Reeling from survivors' guilt after a mysterious event took Estela’s parents' life, she is now all alone in this world. That is until Estela finds out that her parents have lied to her her whole life. Finding out that she has an aunt living in Spain she must leave the only life she has known and move into a sprawling cursed castle.
Estela, who has not spoken since her parents death, has now stopped taking her medication. She soon starts seeing the Shadow Man that has haunted her since childhood, but is it due to the lack of medication or he is truly real. But when Estela meets Felipe, a bookshop owner, she starts to learn that there is something sinister about her family and the castle they live in. Will Estela find out what magic ties her family to a castle that only wants to consume before it is too late?
Overall rating 5/5
I loved the dark and haunting writing style done by Garber. I was gripped from beginning to end and still wanted more. The despair and loneliness that Estela was able to overcome by way of love was beautifully written and relatable. Also the slow burn between the MFC and the morally gray MMC, was absolute perfection.

*Thank you to Romina Garber,Macmillan Young Listeners, and Netgalley for the ARC copy. I am freely leaving my honest review.

After a mysterious attack claims the life of her parents, Estela moves in to her family's ancestral castle with her estranged aunt. Estela is determined to solve the mystery of her parents deaths. But of course, La Sombra, the castle, has secrets of its own. Estela beings to believe that her parents deaths are linked to old family secrets. Her investigation takes a supernatural turn when she crosses paths with a boy only she can see. And the deeper she gets into the castle's secrets, the more she is convinced that the suspect has already found her.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio e-arc.*

I’ve seen a lot of people bill this as a “new Twilight” so, of course, I had to pick it up.

Castle of the Cursed follows Estela, a teen girl determined to solve the mysterious circumstances that led to her parents’ tragic deaths in a freak train accident that only she survives. Orphaned and alone, Estela is surprised when an aunt she’s never heard of invites her to come live in their ancestral family home in Spain, la Sombra. As Estela tries to uncover her family's secret history, hoping it will lead to answers about her parent's deaths, she encounters Sebastián—a supernatural, silver-eyed boy who says he’s trapped in la Sombra with no idea how he got there. Sebastián is dangerous and Estela isn’t sure if she can trust him, but the two form a tentative alliance to help one another solve the mysteries surrounding them. An attraction between them grows as they uncover more of the castle’s secrets, and Estela realizes that the cost of answers might be her own life.

> ❤️ What I loved: This was a quick, fast-paced, read with a lot of action, twists, and turns. The gothic setting was very cool—the house, in particular, was a favorite character of mine!
> 💔 What I didn’t love: Something tonally wasn’t working for me in this book—it was so over the top with drama that it felt like it might be supposed to be funny, but the punchline never came. Unfortunately, I also didn’t really connect with the romantic storyline. As Estela is supposed to be an older teen, I think the romantic relationship with Sebastián was missing some emotional development and communication that I think would have made it feel more realistic. In general, I would actually say that I think the interiority of both Estela and Sebastián needed more development to pull off the relationship.

I would recommend this book to young adult readers who enjoy paranormal romance and fast-paced stories. While this book is a standalone, there is certainly potential to keep expanding in this world, and I am curious to see if Romina Garber continues to build more stories about Estela, la Sombra, and Sebastián!

**Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5 (3-3.5)**

**Acknowledgments & Disclaimers**
✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Romina Garber, and Macmillan Audio, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book.
✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

This one started off strong, but then fizzled out for me. It seemed to get off track about 70% of the way in, when it almost had a completely different story within the story. I also wasn’t quite feeling the love story, either. It just didn’t feel like there was enough of a build up for the two characters to fall in love, and Sebastian never really had any redeeming qualities. It just all seemed disjointed and forced.
I did enjoy the narrator for this book, though.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It took me awhile to get invested in this one. It’s marketed as an atmospheric paranormal romance and I would agree. It started out with such a wild mystery of Estela’s parents death. I was gobsmacked and dying to find out what happened. The excitement tapered off for a little bit but by midway through it picked back up.

I did have to translate a lot in this book, which is fine BUT I was listening to the audiobook and some sentences I was unsure what was being communicated because I was driving or unable to look it up. Not really a problem though.

I alternated between the audiobook and egalley of this book courtesy of the incredible publishers at Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio.

I’m going to lead with the narrator Ana Osorio did a phenomenal job bringing this book to life! I was drawn in by the pretty purple cover & stayed for the deliciously dark & gothic ya paranormal romance. What’s not to like about a cursed castle, twisted family secrets, a shadow beast & a smart young FMC? The story was so full of twists and turns I was enthralled from start to finish. There are dark elements that may be triggering for some including death/murder, grief, attempted suicide & bullying/child abuse.

