Ahhh that ending! 🙈 Such an awesome book! The banter between Astra and Marlak is fantastic! I laughed out loud so many times. I loved the progressive but also realistic character development for both MCs. They are both so complex with so many secrets. Enemies to lovers is my fav trope and this book does it so well. Then tension is palpable. And those spicy dreams are sooo good 🌶️ 🥵🤌. Marlak is my new fav book boyfriend 😏.
This was my first fiction audiobook. I wasn’t sure if I’d like a fictional story in audio format, but I decided to try it out and I’m really glad I did. It made long car rides go by really fast. And when I’d normally have to put a book down to do some chores I didn’t have to since I could listen while doing them. The narrator was great! She totally nailed the reactions. I loved the story so much I’m going to get a physical copy too.

Fav tropes:
Stabby FMC ⚔️
Slow burn 🔥
Enemies to lovers 🩷
Arranged marriage 💍
Forced proximity 🖼️
Banter for days 😏
Spicy dreams 🌶️
Quest 🗺️
Fae 🧝‍♀️
Royalty 👑
Court politics 🏰
Espionage 🎭
Magic ✨

Fav quote:
“Am I really going to go around exposing my butt?” 🤣😜

Thank you Day Leitao and NetGalley for the early copy! I loved it and I’m ready for the next book in the series.

A Cursed Son

I was really excited about the premise of this book, but the story was disjointed and lacked any substantial character development.

Thank you Day Leitao, Sparkly Wave, and NetGalley for my advanced review copy.

Plot - 2
Writing and Editing - 3
Character Development - 2
Personal Bias - 2
Final Score - 2.25

The ending!!! It's rare that a book will get me with such a twist but this was great. At the beginning I was slightly confused as to who the book was aimed for, there were some racy scenes however some of the dialoge felt immature so that didn't quite match up for me. If you're just getting into fantasty, love the "forced proximity" and "enemies to lovers" topes, this'll be a great book to read.

ohhh my!!! This book got better and better the farther into it I got! I love the misjudged Marlak! Day did a great job making you feel for him. I do wish the dialogue was little more mature. Astra had some very racey and vivid dreams but then there were discussions of some very adult topics and using phrases like "man-thingy" really brought the maturity level down quite a bit and were a bit distracting. I can't wait to see where Day takes their story in the next novel because overall I really enjoyed this story and it definitely kept me second guessing everyone.

4.5 Stars

This was so good!! I really hope this book gets some hype because it was a great romantacy! So much mystery, angst and intrigue with a little spicy beauty and the beast vibes. This book has everything you want. It ended on a cliff hanger and I cannot wait for the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sparkly Wave for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook arc. I absolutely loved this book, but I do wish that it was dual narrators. I’m not a fan when women do male voices, and don’t feel like Marlek was given justice, but I would highly recommend this book to anyone. The only reason I give a 4 instead of a 5 is that I didn’t love the narrator.
She’s raised to be a stand in for the princess, and after poisoning the other decoys she gets to go on the mission where she runs in with Marlek, and after he tries and fails to read his mind, he finds her and marries/steals her away to keep his secrets safe, when he discovers that they’re connected by dreams.

🔹he falls first
🔹forced proximity
🔹dream magic

4.5 ⭐️

🦄 Banter and tension
✨ Unique world building
🦄 Dreamy meetups vs awake cold shoulders
✨ Fast paced with several twists
🦄 Fated mates (I’m calling it)
✨ Marriage of convenience
🦄 The last 20% or so is 🤯

As the first of the series, A Cursed Son takes its time setting up some creative world building. The story is told through Astra - a trained royal guard with a twist. We know what she knows and not much else. I think this works really well for this story. Astra has a lot of secrets; it’s clear that everyone else has just as many they’re hiding as well. Marlak enters the chat with his grumpy, skeptical self and starts flipping Astra’s world on its head. I ate their dynamic up - banter and tension galore. The magic system is super fun and I’m excited to see that develop more. All not to be outshined by the truly WTF ending. I can’t wait for book 2!

I really enjoyed the audiobook - Kelly did an all around great job. I do know the physical book (depending on edition) has some amazing character art. It’s hard to miss out of the art but the audiobook really is a great listen and worth it.

Thank you NetGalley, Day Leitao, and Sparkly Wave for a copy of this audiobook ARC. I also own a personal copy as well.

2.5 ⭐️ unfortunately this book was really not my cup of tea

i felt like I’ve read this same story ten times already - to me the plot and the world lacked unique elements. It was a typical romantasy with a FMC that has some secret, encountering the big bad MMC, them ending up being in forced proximity, FMC realising the MMC is not that bad and then falling for him.

Now don’t get me wrong, I eat this story up if the plot around them is engaging but I was quite bored for most of the time. The “slow burn” was dragged out way too much - both of the MC’s obviously being into each other but the FMC kept irrationally doubting everything. It was very repetitive.

Additionally this book is being marketed as “enemies to lovers” which is again, not accurate. If the strong pining for each other is present from the very beginning it’s not really “enemies” plus the MMC was an absolute gentleman towards the FMC the whole time. He did absolutely nothing to make him a bad guy from any aspect.

Overall, this book was a miss for me unfortunately.

I do have to say that even though the story was not for me, the audiobook narrator was spectacular!

Thank you NetGalley and Sparkly Wave for the audiobook ARC! All opinions are my own.

