Book Review: The Fae King's Curse (Between Dawn and Dusk #1) by Jamie Schlosser

Book Title: The Fae King's Curse (Between Dawn and Dusk #1)

Author: Jamie Schlosser

Published Date: April 17 2020

Format: Ebook

Number of Pages: 281

Book Rating: 2 Stars

For my Star review system information click here.

Book Description:

Kirian and I were just twelve years old when I pulled him from the icy waters of the creek behind my house. As he looked in my direction with unseeing lavender eyes, I quickly realized our age was just about the only thing we had in common. He spoke with an accent, he had pointy ears, and he was so beautiful it made my heart ache. Oh, and he claimed to be a fae prince cursed by witches who stole his sight.

I thought he was crazy from hypothermia. Turns out, he wasn’t, and for some reason he keeps coming back. But a day in my world is a year in his. Every time I see him, he’s older. Wiser. Hotter.

Over the past six years, I’ve tried not to fall in love with him because the terms of the curse are clear: If he doesn’t wait for his fated mate in all ways, including an innocent (or not-so-innocent) kiss, he’ll be blind forever.

So when Kirian kisses me and pulls me through the portal to his realm, I make it my mission to do some damage control. It’d be a whole lot easier if he wasn’t determined to marry me... And if someone wasn’t trying to murder me every step of the way.

Review:

I'm going to be honest I didn't fully finish this book. However, I got to like 80% so I think I can reviews this honestly and well. There is honestly nothing that could happen in that last 20% which would change my opinion on this book.

So why they 2 star rating? Well, I was not a fan of the writing style and could not connect with any of the characters. They all felt very 2 dimensional to me, like I was seeing a surface caricature of these "people" and not who they really were. I also couldn't really connect to the MC, she was OK at first but as the book progressed and she started letting herself "fall" more in love with the love interest I feel like we lost a bit of what had been built up about her. It was like, she lost herself to be replaced with a lovestruck female with no sense of identity. I know that might come off harsh but this is how I felt with it.

I also felt like the love interest had one main piece of backstory relating to how he was blind and used to be able to see his kingdom. Apart from that I feel we are lacking in who he is. His whole world revolves around the MC which is a trope I like, but only if we see that he is also his own person. It kind of felt like I had read each of the love lines 100 times before and not in a good way.

I am also not sure if the representation of this would be considered accurate or OK from people who are blind? I know it's a fantasy but I would have liked the struggles or being blind and some of the beauty of it (like enhanced other senses) to have been explored a bit more.

It wasn't horrible, I was able to read through it easily, but I kept getting pulled out by the "fake" feeling these characters put out. Every now and then there would be a line and I would be so put off I would get pulled out of the story.

When we got to the "climax" of the story I found I really didn't care what happened. I am someone who loves real characters who are fleshed out. If I don't care for the characters I find it hard to care if they defeat the "evil" of the story or not.

There was a lot of things which weren't fleshed out as well. Which left me with some questions which I don't think will ever be answered. For example, I want to know more about why she was living on this huge land, I want to know more about her parents, her human life (we get barely a glimpse of it), I want to know more about the Fae kings life when he is away from the human world (again it's just glossed over). The MC is not ever mentioned being friends with anyone but the fae king. During this whole book it's just her and the guy. She makes acquaintances with people who immediately like here but no actual relationships. The MC also made decisions which I didn't understand (probably because we didn't know her well enough, just the surface of who she is).

I felt the writing was also not as strong as it could be, there was some parts of the writing which could have been tightened up a bit.

I kept on trying to push through but I worked on finishing this for over 2 months and at this point I don't really want to keep trying to push through.

I don't like doing more negative reviews but I always strive to be honest when I write a review and don't want to gloss over my feelings/thoughts on it. Saying this I want to add (like I do in pretty much all my book reviews) that I might not like a book but you might LOVE it. Everyone experiences reading differently. I can read a book and not like it and you can read the book and love it as you experienced it completely differently. So keep that in mind. Below I will list things I did like about it so you can make an informed decision on if you want to give it a try.

What I liked:

• I LOVED the concept.

• I liked how time is played with in terms of it existing differently in faerie land and in the human world (Though this could have been explored a bit more, especially towards the end where they postpone returning because of something which I won't say to not spoil you. They never explain how that something they did didn't affect them as bad when they got back. Like that something in my bath would be like at least a week in the fae land but they come back and it's been like 10 min?)

• I liked the character we are introduced to that will be in book 2. I think I liked him more than the love interest in this book even though we see him less. He seems to have a lot of backstory which we haven't seen yet.

• I liked some of the elements which started to be explored (like the culture attached to hair. But again, I wanted it to be developed more)

• The reveal of the curse was cool!

• The Witch character I liked, would like it more explored.

• The Fae kings powers has some things which were cool and I was intrigued to know more (though we didn't get any more on it in this book)

Alright, I think that's it for my thoughts on this book. I hope you enjoyed and if you want to have a discussion on your thoughts or how you perceived this book let me know in the comments! Maybe you saw it a different way and will show me a new way to look at it. Until next time,

Maya Lemaire