in short:
I'm incredibly disgusted with the sapphic "representation" in this book.
not only that, but this might be the dumbest but very certainly the most unnecessary sapphic trope I've ever read in any book. 
- having the wlw best friend fall for the fmc for no reason whatsoever other than to create tension and conflict for the main character -
which is a shame because I was really enjoying the romance and fake dating build up until then. 
if I'd known, I wouldn't have touched this damn book with a ten foot pole, in fact I wholeheartedly do not recommend this book to anyone.
 

now let me just rant because I'm TIRED:

to have the reason for the conflict between the fmc and her best friend(wren), that leads the fmc to turn to the mmc, be the fact that her best friend is and has been in love with her and is acting the way she is bc she is jealous of the mmc is WILD.
there is no indicator, let alone mention, of wren being queer until the very moment they confront each other.. almost like it's *meant* to be this huge reveal/surprise moment..
what's worse is the fact that this doesn't get talked about like at all?! 
if this had even a page worth of affect on the characters and their relationship other than the big surprise/reveal moment, I wouldn't be so mad and disappointed but to make wren queer only for that one reason and for the author to be unable to create tension and conflict any other way is just lazy and bad writing. 
in fact the whole thing just gets glossed over by saying "oh she's over the fmc now and things go back to the way they were". 

we don't get any insights into how wren might be feeling about this, the struggles of being queer and in love with your straight best friend or how much of a strain it might've been to their friendship to be forced to get over her best friend in order to keep their friendship in tact. 

it's so sad to me that sapphic women's queer identities get reduced to and used like this, only for the other parts of their identity to get neglected.. and for a man no less?! 
it was clear the author tried to make the fmc and her best friend's relationship special and meaningful which would've been great if they hadn't completely fucked it up and glossed over what happend. 
this entire "plot point" is just gross and I'm appalled that it got approved through an entire trad publishing house.

I'm so disappointed because again it was such a fun silly book to read until the 75% mark where it all went downhill. 
the ending was also rather disappointing so to say I expected a stronger third act is putting it mildly. 

I was originally planning on picking up the second book in this installment but will definitely not do that after finishing this book.

3.25⭐️

thank you to netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing me with an audio arc of a cursed son!!

I want to preface this by saying how much I love caitlin kelly as a narrator, she has this whimsical voice that simply suits fantasy books so well. 

now for the book itself:
this was a romantasy with a very heavy emphasis on the romance. 
the worldbuilding was intriguing and the magic system was also rather interesting! especially the main character's mysterious powers and how her connection to her religion tied into it but also her origin story left me wanting to know more. 
 what really intrigued my romantasy lover heart though were the mc&mac's shared dreams, they were such a nice contrast to their reality. what did bother me a little about this was the fact that they didn't really get to know each other in real life! I would've loved to see more of that.

I usually love romantasies, I love the underlining magical and political subplots weaving through the story and coming together at the end or the way a fantasy setting takes the romance to another level! and while the fantasy definitely did enhance the romance here, I thoroughly missed proper subplots.
all that to say romance really was the only plot in the entire 300+ pages and it got stretched rather thin at times. 

what really had me questioning my sanity though was the miscommunication. worse, it kept happening.
worse yet when they miscommunicated, nothing else happend? which brings me back to the missing subplot.. as much as this author tried, a book simply can't survive on just romance as the entire plot.

interestingly enough I also wouldn't really call this enemies to lovers. I don't know where people got that from because they dont teally fit the mold; maybe mistrusting lying hostiles to lovers would fit better but that might also just be me.

one thing I'm always a fool for are cliffhangers, they're my cryptonite and this was a very sudden surprising cliffhanger that left me wanting to pick up book 2 immediately!

all in all I'm a bit bummed because I really did like the premise but it just constantly felt like there was something missing throughout the entire book which became frustrating very quickly.
at the end, having thought this over I don't think this was my exact cup of tea but I did enjoy reading it, so maybe I'll end up picking up book two, who knows?