A Curse So Dark and Lonely is, at once, classic and modern, heartbreaking and hope-inspiring, and dark yet full of an inner light.
Kemmerer has spun a fantastic twist on the classic beauty and the beast tale where the beauty is NOT the beautiful girl chosen for the prince, the beast is on a fast-track to destroying his own kingdom, and breaking the curse won’t save everyone.
I admire Harper for her incredible spirit and heart, and Prince Rhen is a great deuteragonist to set off their differences in character. Despite his flaws (and the boy has some, let me tell you), I felt for him and came to love this beast-princeling.
The last third of the book ramped up the action and stakes to the highest degree. The set up for book 2 is magical, and the ending took me entirely by surprise.
