The Cursed by Harper L Woods

The Cursed by Harper L Woods

The Cursed is the second and most recent book in Harper L Wood's Coven of Bones series. Published in October of 2023, it is the book that my elementary aged and younger children picked out as my Christmas gift. I just found out that my well-meaning sister allowed my daughter to carry the dark-romance novel around the store, which I find incredibly inappropriate and hilarious. Dark romance is not usually my jam, but being a gift from my children that they were very excited to give to me, I gave it a chance and, as you probably know by now, I cannot leave a series unfinished - so I am now on the hook for the next four books as well. This book references bullying death, child abuse, sexual violence and violence in general, blood, kidnapping, murder, toxic friendship, injury detail, and dubious consent. It is more graphic than most novels I read, but I did not find it difficult to read. This is a review of The Cursed, if you are interested in refreshing your memory before continuing in the series, see our Coven of Bones summary page.

Willow Madizza has finally claimed her birthright as both the last of the Madizza line and the last of the Hecate line of witches. And doing so has opened more than just a can of worms - it also opened the seal to Hell, releasing several archdemons and Lucifer himself. Turns out, when Willow thought she was seducing and manipulating Gray to fulfill her own goals, he had plans of his own. As it happens, Gray and Lucifer are one and the same and Gray wants Willow as his wife, in every way, and he's willing to wait for her to come to terms with her love for him. It might be a while - she hates him. But they will have to find a way to work together because their goals are about to become one and the same.

This book was fine. There's nothing particularly special about it, although it does seem to have a large following. The writing was fine, the characters were fine, the storyline was fine. It was a little bit confusing at times but nothing particularly egregious. The problem is that there was nothing great about it. I am interested to see where the third novel goes, the general consensus is that it will follow new protagonists and I think that where their journey picks up has real potential. We will see, the third novel The Damned comes out in October of this year.

I'm giving The Cursed by Harper L Woods 3.25 stars out of 5 with a spice level of 3.5. I wouldn't say that I'm excited to continue this series, but I am intrigued. If you want to catch up on what happens so far in the Coven of Bones series, check out our summary page.

For more from the author, see their website at https://www.adelaideforrest.com/#/

Pairs well with strawberry almond puff pastries and a good pair of combat boots.

Review of The Coven by Harper L Woods - Coven of Bones book 1