With a mysterious castle, dark magic, and a moody teenage protagonist, readers looking to scratch the Twilight itch will adore this YA fantasy title.

Estela survived a horrible tragedy that left 25 people dead on an NYC subway, including her parents. After the accident, she receives a photo from a woman in Spain who claims to be an aunt. Estela is disinclined to believe her, except that the photo is clearly of her mother and this unknown aunt -- and the purple room in which they stand feels familiar to her.

Soon Estela is off to a small Spanish town that is dominated by the shadow of a large castle -- her family's ancestral home. The castle and town are rife with secrets, and Estela sets herself to work to try to discover whether the accident that claimed her parents' lives was supernatural in nature. Plus there is the problem of the silver-eyed boy who appears to her at night and claims she has cast a spell on him. What magic lies at the heart of la Sombra? And how does that magic bind her to this boy?

While I am perhaps not the ideal reader for this book, I think that many others will enjoy the dark, broody environment that Garber creates. The audiobook is highlighted by a bilingual narrator who delivers beautifully in both English and Spanish.

This review will be shared to both Goodreads and Instagram on July 26, 2024.

I received an advanced audiobook version of this book.

A subway car fills with dark smoke and everyone, including her parents are dead except Estella. Someone claiming to be her Aunt takes her away to a castle. Local legend believes the castle to be haunted.

Excellent story with part of the narration in Spanish.

I wanted to love this book. It sounded right up my alley and I’m seeing so many posts about Halloween in July so I was really in the mood for something gothic and a little spooky.

Let me also say that I did really enjoy the audiobook narration. I loved the voice actor and thought the voice suited the main character really well and I also loved the Spanish lines and how they were read. I had some plot issues with the delivery of the Spanish lines but we’ll get to that later. Generally speaking, I enjoyed this narrator and would look for more of their work.

Now, onto the plot. This book started out pretty strongly with an almost Final Destination vibe and I was all about that. We then pivot from city life to a gothic castle in Spain and again, I was on board. The scene change gave me Gallant by VE Schwab feelings (in a good way).

Introduce the love interest - this is where I sort of fell off. The love is hate to insta love which felt rushed and this is definitely upper YA in terms of spice.

Lastly, the plot itself took some very wild turns that were not only unexpected but a bit poorly explained.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of promise but several of the plot elements should have been refined. I also want to stress that this is the kind of YA romance that was clearly written for adults who read YA, I probably wouldn’t recommend this to anyone under 17-18 just because of that.

⭐️⭐️

Sadly I had to put this one down and I don’t think I’ll pick it back up. The only thing that kept me reading was the mystery of the castle as well as the mystery around the fmc’s parents death.
I was hoping to love the romance part of it but sadly it felt flat for me.

If you do not care as much for romance and purely enjoy a mystery with a pretty creepy castle, this one might be for you.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an arc in exchange my honest review

2.5 ⭐️

This book wasn't supposed to make me chuckle, I'm sure. However, there were moments where I think my brain went to Twilight and some of the imagery of the genre and I caught myself.

I will say this book takes itself a bit too seriously and for that, I give it 4 stars. I think, if it leaned into the campy nature of vampires and the gothic nature of the story, I probably could have given it 5 stars. However, it doesn't seem to have been intended as a campy gothic horror and for that, I am a bit disappointed. There are a lot of tropes which seem almost too serious. The gothic facade, the family secrets, the mysterious aunt, the silver-eyed boy, etc., I kind of wish we'd been given a level of satire, it would have really worked.

Nevertheless, it was a pretty good, YA gothic, vampiric romance with some brooding and angst. Definitely think Twilight but set in a small Spanish town. I didn't find it to be too spooky or too eerie. I kind of wish I had. I love a good book where the fog from the graves give the sense of foreboding and danger. I am not quite certain I got those vibes from this story but i am always on the look out for one that will make me fear the things that lurk in the shadows.

Castle of the Cursed was a book that sounded like it would be amazing from the blurb, and then the actual content varied so far from the blurb that it shifted from witch/vampire lighter fantasy into sci-fi with alternate dimensions.

For me, the beginning in America and the beginning of the Spain time, and also the last 5% were great. ALL of the middle didn’t resonate with me. I very much enjoyed the scenes in the train and hospital, and wished we had seen more of them, along with the initial castle scenes and more from the garden. I would have loved to know Bea better as a character too.

Here’s why—
1. When a book written in English has significant dialogue or text in another language (here, Spanish), I expect to get some kind of translation. I’m a poor Spanish speaker, but can usually decipher written Spanish if I can see it. This was a complete fail in the audiobook since the narrator sounded like a native speaker and I couldn’t understand her AND much of it had no translation in context.

2. The romance was superfluous. This sounded like it would be a romantasy…there wasn’t any romance. If you’re expecting this to be a Spanish castle version of Bella and Edward, it isn’t.

