Laura Robson’s "A Curse for the Homesick" is an absolutely breathtaking exploration of love, responsibility, and regret. The novel’s central premise - the skeld curse that can turn loved ones to stone - is an elegant metaphor for the inescapable weight of love, whether for a person, a home, or a past we can't outrun. Robson’s lyrical prose weaves magic realism into something deeply human. The writing is stunning, the emotions raw, and the themes profound. This is a must-read for anyone who understands that love is the deepest and darkest magic of all.

“Sometimes I think I’m only me when I’m with you”

Thank you Mira and HTPHive for the free book! #hive #htppartner All opinions are my own.

A Curse for the Homesick is a beautifully told story with a sweet and moody vibe. It is full of magical realism and while the story is at times melancholic, it is captivating from start to finish.

Tess lives in fear that she will one day wake with three black lines on her forehead and be marked as a skeld. It happened to her mother when Tess was young, with devastating consequences. On Stenland, skeld season lasts three months and comes without warning. When it comes any woman living on the island can wake a skeld and turn those who look them in the eye to stone. Soren bears the weight parent’s death at the hands of Tess’s mother when he was just a child. He should despise Tess for her mother’s carelessness, but instead they can’t help but fall in love.

This book is incredibly moving and the writing is flawless. It is a story about friendship, true love and the community we choose to lean on when it comes to risking it all. It made me think about the sacrifices we are willing to make to stay close to the people we love and the complexity of the deep bond that we have to the place we call home. In the end we are the only ones who can determine the responsibilities that we choose to carry.

Read if you like:

Magical realism
Childhood love
Fated lovers
Thought provoking stories
Moody atmospheric writing
Close Door Spice

A Curse for the Homesick is SO unique! The setting is melancholic and gloomy and full of magical realism. If an Adrienne Young book smashed a Kazuo Ishiguro book, this is probably what their baby would be.

***5 stars***

Wow, wow, wow. I *loved* this book. It was poetic and melancholy and poignant. Yet, I also laughed out loud repeatedly.

It is a story of friendship, loss, heartbreak, and love. At its center, it is a story about home. The relationships in this story are complex and multi-faceted. For me, Robson did an incredible job incorporating the magical aspects of this book into the reality of the characters so that it added to the story in a way that did not feel fantastical. Instead, it was extremely relatable. In fact, my personal love story with my partner resonates in many ways with that of Tess and Soren. So, I found reading this book to be both challenging and healing.

Laura Brooke Robson has a new fan. I cannot wait to check out other works by this author and add a physical copy of this book to my shelves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an eARC copy of this book. My review is honest and completely my own.

This captivating and thought-provoking novel is perfect for readers who enjoy delving into the complexities of human relationships and moral ambiguity. Fans of provocative romance and character-driven fiction will be enthralled by the intricate web of emotions and the ethical quandaries faced by the characters. The story explores the profound power of love, the immense weight of responsibility, and the sacrifices individuals make in the pursuit of happiness. With its richly developed characters and nuanced exploration of the human condition, this book will resonate with those who appreciate stories that challenge conventional notions of right and wrong, and delve into the depths of human experience.

normal people-core, in not-scotland, plus a tragedy and a curse. falls apart a little bit in the third act but the yearning is vvv good.

Imagine waking up one morning to discover you've got the power to turn people to stone. That's the fate Tess has tried to escape. She moved from her small island home to the US but now she's come back and she's facing her life. And Soren. Soren, whose parents Tess's mother turned to stone while she was a skeld. This is an unusual mix of romance and kinda horror (that skeld thing) that's also quite atmospheric. There's also a strong emphasis on family and friendship. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I was surprised by how much I liked this one.

4/5. Releases 2/18/25.

The Vibes:

—light fantasy

—remote islands

—the "childhood sweethearts to longing pipeline"

The Basics:

Tess returns to her childhood home of Stenland, where during "skeld season", random women wake up with three black lines on their foreheads, which means they can (and will, if unchecked) unwittingly turn people to stone. Waiting for her is Soren, her lost love (whose parents Tess's mother turned to stone). Tess always wanted to leave—Soren always wanted to stay. But what if staying means risking his life?

