Castle of the Cursed Published by Wednesday Books by Romina Garber
on July 30, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Gothic, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Romance
Pages: 304
Source: Netgalley
Format: ARC, eBook
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
ISBN: 1250863899
Rating:
A delicious and dark gothic romance from bestselling author Romina Garber!
THE HOUSE IS ALWAYS HUNGRY…
After a mysterious attack claims the lives of her parents, all Estela has left is her determination to solve the case. Suffering from survivor’s guilt so intense that she might be losing her grip on reality, she accepts an invitation to live overseas with an estranged aunt at their ancestral Spanish castle, la Sombra.
Beneath its gothic façade, la Sombra harbors a trove of family secrets, and Estela begins to suspect her parents’ deaths may be linked to their past. Her investigation takes a supernatural turn when she crosses paths with a silver-eyed boy only she can see. Estela worries Sebastián is a hallucination, but he claims he’s been trapped in the castle. They grudgingly team up to find answers and as their investigation ignites, so does a romance, mistrust twined with every caress.
As the mysteries pile up, it feels to Estela like everyone in the tiny town of Oscuro is lying and that whoever was behind the attack has followed her to Spain. The deeper she ventures into la Sombra’s secrets, the more certain she becomes that the suspect she’s chasing has already found her . . . and they’re closer than she ever realized.
At first I was really loving this book. It was the eerie, macabre, gothic feel that swept me along.
But then I feel like the story kind of tanked itself. It could’ve been fantastic. It could’ve been full of twists and turns that were revealed in a way that took me by surprise but didn’t leave me thinking, “how convenient”. Instead, I found that instead of hinting at the rules in the world and my not knowing how those rules would affect the outcome of the story–instead, something would happen and then, magically, miraculously, some “rule” would be revealed to set the story down another path.
I just found that it seemed the author was writing this story by the seat of her pants, going, “Okay, how am I going to fix this issue?” And maybe that’s not the case. But it shouldn’t feel that way.
I loved the romance in the beginning of the book. Enemies-to-lovers when the “hero” is obviously not a “good guy” is one of my favorite tropes. However, even the romance fell apart for me, when, again, more was revealed as a surprise, instead of layers being hinted at to make things more believable.
All-in-all, not one of the best. But also not one of the worst. It was entertaining enough for me to want to find out the ending. And that ending–I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.
Castle of the Cursed releases July 30th.
About Romina Garber
Romina Garber is a NYT/International Bestselling YA author who also writes under pen name Romina Russell. Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Miami, Romina landed her first writing gig as a teen—“College She Wrote,” a weekly Sunday column for the Miami Herald that was later picked up for national syndication—and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She is a graduate of Harvard College and a Virgo to the core.
