CURSED by Cate Masters

Publisher: Decadent Publishing

Date published: 24-Apr-13

ISBN: 978-1-61333-524-6

Paranormal, erotic romance

E-book

Reviewed by Helen

Weblink: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=767&osCsid=lbc9fvcvktn3ccap6g4j1dnf45

Obtained via publisher

Rating: 3

Bruno diCesare can only take his place in the world for the ten days each year of Carnevale, when people are masked and costumed, so no one can see what he truly looks like. Melina Weaver is a scientist who learned to be a fire dancer to put some excitement in her ordinary life. She is finally taking a vacation and comes to Carnevale. Their attraction can only be short term. Soon they’ll both have to resume their ordinary lives.

Series: The Vitruvian Man book 1.

This book begins brilliantly. Bruno’s sections are first person, and Melina’s are in third. Bruno is tortured by his condition, knowing there’s no hope for him, but drawn by something stronger than himself to Melina and desperate to spend this brief time with her. The world building for his life is very good, with enough detail for the reader to see it quite clearly, yet not so much it slows down the fast pace of the story.

Melina’s life and job becomes clearer to the reader as the story progresses, especially once things start going wrong. She is an intelligent and strong woman, dealing well with the problems she encounters. The passion between them is hot and the secondary characters vivid enough to round out the story.

And then the book was totally ruined for me. Completely destroyed. Why oh why do authors insist on making the heroine do something incredibly stupid? We have a bright, brave, intelligent heroine doing very well at carving out a life, a career, a romance. Then of course she has to do something terribly dangerous all alone without telling anyone what she’s doing because she has to “protect” them. I read this plot line time and time again in book after book and it fills me with despair—or makes me want to throw my e-reader against the wall (or both). There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of ways to solve the plot without turning the heroine into a mindless caricature of a 1950s brainless helpless ditz of a heroine.

The ending was appropriate but I’d totally lost interest in the heroine by then. Nothing could redeem her for me.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

Publisher: Decadent Publishing

Date published: 24-Apr-13

ISBN: 978-1-61333-524-6

Paranormal, erotic romance

E-book

Reviewed by Helen

Weblink: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=767&osCsid=lbc9fvcvktn3ccap6g4j1dnf45

Obtained via publisher

Rating: 3

Bruno diCesare can only take his place in the world for the ten days each year of Carnevale, when people are masked and costumed, so no one can see what he truly looks like. Melina Weaver is a scientist who learned to be a fire dancer to put some excitement in her ordinary life. She is finally taking a vacation and comes to Carnevale. Their attraction can only be short term. Soon they’ll both have to resume their ordinary lives.

Series: The Vitruvian Man book 1.

This book begins brilliantly. Bruno’s sections are first person, and Melina’s are in third. Bruno is tortured by his condition, knowing there’s no hope for him, but drawn by something stronger than himself to Melina and desperate to spend this brief time with her. The world building for his life is very good, with enough detail for the reader to see it quite clearly, yet not so much it slows down the fast pace of the story.

Melina’s life and job becomes clearer to the reader as the story progresses, especially once things start going wrong. She is an intelligent and strong woman, dealing well with the problems she encounters. The passion between them is hot and the secondary characters vivid enough to round out the story.

And then the book was totally ruined for me. Completely destroyed. Why oh why do authors insist on making the heroine do something incredibly stupid? We have a bright, brave, intelligent heroine doing very well at carving out a life, a career, a romance. Then of course she has to do something terribly dangerous all alone without telling anyone what she’s doing because she has to “protect” them. I read this plot line time and time again in book after book and it fills me with despair—or makes me want to throw my e-reader against the wall (or both). There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of ways to solve the plot without turning the heroine into a mindless caricature of a 1950s brainless helpless ditz of a heroine.

The ending was appropriate but I’d totally lost interest in the heroine by then. Nothing could redeem her for me.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.