Christina Maraziotis

1.5⭐️
I won a copy of this book from a giveaway on LibraryThing in exchange for a review.

For the first 200 pages, this book was a 3-star for me. I liked the idea of it. I had fun hearing Arthur Morgan's voice from RDR2 as Mac. 215-470 was a 2-star (maybe less than 470). The rest of the book was a 1-star. By page 514 all the characters were irritating me except the horses. There were crows. (?) I don't understand their relevance, especially near the end. I think I'm just missing the reference for this one.

I think this book was a good draft. It did not need to be as long as it was. Especially since I see it's supposed to be 7 books somehow? This book could have easily been cut in half. There were many overused words. For example: "soughed" and "A smirk scarring their face." We had excessive punctuation with exclamation and question marks (?????!!!!!!!). Some words were IN ALL CAPS!!!!! The characters were either muttering or using their outside voices.

The romance was a square. Which, I hated. Will gave me the ick. Will's POVs could have been completely cut out. They did nothing. Did not encourage character growth. They just made the book drag (in my opinion.)

Charlotte had zero character development throughout the story. She continuously reliably flip-flopped between the 3 men in her romance square (and not in a reverse harem kinda way). Charlotte experienced some harrowing situations and came out unscathed with little to no trauma. You'd think she'd be a lot less trusty of men.

I liked Mountain Man Mac. I like how the flashbacks to the past were done for him. I didn't like the random anonymous "murders" throughout the book. They just upped the word count.

There was something off for me throughout the action scenes. It felt like it was missing a sense of urgency and stakes. They didn't feel Western- if that makes sense? (If not, same).

This book would have been better if it stuck with only 3 POVs: Charlotte's, Mac's, and Sherif Dorman's. These 3 were the core of the story. Charlotte's and Mac's character development could have improved through fewer perspectives. The Romance Square should have been a triangle before becoming a pair. I must say I'm a little bitter about the ending. This was not my cup of tea. What happened in the last chapter should have happened in book two. Or, we should have had more time before what happened. My OG feelings for this scene were WHAT A WASTE OF MY TIME. I have zero reason to read book two now. If, we had gotten more before what happened at the end. My heart would have been ripped out of my chest. Which could have been *cheifs kiss*. And maybe I would have an interest in continuing.

Overall, The idea is there. But not the execution.… (mere)

I kept an open mind about what might transpire in Book 3 of this series. and I was right to do so! I defy the second-guessers of the world to have correctly predicted the outcomes! Ghost continues. where Curse left off unsurprisingly. If you've read the first two in the series you will be familiar with the characters and the situations to a degree anad I'm loathe to say much in case I 'spoil'. What I've said in my reviews for the previous two books still stands but I think what struck me in this story is how delightful it is to see a writer developing and honing her craft. I found sections of prose in this book more lyrical than previously which was most pleasing.
The characters endure and develop. All our 'favourites' are here and, I guess, our 'unfavourites'. There are some new faces to conjure with and some new horses not to mention a cat!! (I still mourn Finn!).
I guess there are contentious issues explored within the narrative but the author offers a Trigger Warning at the beginning of the book so no one can say they haven't been warned! However there are some grisly episodes that make for dark reading. JB is sill around to offer a lighter balance.
The structure is episodic and moves between the various situations that are developing.
But once again I salute the passion and commitment of Christina Maraziotis and her sheer ability to produce books of this length so prolifically! If you follow her on social media you will wonder where she finds the time to write with all her travels and other ventures!!
I think the next volume in the series is called Slave and Im already surmising what that might imply!!!… (mere)

I won this book through librarything so thank you for that.

I started this soon as I could, but a lot of stuff has happened since I won this book so I am sorry for the delay.

Let's start with the beginning: It started really well, until it got to some parts that made me question some things. While I like the new male characters, one of them I kind of predicted was a bad guy.

I felt bad for Mac for the entire book. Now I see why the title is called Curse.

Now as for the ending, it was a surprise but a cliffhanger.

Either way, I am glad for Charlotte in the end.

The whole book is a bit better than the first one. I enjoyed it a lot.

The flow was fast in the start but slowed down towards the end.

I am grateful for having something different to read. And would like to get the rest of the books in the future.… (mere)