{"id":86643,"date":"2019-01-30T15:22:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T04:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=86643"},"modified":"2019-01-30T15:22:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T04:22:51","slug":"review-a-curse-so-dark-and-lonely-by-brigid-kemmerer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2019\/01\/30\/review-a-curse-so-dark-and-lonely-by-brigid-kemmerer\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"brigid<\/a>A Curse so Dark and Lonely <\/strong>
\nby Brigid Kemmerer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Review by Bronwyn Eley<\/strong><\/p>\n

A tale as old as time – Beauty and the Beast<\/em>! There\u2019s a reason many of us keep returning time and again to this fairytale and in A Curse so Dark and Lonely<\/em><\/a>, Brigid Kemmerer puts her own incredible twist on this legendary story.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to start with Harper – our heroine – who doesn’t exactly fit the stereotype of the “beautiful book-worm” that we have come to associate with Beauty and the Beast<\/em>. She comes from a broken family who have had to resort to crime to survive.<\/p>\n

Harper suffers from cerebral palsy and Kemmerer isn\u2019t afraid to throw Harper through the physical and emotional wringer throughout the course of the novel.\u00a0 The best thing about Harper is that she has spent her life being underestimated, so she\u2019s developed a thick skin. She is constantly surprising our other characters Prince Rhen and Grey with her ballsy approach to the endless stream of confronting challenges thrown her way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s these strengths that make Harper beautiful, passionate and unforgettable. And Prince Rhen seems to agree!<\/p>\n

Rhen suffers from his own arrogance and shallowness. Having deeply offended a powerful sorceress, he has been cursed to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year again and again until he can find a girl who will fall in love with him. Fall in love, break the curse.<\/p>\n

Things are further complicated by the fact that Rhen is cursed to turn into a vicious beast at the end of the season, which has resulted in some disastrous consequences in the past. Rhen is stuck in a time loop and hasn\u2019t physically aged in who-knows-how-long, but he has aged emotionally in his time. When we meet Rhen, he is a beaten down man ready to give up.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, the evil sorceress has decided that this will be Rhen\u2019s last shot at breaking the curse. If he can\u2019t make Harper fall in love with him – that\u2019s it. He will die. And his kingdom will fall.<\/p>\n

The final complication is that Harper isn\u2019t from Rhen’s magical realm of Emberfall. She\u2019s from our world – Washington D.C. specifically. I really love this part of the story! Kemmerer has warped my sense of what\u2019s real and brought reality and fantasy together to create a beautiful and fascinating new world. But this adds a level of complication to the story because Harper has trouble processing her new surroundings and is desperate to get home to her crumbling family.<\/p>\n

Each season, Rhen\u2019s right-hand man Grey (who is also stuck in the curse) crosses over to our world and brings back a girl for Rhen to try his luck with. Pretty despicable, if you ask me! But there\u2019s more to this story than meets the eye.<\/p>\n

Grey, Rhen and Harper form an unlikely alliance, despite a turbulent beginning, and together they take on the impossible task of saving Emberfall from it\u2019s many opposing forces.<\/p>\n

This is one Beauty and the Beast<\/em> retelling you will want for your collection, trust me! The end leaves you (desperately) wanting more and I can\u2019t wait to see what Brigid Kemmerer does next.<\/p>\n

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer will be published on the 4th of February 2019 and is available to order form Booktopia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

BESTSELLING YOUNG ADULT FICTION OF THE WEEK<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"brigid<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer Review by Bronwyn Eley A tale as old as time – Beauty and the Beast! There\u2019s a reason many of us keep returning time and again to this fairytale and in A Curse so Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer puts her own incredible twist on this legendary story. I\u2019m going to start with Harper – our heroine – who doesn’t exactly fit the stereotype of the “beautiful book-worm” that we have come to associate with Beauty and the Beast. She comes from a broken family who have had to resort to crime to survive. Harper suffers from cerebral palsy and Kemmerer isn\u2019t afraid to throw Harper through the physical and emotional wringer throughout the course of the novel.\u00a0 The best thing about Harper is that she has spent her life being underestimated, so she\u2019s developed a thick skin. She is constantly surprising our other characters Prince Rhen and Grey with her ballsy approach to the endless stream of confronting challenges thrown her way. It\u2019s these strengths that make Harper beautiful, passionate and unforgettable. And Prince Rhen seems to agree! Rhen suffers from his own arrogance and shallowness. Having deeply offended a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":86647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[34,85],"tags":[9616,7312,988,8632],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Social-6.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86643"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86660,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86643\/revisions\/86660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}