Curse & Craving

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I’m usually not the biggest fan of modern fantasy books and prefer full fantasy worlds, but I honestly really liked this one! The world building of Faery was very well done, though I wish we could have seen more of it. I also love how there was a mixture of a bunch of mythology, from the Fae to Arthurian legends to Norse Mythology.

I really enjoyed the overall plot of the book. Having Becca go from a clueless mortal to a Fae who is suddenly essential to stopping a war gave me Feyre Archeron/Clary Fairchild vibes. I enjoyed Rebecca’s dynamics with all the different characters in this world. I especially liked Rebecca and Lochlan’s relationship. It was very slow burn, but I wish it was better developed. I understood that there was a sexual tension between them but I don’t know when and how the emotional aspect came into play in their relationship. She suddenly said I love you and I was very surprised with that.

One critique I have was that the final battle was a little anti-climactic. Considering this final battle took 20+ years of preparation and months of practice, it fell flat and I really expected more. When the “battle” ended I can of just sat there and said “that’s it”?

I’m really excited for Ashley’s book, however, I really like her character, maybe even more than Rebecca! I hope to see more of Faery in that book as well!

I really enjoyed this book, One of my favourite areas in fantasy ins Fae and so this was right up my street. It was well written with a compelling storyline, good worldbuilding and well developed characters that were believeable.
This book had so much mythology and folklore woven through it from different cultures and that made this a really interesting read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this read! I've never read anything else by the author, but she writes well, keeps the action moving and did a good job plotting out the storyline. I always love a good fae story, but I do find that at times, they can become repetitive or rely too much on the smut. This probably stems from the mythology and lore around the fae and their realm, faery. Most authors do stick to many of the same traditional fae elements - i.e. Seelie vs. Unseelie, use of magic, glamour, a separate faery realm, etc. The nice thing about Curse and Craving is that while it kept many of those traditional fae elements, it differentiated itself by also weaving some Arthurian legend mythos into the storyline.

Our fmc is Becca, whose just relocated to Belfast for a job. Very quickly, strange things begin to happen and she is quickly thrown into a world where the fae are real and Merlin is not just a legendary figure. A former apprentice of Merlin's has gone rogue and is threatening to unleash unseelie creatures unto earth, promising certain death and destruction. With help from the warriors of the Wild Hunt, Becca comes into her own by harnessing her new found magical powers and learning to literally fight, through combat training.

At first, there appears to be two love interests for Becca in Ronan and Lochlan. Ronan was suspicious to me from the beginning and very soon does something to Becca that is so reprehensible and unforgiveable, I feel the author did quite do this particular piece of storyline justice. I think Becca's trauma should have been explored further, especially in relation to how that affected her budding relationship with Lochlan. I loved Lochlan! When these two finally do hook up, its fire!

This is a quick read and my understanding is that while there will be a series set in this world, each book will focus on a different couple.

Potential Triggers: Mild violence, dubious consent, rape and kidnapping