The Cursed And The Broken

I ADORED this book! ADORED. ADORED. ADORED.

All the best tropes, done so excellently! Only one thing didn't fly with myself, and that was the speed towards the end of the book felt a lil' bit mishmash in regards to character development. Whenever I put it down, all I wanted to do was to pick it back up; I just could not let it rest... Especially with the incredible twists that kept coming, I adored the Hungarian folklore and worldbuilding that felt excellently used. The characters felt interesting and the main character is not perfect, but perfect! As in, I adored our MC not being shiny perfection and being in the wrong, she felt so realistic. Hodge has crafted a masterpiece I cannot wait to buy copies for friends.
If you love Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Lovers, Only One Bed, Folklore, Witchiness, Dark Fantasy, Magic, this book, is your new best friend.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I thought this book was really great! It had all of my favorite tropes:

- One bed trope
- Enemies to lovers
- Arranged Marriage
- Who did this to you?

I loved the romance between the two main characters. Loved the interactions and the whole situation of her not knowing who he was but feeling that attraction from the beginning. The plot was interesting and I wanted to keep reading it to figure out where it would go. The writing was quality and descriptive enough to put me into the story as I read.

My only complaint was that the way things played out in the end did not feel satisfying. I'm not talking about cliffhangers or leaving the plot open for the next book. But more like it felt like the book cut off without tying off some things that should have been tied off. Like maybe a conversation between Kitarni and Dante after everything that happened, even if the conversation did not go anywhere. At least we would have seen where they stood with each other before the start of the next book. Also, the climax at the end felt a little too fast paced, with things happening that didn't feel as urgent and as big a deal as I wanted it to during the big scene.

Overall I really liked the book. It was totally up my alley and I can't wait for the next one!

I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

such a mess, giving this a very generous 2⭐️ for now