The Review:

What a unique, beautifully written, melancholic book. It's definitely romantic, though I don't know if I would call it a romance so much as I'd call it fantasy-driven women's fiction with a strong romantic plot. Tess and Soren's relationship is the backbone of the book, and it is a gorgeously compelling relationship. I mean, you kind of have to love a book wherein the heroine's mom killed the hero's parents (even if she didn't intend to).

That gives way to a relationship that neither Soren nor Tess can leave behind, even though it's overshadowed by this feeling of inexorable doom.
But that's not all! There's a big sense of like, "What is home", "Am I my mother's sins", and the sense of women being ostracized and made into the proverbial boogeyman because women are strange and Mysterious. Tess's relationships with her best friends is a big part of the story, and I loved how delightfully complex those bonds were. Friendships are not always straightforward!

I loved the mythology here—magic involving the sea (I mean, sort of) is difficult for me to resist, and it does underline how, again, stunningly Robson writes. This is some truly wonderful prose. There is a natural reality with this type of lyricism that you often lose some of the emotional proximity to the characters.

A wistful—yet hopeful—novel with a unique voice and setting, I would definitely recommend A Curse for the Homesick to people who want their women's fiction different from the norm... with a heavy dose of romance.

Thanks to MIRA and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A sad melancholic maglical realism story that features a story about an island where women can turn men into stone...and one woman spends her life trying to keep herself apart and holding her heart out in hopes of outrunning the curse but finding herself coming back constantly to the island and the the one man who has had her heart all her life. On the island of Stenland there is a season known as ths skeld season: one day, any woman on the island can wake with three black lines on her forehead, the mark of the skeld... and the season comes without warning... and lasts for only 3 months... but the problem is that said skeld can turn anyone into stone.. essentially killing then. When Tess's mom awakens as a skeld and kills Soren's parents, they should be a a reason enough for them to never cross paths... yet fate has other plans as they both find themselves orbiting one another all throughout high school and so on as they fall in love. But Tess is haunted by her mother's actions and the fear that she might one day wake up and turn Soren into stone, she is determined to escape the island and be freed.... but Soren is an island boy, he plans on staying there forever.... Tess and Soren love one another but with such different views on their futures they constantly separate and reunite throughout the years of their lives. The story goes back and forth between the present and past, presenting Tess and Soren's relationship and how their lives change over time and how they cannot stay away from one another, no matter the years apart, the new partners... they are constantly drawn back to one another and despite how far Tess goes she is drawn back to the island. The story felt very reminiscent of an Adrienne Young romantic magical realism story but it just kind of felt lacking in the final chapters. I guess I just wanted something more, I wasn't a big fan of the ending and just wanted one more chapter to see how Soren and Tess are together. The story itself was very atmospheric but throughout it you just want to shake them both and get them to properly communicate and just discuss their issues rather than jumping to a conclusion. I would say this is a good book for fans of magical realism stories with romance but it just was a sad tone and i just guess for all the angst I went through in this book I was hoping for a better ending. The writing was interesting and the overall idea is one I can see a lot of people really enjoying.

Release Date: February 18, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Atmospheric, beautifully written, otherworldly story of an island nation cursed. Tess has always lived in fear of Skeld season and it informs everything she does. This book is a deep look into how we protect ourselves even to the detriment of ourselves, how we love and allow others to love us, and how we can never fully escape the things that make us. A little slow to start but it’s one I’ll think about for awhile. 4.5 rounded up.

Wow, this was INCREDIBLE. It's a magical realism story, but all in a very normal way, so it doesn't feel all wishy-washy. This book took a curse on a remote Scottish island and used it as a metaphor for friendship, love, self-love, and everything in between.

The writing was so incredibly beautiful, and I wept deeply at multiple points!!

A story steeped in trauma and revenge.... A Curse for the Homesick by Laura Brooke Robson is an adrenaline rushed story for those that have lost. So grateful to have had the opportunity to read this!!

Some loves are written into the marrow of your bones, no matter how far you run.