3. Sebastián was a wicked old vampire and Estella was still 17 when they met AND dealing with so much trauma that she hadn’t processed yet? Gross.

4. It annoyed me that the characters kept referring to vampires as bleeders. That’s like calling something a vajayjay so you don’t have to say the real name.

5. The middle where we had to see Estella remembering? It read like a weird fever dream and so much of it was completely irrelevant.

All in, it felt like this book WANTED to be an adult romantasy. But the MC was too immature, the story didn’t come together cohesively, the world building was incomplete, and the romance was just poorly written.

Thank you Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review. DNF 23%. I really had a rough time with this one. The narrator was good but she had some interesting narration choices that I didn’t love. This was a lot darker than I thought it would be from the description and the list of trigger warnings is definitely necessary. I thought we were just having a fun gothic romance with a castle but it’s a bit creepy and dark which I wasn’t expecting. The main character is badly depressed which is understandable after your parents died but gosh it was a downer. When you aren’t expecting that it’s hard to get through 😂 I didn’t like where the romance was going at all. This book clearly just wasn’t for me. The castle was cool and I enjoyed that Spanish was used and not always explained. Besides that I didn’t enjoy it 😂

3 Stars
CW: Suicide, Mental Health Issues, Death of Parents, Sex, Sexual Assault, and Violence

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC and Edelweiss for the E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Spoilers Galore  

I was really enjoying this book until I got 70% in which the last 30% I was confused as hell. I think my subconscious knew that 30% was about to be a clusterfuck. I finished the first 70% of the book in three days but then I stopped and didn't finish it until two weeks later. 

This book is literally
Mental Health
Murder Mystery
Blood Hungry Castle
Vampires
Witches 
Other realms with a castle
Evil Twins
Instalove/Instalust 

Which is thrown in a blender to see if the mix sticks to the wall.

So let's play the game of what worked and what didn't work for me. 

What did work 

Main character dealing with mental health after a traumatic event.
The whole mystery with the death of her parents.
The narration and how the narrator spoke Spanish.
The whole castle and how it works.
The whole horror feeling which the story ( the first 70%) felt like Rose Red or Crimson Peak

What didn't work for me or needs to be worked on

The whole twin thing felt like left field with families always having to have a set of twins with one being sacrificed.
The fact we didn't get Estela's twin backstory until the 70% mark. Which to me you should be starting to wrap this story up and heading towards the climax and conclusion. Not still dumping important info that should have been introduced around the 50% mark.
The fact Estella felt younger than 17 for the majority of the book. We also didn't know how Old Sebastian really was knowing that he was a vampire.
Estella and Sebastian's romance was so forced and didn't feel natural. Especially the fact how fast the events happen in this book.

The Pacing of the Events in this book - This is the biggest issue for me. The fact the majority of the book (with the expectation of the first three chapters) takes place in the matter of two weeks  is a little bit jarring.  Which is why the whole book feels rushed and not a satisfying conclusion.

Estella in a matter two weeks went through ( HEAVY SPOILERS)

Found out your parents had a family.
Go to a small village in Spain
Meet your aunt you never knew you had. 
Find a vampire that you thought you made up but didn't which you called shadow beast which they tried to kill you.
Be in a castle you find out that feeds in people's blood and corpses aka little shop of horrors style. 
Finds out the castle turns blood and corpses into compost in order to create special seeds that have healing properties. 
Befriends the local Librarian and Learns Spanish well enough to understand and speak it. I guess Duolingo worked for her
Finds out you have an uncle which is your Aunt's twin brother.
Find out you are a Twin and start getting memories when yall was five years old.
Find out you may have witch blood and come from a family of witches that is tied to the house.  
Found out your uncle is trying to get your twin back because he feels guilty.
Having the local librarian think you are your twin sister that he had a crush on at five years old.
Finds out the twin was sacrificed and is living in another realm in another castle where they were bullied. 
Your twin comes back by taking to your Aunt's body.
Find out the Vampire aka your shadow beast made a deal with your twin and was pretty much flirting with him. 
Find out your Vampire "boyfriend" is a Vampire Prince also from another realm who killed people. Prince Vlad Meets Edward Cullen
Fell in love with that Vampire Prince and got bonded to him.
Turn 18 and have to fight your twin sister for control of your body.

ALL THIS HAPPENS IN A MATTER OF TWO DAMN WEEKS !

TWO WEEKS!!

THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS TAKES PLACE IN THE MATTER OF SEVEN MONTHS BUT THE REST OF THE BOOK HAPPENS IN TWO WEEKS?