Loved this, if you liked these hollow vows you'll like this. Spicy romantasy with forced proximity, great world building and complex characters

I loved this story it was very well written and the characters had a lot of growth throughout the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sparkly Wave for the audio of A Cursed Son. My opinions are my own.

This is marketed as a steamy, enemies-to-lovers, romantasy with some humor. I did like the story, but it doesn't necessarily stand out from any other fae romance to me. Dark and dangerous male fae falls in love with human woman. They're connected in their dreams, he keeps kissing her temple. He has ice powers instead of shadows. 3.5 stars overall, I did enjoy it, but would not reread.

I did enjoy the narrator, they were able to effectively convey emotions and have strong difference in character voices.

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Where to begin... this book bad a lot of my favorite tropes: enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, forced proximity, slow burn. I enjoyed the romance aspect of it the most. Astra and Marlak were great together for 98% of the book. I loved the shared dreams and the way they impacted their lives and how they interacted.

The magic was interesting, though I found it confusing when it came to her magic. The plot was a bit slow as this was more of a character driven story, but I enjoyed watching them grow together... which is why the ending didn't make sense to me!! So mad.

The audiobook was great and I definitely recommend checking it out!!

I really wanted to love this book.....

I first found interest in this book with the kickstarter for the special edition. I wanted it so bad because it's beautiful. So when I got a chance to get an audio copy, I was so excited.

Unfortunately I did not love this one. The narrator was fine, but I didn't enjoy the story so much. I felt that the writing was more of a YA/debut title feel. Yet, there is some mature scenes almost immediately. The juvenile feel of the writing did not align with the more adult content and the way it was written felt a little off to me. The girl gets sexual through a dream type thing by some guy she's never met and she just immediately starts dreaming of home doing all this sexual stuff to her. I don't know, it just seemed an odd way to go about it when the story had barely started. And I just wasn't feeling it with the writing.

I ended up DNFing because it felt weird to have the younger writing style with the adult content. I love me some good adult scenes in books, but the way it's written and the vibe of the story has to match up. It just didn't for me.

It's so interesting from the starting till the end. In audiobook format it was so quick and easy breezy to read 🤌 i absolutely loved the female protagonist of the book.
The details were beautifully penned and the characters were brilliantly drafted. I love it so much.

***It ends on a cliffhanger and I am not okay!***

Astra is training to be a princess' double and the story is told through her perspective. I loved the inner dialogue of this character and how it portrayed this story. The tropes are enemies to lovers and slow burn. Those are my favorite ones so this book just flew for me.

I will be reading everything Day puts out because this was just fantastic from the start!

Thank you NetGalley for this audiobook!

I really enjoyed the characters and world building although the main character is oblivious even by fantasy standards and I'll definitely be looking out for the next one. But the main reason I'll be looking out for the next one is because NOTHING happens in this one, we literally stop just as revelations are being made and action is starting to happen. The rest of the book is spent pining and whining about secrets with very little revealed about anything. Would have been better to have a very long book as is typical for fantasy than have to wait for the next one whenever it may come.

Astra being horny on main 100% of the book was also so funny, the girl needs it bad.

My advice to anyone looking to start this series - wait for the second to come out first

I really enjoyed this audiobook, the narrator was great and and easy to listen to. The story was fast paced kept my attention from the first chapter! This romantic fantasy had a little spice, but it was more of a slow burn romance. I thoughth the main character had great chemistry! After that ending though , I can't wait to read the next book and see what happens next!

A Cursed Son is a fun romantasy with layered world-building to rival Sarah Maas. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Caitlin Davies, who brought the stream-of-consciousness narrative style alive. While much of this book suffers from the dreaded miscommunication trope, I still found the story compelling. I really enjoyed reading this, and I very much look forward to the next in this series!
Thanks to NetGalley and Sparkly Wave for this advanced audio copy to review!

4.5

I really enjoyed this. I look forward to the next book! I am glad the fmc is smart and competent it made the ending even better!

My biggest complaint was this felt a little YA - especially the actual sec scene. We only get one which is fine and works great for the story but if you are going to go for a full sex scene the over use of core and saying things like “down there” feels like you are talking down to the audience.

This book was a delight to listen to. Avatar meets ACOTAR in this enemies to lovers romantasy! The narrator did a fantastic job bringing the book to life. The dialogue of this story is inside Astra's (our heroine) head and her personality shines through. I wish the author had gone a bit more in-depth with descriptions as I felt them lacking in some ways, and the world-building I felt could have been used a bit more as often I was confused about the layout of the world and social aspects. However, this was an audiobook I was listening to and the actual book might contain a map or something that helps readers sort things out.
I was confused about where this was going in the initial chapters, and it felt a bit chaotic with so many things happening. But once the plot got going I was immersed in the story! I was quite interested in Marlak's past and the mystery of the false fae prince.
Things I loved about this book: the enemies-to-lovers plot, the sexual tension, the dreams between Astra and Marlak, the bantering, the slow-burn romance, the world of courts and magical creatures, and the elemental-based magic.
While this book did focus more on the romance side of the Romantasy genre, I did enjoy seeing all the different courts they traveled to. Most of all the ending had my jaw dropping with that plot twist! A Cursed Son was a thrilling Romantasy that has me early anticipating the next book!
Big shoutout to NetGalley and Sparkly Wave Publishing Group for the awesome opportunity to dive into this book! Thanks for letting me join the adventure early!