Book reviews Fantasy Retellings

Curse of the Wolf King by Tessonja Odette

About the Book- Curse of the Wolf King

A Beauty and the Beast Retelling

A beastly fae king with a deadly curse.
A devious bargain to break it…

All Gemma Bellefleur wants is to leave her past behind and forget the day scandal broke her heart. But when she’s captured by a trickster fae king who threatens to hold her for ransom, she’ll find herself at the top of the gossip column yet again. 

Unless…

Plagued by a curse that will soon claim his life, the human-hating King Elliot will do anything to save himself. And if Gemma can use that to her advantage, she might be able to bargain her way to freedom. All she has to do is help him break his curse.

There’s just one hitch—to do so, they’ll have to trick someone into falling in love with the beastly, brooding Elliot.

With a devious alliance made, their scheme begins, bringing Gemma and Elliot into very close quarters. Soon, an unexpected desire stirs where once there was only hate. But Gemma must fight it. For when the curse is broken, Elliot will return to his true form—a wolf—and be lost to her for good.

Can Gemma sacrifice her budding feelings to save the king’s life? Or will love force her to give up something even greater…her heart?

*NOTE this book is upper YA/NA featuring mature situations and some adult language. The romance is slow burn but leads to moderate steam. 

Curse of the Wolf King is a complete stand-alone novel set in the same world as The Fair Isle Trilogy. Journey back to Faerwyvae or begin your adventure for the first time with this enchanting tale. Each book in the Entangled with Fae series can be read on its own and in any order. Happily ever after guaranteed!
 

How is giving a makeover and taking a home decor project an actual story plot because that is exactly what is happening in the book? Makeovers and home renovation.

Read on for our review of the book

Our Review of the Curse of the Wolf King

I blame myself for this disaster. I had to pick this book. Why? Because it was a beauty and beast retelling and I am obsessed with beauty and beast. Bad idea!! The book was disappointing at a lot of levels. What is even more irritating is that it had some good elements and some ingredients that could have changed the whole game. Curse of the wolf king turned out to be truly cursed because it missed on some crucial execution techniques and completely lost track of what was relevant to the story. 

The book had some very good ingredients, to begin with, but it completely was ignored as the story progressed. Either because there was too much pressure to make it appealing to the mass readers and strong female lead ideologies or maybe it was trying hard to sound and look like Beauty and Beast. I may be a bitch saying this but I have seen a lot of books tumbling down the disaster lane because the authors have to tweak and make it look like their female lead are strong and no damsel in distress. So that the readers don’t come at them saying what a weak character the female lead was or the male lead was your typical self obsessed everyday male. I understand as a reader wanting to see strong female lead breaking boundaries that could be inspiring but I don’t want that at the sacrifice of a good plot. I don’t mind if the main character is a damsel in distress if the situation calls for it and if it makes sense and not to glorify a character. Ooops …I think I just went on another ranting spree. Coming back to the story. 

The whole point of me babbling all these was that I felt the author was able to pull it off a bit in the beginning by creating a strong female character. It had so much potential with how the central character was given a back story that was all relatable and make you be on board with her. ( Although she whines a lot ……I mean …a lot). The same thing then also started interfering with the romance of the book. How would you develop romance when the female lead wouldn’t even let the male lead near her…right? So starts the tweak in the very character that actually gave her substantial characteristics and then from there on you don’t even recognise the character anymore.

Next, comes the male lead. Seriously !!!! A lame wolf? I mean .. literally crippled lead that has nothing to offer other than growl?. I can’t… I just can’t….. I am not going into that treacherous path because I am not going to come out of it without sounding like an ass and insensitive. It is not that the lead being disabled is off-putting but the way it appeared in the book. It felt like a mockery. It was treated like an extra tail that appeared and disappeared at convenience ( you will see if you read the book)

Conclusion

As I said before the two central characters are on two different tracks and they are forced together by the author for the sake of creating romance. It just happens magically over a paragraph. How is giving a makeover and taking a home decor project an actual story plot because that is exactly what is happening in the book? Makeovers and home renovation. Like a major chunk of the second half. Story… forgotten., Character strength…forgotten, romance …. Maybe squeeze in their somewhere if the ink remains… 

Squirrel Rating

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1 Comment

  1. […] Check other Retellings with us:1. Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston2. Curse of the Wolf King by Tessonja Odette […]

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