Title: Courted by Curses (Cursed in Secrets #2)
Author: Ashley Amy
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Reverse Harem
Rating: 3 stars
Purchase: Amazon

Things would never be the same after the beginning of our secrets unraveled. Like they say about lies spinning a web, we were all caught in the center of the same snare.
Leading to certain people that would destroy us, it was time to put our differences aside in order to save ourselves. But what about the side of me that I didn’t know?
My family had their own abundance of secrets they never shared with me. It left me feeling like the prey in a game I never knew I had been playing.
With the cursed gods at my side, I just hoped they would help me figure out my history. I had to hope they believed me when it came to me lacking the knowledge of my parent’s past.

Check out my review of the previous book in the series, Housed by Haunts, here.

After finishing Housed by Haunts, I was interested to start the second book, Courted by Curses. This book starts right where the previous one left off. Our gang has locked themselves in an office hiding away from two Olympian gods: Zeus and Hades. But the office gives access to deeper tunnels, and leads Brielle to uncover secrets about her past that could help explain why she seems to collect mates left and right, and why two Olympian gods are after her.

I liked how in this book, the male love interests finally start to acknowledge they actually have feelings for Brielle. In the first book, they spend the better half of the book pushing those feelings away, but here they start embracing how they truly feel.

Plus, I don’t want to give any plot spoilers, but the whole thing with Steer? Uhm, no, thanks, no.

I’m not all that fond of the idea of “mates” either. I know it’s a popular trope, but I much prefer slow-burns or medium-burns where the guys fall for the girl because of her personality, their connection, her humor, you name it. But just because she’s your “mate”, that feels a little cheap. I do see Brielle having connections to some of the characters, notably Talus, Prome and Syph, but that’s where it ends.

Xion was already established as her “mate” as from book one, but he’s the least interesting of the guys and he just seems like a doormat. The others have personalities, Xion is just bland. And Steer is… well, there are no words. I probably would’ve enjoyed the book more if he didn’t make an appearance in it.

Also, the ending still leaves us with a lot of cliffhangers and unfortunately, although at the end of book one, I was intrigued to find out more, now I’m feeling less enthusiastic. I’m still looking forward to reading how all these plotlines connect and why Brielle can do what she does, but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first, unfortunately.

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.