The reason why is jarring because you also expect me to believe in a whole romance that starts out with the MMC trying to kill the FMC because of mistaken identity which ends with them pretty much becoming blood bonded ( aka married) in a matter of two weeks. Especially with the final conflict, she has to believe in the "power of love " in order to defeat the twin. Also the fact that feels like a lot for a person who was pretty much not talking when she got to the castle due to the traumatic experience she had with losing her parents and the New York Government trying to cover it up. She was pretty much diagnosed with PTSD, Survivor’s Guilt, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Depression and you expect her to be ok after going though that much crap in a matter of two weeks?

I think it could have been a little bit more believable if it was maybe 2-3 months of her living in the Castle and all the secrets to unravel itself. But after two weeks, she barely unpacked her suitcase and got used to the country.

So that's why I'm at a crossroads with how I'm going to rate this book. It's not a bad book by any means but it just had so much going on which couldn't be executed well. If you get too much going on in the pot certain things are going to get lost in the sauce. Maybe just took out the whole twin thing and focused on the castle, Estela healing and coming to terms with what happened, her bonding with her Aunt which she found out about her parents and finding out they are witches and maybe the romance. Also I think it needs to be maybe 50-60 pages longer since it being 302 pages didn't give the plot time enough to breathe to me with all that mentioned is going on.

So this is how I'm going to rate it. 

First 70% - 3.5 Stars
Last 30%- 2.0Stars
3.5 plus 2.5 =5.5
5.5 divided by 2= 2.75 Stars rounded up to 3 Stars
So 3 Stars it is.

Castle of the Cursed is the first book I have read by Romina Garber. This book is described as a YA gothic, paranormal fantasy, with a splash of mystery.

The synopsis does not give much to the potential reader. My hot take is that this FMC reunites with family and there is some twisted magical system happening. What really happens? The FMC goes through a traumatic event where her parents die. She is then claimed by her long lost aunt from Spain, and brings her "home" to this gothic, foreboding castle. There she discovers this imaginary friend, also discovers other relatives, that the house is VERY MUCH MORE than meets the eye and it's straight up weird (the house and the story).

SPOILER-LITE:
There are some things that I cannot look past. The most glaring thing that irks me the most is age-gap tropes, especially in YA books because sometimes I feel that gives way for the readers at an impressionable age to be like "oh, if this character that I find myself relating to a lot can have a romantic relationship with someone YEARS my senior, then so can I." Yeah, no. Additionally, there should be some kind of "trigger" warning on the synopsis that there are themes of suicide in this, too. People may not know that suicide and depression can be a part of survivor's guilt. Again, be on the lookout for that one in the age range of the YA demographic. And the ending? Oh boy... Why did you have to do us dirty like that? Not the biggest fan of it.

Would I consider reading this again? No. I could definitely seeing a population eating this book up because it contains some paranormal *cough* vampiric *cough* things. Overall, Castle of the Cursed was not for this reader. A two star read at best.

Thank you Macmillan Audio | Macmillan Young Listeners, Netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to listen/read this book for an honest review.

I will be posting to Instagram, Storygraph, and Goodreads.

I will be withholding my review of this book as it is under the St. Martin’s Press imprint. Book influencers are urging St. Martin’s Press for many months now to address 1. are influencers safe with SMP? 2. what are you doing to protect influencers? 3. who has access to influencer information? and 4. what happens when an SMP employee misuses that information? These questions follow an incident with a Wednesday Books employee back in October 2023 who posted anti-queer and anti-Palestinian hate online.

A wonderful gothing romance sure to thrill YA audience. Exactly what is needed in this genre, written in a way that will captivate readers and make them love the charaters and the plot! Excellent story!

This was an interesting ride. I honestly don’t know if I liked it or not but I was curious enough to see it to the end. There was a twist and then it all sort of went left. Very undecided on this one. Though I can say the audio was really good and part of why I kept going.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me an early copy of this audiobook! All opinions are my own!

I think I could absolutely devour everything that Garber ever writes, and my soul would just be so happy. I loved the way that this book had such a unique world to dive into. It was built up so slowly that it felt very natural, like we were truly discovering everything right alongside Estela. Each new piece of information made me that much more intrigued and in love with the world.

My one complaint was that the romance felt a bit flat and like it came about too quickly. I felt like there was just something lacking from it. But then by the end I also really wanted to see them together and find out what their future would end up being like.

I think my favorite part of this book was the journey of self-discovery in the midst of grief. The book is so unique in the way that Estela has to battle not only her enemies but also her inner self, which is sometimes even harder to do. She's taken on a journey of trauma and grief and watching her learn about herself and what she wants in life is so refreshing.

And do not get me started on the cliffhanger!!! I need the next book immediately!

Not a story that I'd typically reach for, but loved the mystery and fantasy unfolding. Such a creative story that was well told. Nice narration as well. I never knew what to expect but was so pleased with the overall arc.