A New York Times bestseller!”Has everything you’d want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale.” – Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of A Spark of Light and Small Great Things“Absolutely spellbinding.” – Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Caraval and LegendaryIn a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers … Legendary
In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.
Fall in love, break the curse.
It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.
Break the curse, save the kingdom.
A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.
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Such a beautiful, haunting retelling of Beauty and the Beast! Set in modern times, Harper is transported to Emberfall after interrupting a “kidnapping” by Prince Rhen’s Guard Commander, Grey. From there she becomes completely engulfed in the world of EmberFall, trying desperately not to fall in love with their prince, and finding a way home. But when things get political, Harper takes on a role to save Emberfall, and try to break Prince Rhen’s curse.
Beautifully written! I cannot wait until the sequel comes out next year!
Absolutely fell in love with this book! A perfect twist to a classical fairytale, of Beauty and the Beast. I have an extreme fondness for stories that take from the present and give or lead to the past. I took this on holiday to Scotland, and spend most of the first day reading! I’d finished the book in four days, and was left with a heavy heart. As Paul Sweeney once said “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend”. Definitely one to read, or put at the top of your reading list!
I love a good fairy-tale retelling, but when a book manages to create its own unique story that almost makes you forget that it is a retelling, there is really something to be said. I could not put this book down!
Rhen puts his hands on my arms and leans in. When he speaks, his voice is very low, very quiet, just for me. “My father is dead, my lady. My whole family is dead.” He pulls back, meeting my gaze, but his voice doesn’t change. “That monster killed them all.”
If I’ll try to say whatever comes in my mind about this book, why I loved it – because yes, I loved it and adored it and when I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it – it will be such a mess, so I won’t even bother. All I’m going to say is that it was one of the best re-tellings I have ever read and I can not wait for more. Incredible!
5 ’Princess of Disi’ Stars
Holy macaroni!
This book is easily one of the best books I’ve ever read. And it IS the best retelling ever. Here, I said it. And I’m ready to fight against anyone who said otherwise. This book shocked me the best ways possible. I’m still high on the emotions it caused in my soul. It’s not only the best, but the bravest retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It’s simply the best fantasy I’ve ever read. It brought me out of my comfort zone and took me on a juicy suspenseful journey with characters oh so amazing.
In this book, I loathed only one character – her being a villain made it easy – but the others… oh, the others… they became a second family to me.
If you love yourself, you read this book. Not in the future but right now. I guarantee you will be left wanting more and more!
I really enjoyed this young adult fantasy. To be honest, had I not read Joanna Hathaway’s Dark of the West prior to this one, A Curse So Dark and Lonely might’ve been a five-star read. But Dark of the West was so spectacularly well-written, and the plot so intricate, that it’s now the new standard to which I uphold YA fantasy.
Nevertheless, I really liked A Curse So Dark and Lonely. Having a heroin who gets plucked from modern day DC and brought over to this fantasy Emberfall was a nice contrast throughout the novel. I thought the author did a good job bringing 21st century thoughts and language into an otherwise historical setting.
I liked both of our MCs. Rhen is guarded, but he has to be given his circumstances. I liked his character arc, and how he becomes more vulnerable, the closer he gets to Harper. And I liked Harper’s feistiness and bravery. She doesn’t always make the best decisions, especially when she lacks all of the information, but she makes them out of a caring place, so it’s easy to understand where she’s coming from.
Although I have to say that my very favourite character is the very somber Grey, Rhen’s guard commander.
The cast of side characters were great, from the truly evil Lilith (who I wanted to kill with the fire of a thousand suns oh my god I HATED her so much) to the members of the Royal Army to Harper’s brother and his boyfriend.
Overall, this was an interesting Beauty and the Beast retelling, and while I didn’t quite love it, I very much enjoyed it and look forward to the sequel.
Brigid Kemmerer is great at writing flawed, complex, likable characters. And that’s no different here. My favorite was Grey.
I laughed, I cried. I worried, I hoped. I feared, I rejoiced.
Where do I even begin? This might be the best book I’ve ever read, and maybe that could be my bias for love of all things beauty and the beast, but these characters were so fierce, so loyal, so broken and yet so strong. No setback, no disadvantage was enough to stop them, and there were many.
I loved that this book was set between the present day world and an alternate reality with a historical feel. I loved the representation of a main character with Cerebral Palsy, and how she could command a royal guard and a royal army with the best of them.
This book was undoubtedly and unequivocally a page turner in the truest sense. It took me 2 days to read it, and it literally had me in tears on so many parts for so many reasons.
Prepare to feel deeply. This will be hard to beat for top read of 2019.
I will definitely be reading this one again. This is mybnew favorite. I couldnt put it down.
This book is abslutely brilliant. I’m not usually for retellings of old stories, but this book does it perfectly. Only the premise is borrowed and everything else is new. The author has taken the Beauty and the Beast story and set it to a parallel reality to ours, with the heroine coming from our world. Harper’s not a bookish beauty who easily melts the cursed prince’s heart; she’s from a difficult background with cerebral palsy. Her beauty is on the inside, and she grows ever stronger as the story evolves. The prince is less likeable, and he doesn’t miraculously change, but remains a difficult person. So the story is more about saving the prince’s kingdom from invading army than breaking the curse, with the stakes badly against him. It doesn’t help that the prince’s bodyguard makes a better love-interest for Harper. All in all, there was much more going on in this book that I expected, with the story keeping me in its grips from start to finish. And it didn’t end there but the story continues in the next book.
I seriously think that this is the best thing Brigid Kemmerer has ever written. And I have LOVED everything she has put out there so far.
Unlike her other works, A Curse so Dark and Lonely is an epic fantasy set in a Beauty and the Beast-like world. There’s an (extra)ordinary girl who is unwittingly thrust into this cursed castle when she tries to save someone else. There’s a prince who might’ve been not-so-good at heart once upon a time, but having lived for so long with this curse that has literally taken everything from him, he has changed. His heart has softened, and he has lost all hope for redemption.
This book takes the curse we’re all pretty familiar with one step farther. It takes Prince Rhen, Harper and the prince’s best friend and right hand man Grey out into the lands surrounding the castle. It shows the reader what the others in the realm of Emberfall think of the beast, of the royal family and of their current plight. It demonstrates the power of hope and the need for leaders to be present and active.
Rhen and Harper’s relationship is not an easy one by any means. But, that only makes the moments when they really connect and eventually fall in love that much sweeter.
You are going to be wanting the next book in this saga to come out RIGHT NOW as soon as you’re done reading. Rhen’s and Harper’s story may come to a close, but there are more stories to tell in Emberfall – more work that needs to be done to heal the land. And I intend to have a front-row seat to it all.
Beautifully dark, filled with wild adventure and a modern-day heroine every reader will find a bit of themselves in.