This is such a fun and exciting Romantasy read that I couldn’t put down. The audiobook narration is fantastic. I enjoyed the FMCs personality and was immediately intrigued when the “villain” showed up in her life.

🌶️🌶️ open door spice level

A fun romantasy story that was a fun listen. It had some generic similarities to lost of other romantasy stories out there but still felt unique. The narration was entertaining and kept my attention.

I had the opportunity to listen to an Advanced Listener Copy of The Cursed Son audiobook, and it's such a fun book. The narrator did a great job of portraying Astra and using her voice to convey naivete, confusion, sass, fear, & overall growth. You could feel Astra's journey throughout the course of the story. Marlak is your typical morally grey MMC, so of course, I loved him. There was so much tension throughout the course of the story, and it built to such a great cliffhanger ending. I'm ready for A Traitor Sister when you are Day!

A Cursed Son by Day Leitao was an enchanting read that kept me hooked with its mix of magic, mystery, and romance. The world-building was immersive, and I loved how Leitao created a universe where magic and political intrigue went hand in hand. The chemistry between Astra and Marlak felt natural, and their evolving relationship added a nice layer of tension to the plot. I appreciated how the characters weren't just caught up in their romance but also had personal growth and challenges. The pacing was steady, and while there were some moments I wished for more action, the emotional depth and clever twists more than made up for it. If you enjoy a good fantasy with rich world-building and a dash of forbidden love, this is a great pick.

3.5⭐️
I think this is a very promising debut and I am quite anxious to find out what happens next, but there were parts of the story that left me wanting.
The pacing of A Cursed Son kept me invested enough, even if I do believe the story is a bit long winded so far. I wasn’t bored, though I definitely wanted more world building and less inner monologues from Astra. As a main character, I felt she came across as a bit immature and naive and I really wanted to see more growth from her character. In fact, all of the character development seemed very slow to progress and it made it hard to connect with anyone. The plot seemed to jump around in places and because there was so much going on, it led to some confusion as to what the plot of the story actually was.
To be honest, I had pegged this book as a 3⭐️ read until I reached the end. The way that things started to come together really took me by surprise and I’m still reeling at the way things with Astra and Renak were left. I’ve already downloaded book two.
The audio for A Cursed Son was well done. Caitlin Kelly emphasized the characters inflections well and made my reading experience more enjoyable!

Beautifully written and the narrator had me at every moment, I felt captured!
I loved this book the ending nearly finished me off but I honestly really enjoyed this story!

3.75⭐️ rounded up

This was a fun story and I enjoyed the audiobook narration for it.
The premise of A Cursed Son is very intriguing. I love that Astra appears soft and pampered but is in fact highly trained as a bodyguard decoy. It gives nostalgic Padme and her bodyguard vibes, although the princess in this ACS is never actually seen. I also liked the setup of her bond with Marlak and that it was mostly realized in the dreamscape and before they’d actually met. Their first meeting was a great “oh shoot” moment. I do think their entire relationship was basically the miscommunication trope which did get very frustrating for me at times.
The overall plot was a little slow. There was good world building but I think the focuses was more on character and relationship development more than a central plot. Both are great things but the plot did feel like was a little slow paced. The ending, however, definitely ramped everything up big time, and I think we will get really good plot and action moving forward.
Caitlin Kelly does a great job as the single narrator for the book. She makes it easy to tell when she is switching between characters and also brings good emotion into her narration to help reflect the tone of the scene. I would look for books narrated by her in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley & Sparkly Wave for the ALC copy!

If you are a fan of romantasy you will like this book. Fun and fast paused, this makes for an easy read. The characters did not really stand out to me but it’s interesting world and to my knowledge no orientalist writing that can be seen in other books of the genre. Not my favorite, but worth the read.

I liked this audiobook and story and the narrator was really good at bringing a voice to the characters, I liked the connection between the MCs and would be interested to continue the series. At times I did struggle to follow the history of problematic relationships in the book but overall it was a good read.

