audiobook in places because things that were being said I had no answer to what it was. Which I would assume is sorta the point of the mystery of finding out about the secrets of herself but it made for a hard time for me as the reader.

This is gothic mystery that focuses on a young lady named Estella. Estella who moves from town to town with her immigrant family until one day her life changes when a black smoke enters on a subway. Estella finds herself in Spain, and at her family's blood thirsty castle known as la Sombre. Estella finds herself in a gothic castle in which she is trying to find out the mystery of the cursed castle that has been the home of her family. Estella discovers about family curses, a haunted castle, and a history of blood thirsty creatures taking town occupants.

This story does take some turns that I did not see coming. Characters were introduced to help with the tale of the history of the cursed castle. Why is Estella so connected to this castle? Why is a strange paranormal creature named Sebastian in a room in castle and unable to leave.

I did enjoy this gothic mystery tale, but at the beginning of the book I was trying to figure out where this story was going.
I recommend this book for gothic mystery book lovers with a hint of romance and fantasy.
Thank you Net galley and Macmillian audio for the opportunity to read this book.
I give this book at 3.5 stars.

Wow! This book had such great vibes 🙌 if you’re a fan of gothic settings you will really enjoy this creepy house! However, I did feel like this book had a lot going on without much of a backstory. I found myself having to rewind the audiobook to go back to make sure I understood what was happening. I do think that this is a solid book though, and was a unique take on vampires. Thank you so much to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Firstly, I would like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan audio for providing me with an audiobook ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

And I’ve gotta say my honest review is not going to be very favorable. Where to even start? I’ll start with the positive…the audiobook narrator was really good. She narrated the story well and kept my attention on the story, even if I wasn’t enjoying it.

My major issue with this book is that it just felt disconnected and meandering and was so hard to make sense of everything that was happening. I’m not sure if the author was fully aware of what she wanted this book to be. Is it Gothic mystery? Is it a (really cringey) romance? Is it scifi? The short answer is yes…it is all these things clumsily rolled into one. And I just didn’t connect with it, and frankly didn’t care for it. There was a lot of telling and not showing, there was no character development to speak of, there was major instalove that was disturbing on many levels, and inter-dimensional vampires…Yeah, this is going to be a hard pass for me. I will not be recommending it. Kudos to the narrator for making this semi-tolerable.

Just when I thought I'd read every kind of vampire story there was Castle of the Cursed comes along and blows my mind.

A haunting story of loss, redemption and even love set in a gothic castle that set my imagination free to make it everything I ever dreamed of.

Estela goes through so much in this story, with her parents, her aunt, the people around her, and then that twist, ohh I felt for Estela, she had every reason to look at the world the way she does.

Now let's talk about our Narrator Ana Osorio for just a moment. I found her adaptation to be brilliant, I read this book before I listened to it and let me just say listening was the better experience.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing a copy of this Audiobook, I have volutarily listened to it and all thouhts and opinions are my own.

The narrator for this audiobook did such a fantastic job presenting the story. I absolutely loved hearing the audiobook after reading it the first time around. I feel like it breathed new life into the story and provided so much more imagery.