Harper was a fantastically well written main character with a believable backstory, physical flaws that she won’t allow to get the best of her, a brave instinct that often gets her in trouble although she never regrets her actions. The story was told from both perspectives of Harper and Prince Rhen which brought the story to life through both their eyes. Part of me doesn’t even want to call it a fairytale retelling because the story was so individually different. I adored the characters, the magic, the curse, the monster – the original fairytale was all there but it was just so wonderfully unique that it was one of it’s own. This was one of the best Beauty and the Beast retellings I’ve read and I don’t say that lightly – I’ve read a lot of them. Her knuckles are white where they grip the bar. “Where am I?” The girl’s eyes keep flicking from me to him to the sword in his hand. She most assuredly was not my first choice.” “Do not think,” he tells her, his voice fierce, “that this means I will allow you to attack me again.”

He stops, but his sword remains in his hand and he doesn’t take his eyes off the girl. No matter how many times she tries to escape, she quickly realises that she’s stuck as the last hope for a curse that threatens to destroy the entire kingdom around her.

The next thing she knows, she’s transported to a world outside DC, a castle in summer surrounded by winter, musical instruments that play themselves, and a prince that claims to need her help. When she sees a girl being kidnapped by a man whilst on a job, she can’t help but get involved and throws herself at the man with her crowbar even if it does little to stop him. Her mother is now bedridden with cancer and Harper herself left feeling weak with her cerebral palsy in her leg, her role is to be a look out for her brother and nothing more.

Harper hasn’t had it easy, her father ran away after he got involved with a group he owed money too, leaving the debt and danger to her family and her brother left doing the dirty work for those who threaten them.

A curse so dark and lonely book 2