A Curse for the Homesick is a hauntingly beautiful tale of longing—for love, for home, for a life unmarked by tragedy. Stenland, a wild, cursed island off the coast of Scotland, is both sanctuary and prison for Tess, who has spent her life torn between escape and the one person who makes staying feel like fate. Tess, Kitty, and Linnea are the kind of friends who shape you, their bond weathering the years even as life pulls them in different directions. And Soren—steady, forgiving, inevitable—is the love she’s always known but never let herself claim.

This is a story of the aching push and pull between past and future, of growing up and apart, of love that endures despite curses, despite grief, despite time. It is beautiful, it is heartbreaking, and it lingers like the ghost of a song you once knew by heart.

A Curse For the Homesick has a dark and gloomy vibe from the outset. Laura Brooke Robinson tells the story of a young woman from Stenland, a fictional island in the arctic circle. There is a curse in Stenland where random women wake up with three black lines on their foreheads, which means they can (and will, if unchecked) unwittingly turn people to stone.

Tess has returned to her home of Stenland, to attend her childhood friend’s wedding. Waiting for her is Soren, her lost love, whose parents Tess's mother turned to stone. Tess confronts the weight of this curse early in life as her mother killed her schoolmate Soren’s parents during her time as a skeld. They shouldn’t fall in love but that’s exactly what they do.

This story is a romance, and a fantasy novel all wrapped into one. The book was a slow start for me and I never was fully invested.

Pre-order this book and thank me later... those are the first words that came to mind when I sat down to write the review for A Curse for the Homesick. It's one of those books that you'll stay up late just to read one more page, one more chapter. It's filled with will they won't they, of sorrow and a curse that has always fallen upon the women who call Stenland home. It weaves the tale of Tess and her two best friends who grew up on a small island off the coast of Scotland. While many choose to stay, some dream of the day they can leave Stenland behind forever and avoid what is known as skeld season.

Lovers of bittersweet romance and slice of life musings will fall easily for this tale. Robson has masterfully woven the fantastical with the seemingly mundane. The result is something that's deeply human and utterly haunting!

While the writing is atmospheric and engaging, I had a hard time getting on board with the overall story and the mix of (sort of) fantasy with current day. I think this book will be of interest to many but was just a little odd for me. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

The way this book left me feeling....I need more! This is possibly my new favorite romance book! I devoured it from start to finish. I loved the characters, the town, and the twist of the curse so much! Soren and Tess were always just not in the right place at the same time until Tess realized that where she needed to be was home all along. Their love for one another and the trials they constantly faced only made them realize how strong they were and that they would never stop loving each other.

The book's premise revolved around a curse that women from their country could get during skeld season. Tess had always tried to run from it but ended up inevitably getting it, realizing that the thing she was running from was the thing that she should have always stayed for. I laughed, cried, smiled, and felt all the feels in this book! Absolute perfection from page 1! Thank you so much for the earlier ARC copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for an eARC of this book!

This is my new favorite book. I don't know how to put into words how it made me feel so seen. (Maybe there's a word in Stennish for it?) I feel like I understand the main characters better than most other characters I read about. This concept is so unique and has so many layers to it. While it's a cool idea—the skelds—it also makes me reflect on what it represents. And what it represents in my own life.

As someone who doesn't have a great relationship with their hometown and yet is seemingly forced to go back to life in high school again and again after leaving, this narrative put into words what I know to be true in my own life. I think there is a longing within most people to always search for something more but also to search for where we feel at home, and perhaps those things aren't mutually exclusive or perhaps they are. But no one can really know the answers because there are no set answers in life. Sometimes things just exist and sometimes things just happen. This story felt so real and relatable and poignant.

Beyond how it made me feel, the characterization was incredibly strong; each character was their own person. I loved the relationship so much I hated every plot point (in a good way). I treasured the complicated nature of female friendships. It is something I have been searching to find in a book for SO LONG, and this really just hit the nail on the head. The prose was simply beautiful. I ate it up. I cannot wait to get a physical copy of this book to annotate out of. (I don't annotate books. I just have so many thoughts.)

It's not often I love NetGalley books as much as this. It's not often I love any books as much as this. I have an incredibly fierce hope that this will become a big novel when it is released. (And I think it will.)

I really enjoyed this unique tale. A romance but with enough story to keep me interested. I don't usually read romance unless a lot of other things take place in the story as well. This was like that. Highly recommend