Wow! I could not put this book down. At every turn there was something exciting happening! I loved the tension, enemies to lovers plot line. The ending was written in that perfect way to leave me wanting more. I cannot wait for book two to come out!!

Absolutely loved A Cursed Son! I am so excited to read the second book in the series and plan on recommending this to all my romantasy loving friends!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

This one is a bout Astra, who has been trained from childhood to be a decoy for the royal princess. Astra has altered her appearance and learned to lie, spy, and fight (in heels) as a substitute, but her existence has been isolated and lonely; except in her dreams. A night, she dreams that she is loved and cherished by a man with a star on his chest. Then, one day, on the way to a royal event in which she is posing as the princess, her carriage is attacked by the exiled fae prince Marlak, a dangerous and powerful rebel who is rumoured to have murdered his family. Of course he had to be the man in Astra's dreams!

I really liked this one! Astra is naive and inexperienced, and her inner demons of anxiety and lack of self-assurance really threaten to undo her throughout the novel. It was so compelling to see her work through these issues and struggle with who to trust, her upbringing, and her developing relationship with Marlak. Her training definitely aids her in her journey, but it's her untapped and untrained magic that I think will lead in a very interesting direction in the next book. We get some glimpses of it in this one and I can't wait to see where it goes. The pacing was really good throughout the novel, and especially near the end it really picked up and got me with a few reveals I didn't see coming. I listened to the audiobook for this one, and the audio for the next one isn't out yet, but I want the next one so badly that I may have to get the eBook.

The audiobook was great! I listened at 1.5x comfortably, and there was very little/no distortion at 2x so I could have probably listened to it faster if I had to. It's a single narrator, Caitlin Kelly, who did the Cruel Prince audiobooks (so basically one of the best there is). I think she really nailed all of the voices, as there are many characters and it was easy to tell who was speaking.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Victory Editing, and Day Leitao for the Audiobook!!

I only got about 13% of the way into this audiobook before I was no longer able to play it in the NetGalley app. I’m not really sure what was going on there.

For the portion that I was able to play, it was ok. I don’t feel 13% is far enough along to really give a strong review, but I felt intrigued. Would I have listened further? Yes. However, I wasn’t terribly heartbroken by the situation either.

This book had such a great premise, but unfortunately I found it fell a bit short of delivering. Sadly, I found the MMC had no personality besides being ‘mysterious’ and the FMC just spent the book mentally talking herself in circles. Despite being highly trained in combat, poisons, politics and seduction you didn’t actually see her use this skill set one. The first half hooked me enough that I purchased the ebook copy of it so I could keep reading even when I was unable to listen, but sadly any sort of play of character depth sputtered at about this point.
The narrator however was brilliant and very engaging!










***Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an audio of this book.***

I read this book when it came out and was excited to listen to the audiobook. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! It was excellent; the world felt so immersive, I highly recommend it!!

This book was enjoyable at times, and I got through it faster than I had expected, but overall, I didn’t feel a deep connection to this book. The characters didn’t stick with me, I found myself forgetting about them if they weren’t mentioned for at least a chapter or 2. I also found Astra’s character to be rather annoying with her consistent questions and doubts. She seemed childish in a way that didn’t seem to make sense for someone who grew up the way she did. Understandable that she wouldn’t immediately trust the man who kidnapped her, even though she also agreed to the marriage and seemed to have full control over her decision to go, but I found her thought processes to be redundant. It felt like she never got anywhere, because even when she did find new information or come to new realizations, she defaulted to the things she had known in the beginning of the story, even when she knew they weren’t particularly true, and while she was so obsessed with learning new things. The world seemed interesting, but I didn’t get enough to really care too much about it. The banter between the two characters was also very childish. It wasn’t enemies to lovers, rather two people holding grudges while having wet dreams about each other. When you thought they would finally get somewhere, Astra would call him her kidnapper and Marlak would call her ugly.

This book was so freaking good. Slow burn, enemies to lovers, interesting world building, great pacing, I loved it all. I need to read the next book asap. Narrator did an amazing job too!

