House of Curses

Whoa. This one was a rollercoaster!

House of Curses is the third book in K.A. Linde's Royal Houses series. First of all, the second book in the series was released a year ago, so I'm thankful that Linde managed to insert a few recaps of certain events very cleverly at the beginning of this book. Secondly, I couldn't put my Kindle down as soon as I started reading it.

At the start of the book, Kerrigan and Fordham are dealing separately with different things in their lives. Fordham is trying to break his curse after being forced to leave Kerrigan behind to protect her, while Kerrigan is struggling with an unwanted wedding, dealing with her father and their house, and her new position in the Society. However, as if all of that wasn't enough, she's also being pushed into an unexpected election.

The pacing of this book was insane. A lot was unpacked, everything was happening with EVERYONE, and I was glued to my Kindle. I love all of the characters, so I wanted to read from everyone's POV at all times. However, this is my personal preference. I tend to enjoy multi-POV books. However, because of all the stuff happening with Kerrigan, and since Fordham was MIA for 50% of the book (but very much present in Kerrigan's thoughts, dreams, and visions), the book was better balanced in following different events and POVs during the first half. In the second half, we didn't get much time to follow what was going on with Clover, Hadrian, and Darby, for example. Even though we had a few other POVs, following the same pattern of the first part, the pacing increased even more and some of the characters didn't pop up as much as I wished. I wanted more Dozan and scenes in the Waster! I wouldn't mind if we had gotten more pages to explore the secondary characters and locations.

There were a few details that I didn't enjoy as much as I wanted. The identity of the main villain was a little obvious from a certain point, I wish it had kept the suspense going a little longer. I also didn't enjoy a certain detail regarding the romance between Kerrigan and Fordham (it's a Fae detail... if you know, you know). I don't think it was necessary at all. And this book features a trope I dislike in fantasy books, one that was used a lot in YA Fantasy. I'm not going to disclose it because it's a spoiler. However, it didn't bother me as much because this is not the final book in the series. I'm pretty sure that Linde is going to turn it on its head. Fingers crossed

As I said before, the cast of characters is very strong in this series. I won't say I loved all the POVs because I honestly didn't care about Harbor (Fordham's cousin). However, I really enjoyed Isa, a villain, and Wynter, Fordham's sister, POVs. Kerrigan was, once again, a great character to follow. She had a lot going on: bonding with her father, learning more about her spirit magic while practicing, studying magical artifacts, enduring March and the boatload of social mandatory events, dealing with the discrimination and the Red Masks, the anti-human and anti-half fae terrorist organization, etc. The political intrigue was at its peak in this installment of the series.

I also enjoyed the mystery surrounding Kerrigan's mother. I'm very intrigued about it! And don't even get me started about the ending! The cliffhanger was brutal! Can't wait to read the next one!

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading House of Curses. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Fae fantasy romance, dragons, magic, political intrigue, fast-paced action, and interesting fantasy worlds.

Thank you to Wildfire Marketing for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.