Book Review: Housed by Haunts (Cursed in Secrets #1)

Title: Housed by Haunts (Cursed in Secrets #1)
Author: Ashley Amy
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Reverse Harem
Rating: 2 stars
Purchase: Amazon

The gods abandoned us.
Life was not like we once knew.
They grew envious of our reliance on technology rather than prayer. In their haste to depart and forsake this world, they left us a parting present, one that would surely end the human race.
Now at the bottom of the barrel, women were scraping to get by. A disease had come. It wiped out majority of fertility in females, placing those who could bear children back to being the low man on the totem pole.
Only seen as broodmares, we were reserved solely for the right to breed. Sold to more than one man, we were to become endowed to a house. Inside, we were subject to the demands of our men’s desires to keep the population rising.
Once I hit puberty, I tested to be a prime specimen for their ruthless requirements.
All of this because those with power wanted to prove how much control they still had.
I spent several years in the academy, learning to be a docile female for their use. For no more worth than the uterus in my body, I had come of age to be marketed off to a house.
The daft idea might not fare on my behalf, but it also offered a freedom from being treated like a porcelain doll in the school I was forced to attend.
Filled with dread, I was about to find out what it was that made porcelain so fragile.

Housed by Haunts is the first book in the Cursed in Secrets series. There are five books total in this series. It’s my first series by this author, and I’m not entirely sure what to think at this point.

The mythology and world-building starts out a little flimsy, but it does progress and grow more interesting. Brielle has a hard life thus far, but despite all the hardships, she stands her ground and she actually has quite a strong personality – surprising given the world she’s inhabiting in which women don’t have much say.

The book isn’t very forgiving toward the other women in the book, though, except maybe Lois, and I thought that was a real shame. Why should the heroine be the only redeeming female character, and the others be one-dimensional and cruel toward other women? This bugged me the most. You don’t have to tear down other female characters to make the heroine shine–a heroine can shine in her own light.

I did breeze through the book, and it definitely had its moments. There’s a slow to medium burn build-up with the male love interests, and that’s quite well done. I do look forward to starting book two, and I hope the author expands upon the world-building and mythology, because those are the most interesting parts to me.