I received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A spicy romantasy in which a princess decoy (Astra), trained her whole life to hide her abilities is forced into a marriage with the disgraced prince (Marlak). This is an enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, 'who did this to you, wife?', hard and cold exterior vs. inner thoughts kind of book, and I can see it appealing to any fans of fantasy / romantasy and any of the above tropes. Elemental magic and fae are involved too, which made this a very easy and quick read.

I will say, the main female character is incredibly reckless and a rule-breaker, which I found a bit difficult to believe given her background within the castle. I also found interesting (not bad, just surprising) that we never really met the princess which our MC and her two friends substituted at events, though it is clear she is not the main point of the story. A few side characters were in the story and then never seen again, and I feel like they will make a re-appearance in future books in this series.

One element I struggled with a lot with this book was that a huge part of the 'spice' was dream-based. The dreams are indeed part of the plot, so I cannot blame it fully as it is explained. However I found it quite jarring in places, with it disrupting the development between the characters and really taking me 'out of the story'.

I will say, some of the interactions between our two main characters were *chefs kiss* and I really enjoyed it when their relationship slowly developed. It could be quite difficult to know what the male main character thought and experienced, but I am glad for it as it added an air of mystery. There is only one chapter from his POV, the rest is only told to us in Astra's POV. I listened to it in audiobook format and the narrator did a great job in narrating and really bringing the story to life in an engaging way - I would certainly recommend reading it this way.

The final couple of chapters had me convinced to pick up the next book in the series ... like ?!

This was a fun and easy read. I think this genuinely has the potential to be a really good series, despite the slower start.

<i>I was provided with a complementary copy of this audiobook from Sparkly Wave publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, which I leave voluntarily</i>.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Absolutely blown away! This is an utter masterpiece in my eyes. The writing- top notch. The characters- well written and complex. The storyline- the plot is plotting! The romance- the slowest of slow burns with a great payoff and banter that makes your head spin.


Astra has been raised a a guardian and sometimes stand in for a princess, along with two other girls. She has a mysterious past that she knows nothing about and a “teacher” who is keeping her secrets. She begins to have dreams about a man, a man who is perfect- he makes her feel safe and loved. While on a mission with the prince of her kingdom they are ambushed by a fae prince they have been taught to fear- and she comes face to face with the man in her dreams. Soon the Fae Prince makes a marriage alliance and forces Astra to marry him. He accuses her of controlling his dreams and trying to steal information from him. Even so, he promises to keep her safe. Through many days together the two banter and fight until their true feelings are known- or are they? Suddenly Astra doesn’t know who to trust- her once trustworthy teacher or the prince she has grown to somehow love.


The slow burns in this book completely had me not wanting to set the book down and the way they bantered and fought was sheer perfection!


I can not WAIT to read the sequel- like I’m going to need it to release instantly because what was that ending!!

The narrator was amazing! I did not realize she was doing both the male and female voices- that’s how brilliant she was. BRAVO! I almost recommended this as a duet until I went and looked it up.





Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ALC of this story in exchange for my honest review!!



Tropes:
Enemies to Lovers
Arranged Marriage
Fated Mates
Slow Burn
One Bed (Unicorn 🤣)
Everyone Else Can See It

4⭐️ 1🌶️
Thank you to @Netgalley for letting me listen to this book!
This book captured my attention around chapter 3 or so. Once I was in it though, I was in it! As a Romantasy lover this book hits all the tropes: Forced proximity, enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, grumpy MMC and a slow burn (veryyyy slow).
The Magic in this series is really cool too and I can’t wait to find out more about Astra and her powers. So much was hidden from her growing up that she doesn’t even know the extent of her own powers. You just know that when she figures them out, she’s going to be unstoppable!
I was also super intrigued with how Astra and Malark were connecting via dreams. It’s like their souls would meet up in the dream world and connect on a level that they couldn’t in the physical world.
I will absolutely be reading book two to see where this series goes ❤️