A review by lezreadalot
Love & Other Cursed Things by Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie

3.0

She might be a diamond. Powerful and coveted and pleasing to the eye. Yearned for. But steel and iron and diamonds—they don’t care. They don’t love. And I’ve never been loved the way that I know October used to love me.

3.5 stars. This is pretty well-written and I really liked the romance so I'm sad that it left me with so much dissatisfaction in other arenas. It's a small town, sort of a second chance romance between Zoey, who comes back home after some time away, and October, who has always stayed in town. They used to be best friends and still are to some extent, and they had a kind of opposites attract flirtation and friendship in their teens. But the town is "cursed" and there are some secrets floating about that they have to uncover.

My biggest nit-pick is this: every single barrier to their relationship was completely ridiculous and seemed so totally manufactured so that I couldn't understand why they weren't together if they actually wanted to be together. Zoey staying away because of the town curse makes absolutely no sense to me if this is not a paranormal book where the curse is actually real. And it's not. It's mostly a contemporary romance, and I've slapped the romantic suspense label on it because that does sort of come into play later. But there is no actual curse, and even though a lot of the townspeople and Zoey herself do really buy into the superstition to some extent, I guess I just found it too silly to be credible, that this so-called curse is the root of so much trouble and friction in so many relationships. Including the main one. Like when Zoey first came back to town and everyone was trying to get her to leave either because (1) over the top ridiculous bullying since everyone hates her family or (2) they care for her and they're so concerned about her getting cursed. Maybe I just couldn't immerse myself enough, but it seemed so silly to me. Which is why I just wanted this to be an actual paranormal book with actual magic and actual curses, and then maybe I would have been able to get more into it. I would have been able to believe that, okay, this is actually a barrier to their romance. I just found it silly, and I wish I had been able to ignore that sense of silliness, but the characters were taking the whole curse thing so seriously and it was just making me roll my eyes.

This isn't part of a series, but it's apparently set in a world where the characters from the authors' other books do exist as a celebrities or something. I haven't read any of their other books, and so the constant references to other characters was a little annoying. And there were a few side relationships that I was definitely interested in, and reading books about Brian/Parry and Colt/Baby would be fun, but I do think that maybe the side relationships took up a bit too much real estate in this book. Because I really did enjoy Zoey and October as a couple, their whole dynamic, their easily rekindled and undeniable spark and friendship, and all the ways they mean so much to each other. And so every time the focus came off of them even for a little bit, I got a teensy bit impatient, even though I did like the side characters.

The mystery aspect of the book was kind of haphazard and not that exciting or well-plotted. And there are some things that come into play in the very last chapters of the book that I really do wish had been seeded earlier so that, you know, the book felt a bit more balanced. At one point it just takes a very abrupt turn into romantic suspense, I guess, and there could have been a few more indications that that was where the book was going to go. I didn't really care about the plot all that much. There were a couple things in the last half that really did surprise me. But as a lot of mediocre thrillers have taught me, a book being able to surprise me does not mean that the book is, like, good.

But I'm not saying this was bad! The writing was competent, and there were a few swoony lines. I really liked the two main characters; October especially was soooooo dreamy. She gave off haughty and cold vibes, but at her core she wants nothing more than to protect Zoey, and the ways she did it were lovely. (She kept pushing Zoey behind her, which is the kind of alpha behaviour I'm not usually a fan of, but October made it sexy.) The romance was sweet and hot, and even though it felt a little bit cookie-cutter in a few places, it ticked a lot of really good boxes for me. The whole curse thing was just a really big hurdle that I just never completely got over, so I would still recommend this if you don't think that that would be an issue for you.

Listened to the audiobook as read by CJ Bloom and Lessa Lamb, and I did enjoy it. I'm not too familiar with them, but I enjoyed their performances and what they brought to the characters. I don't know that I would ever read from this author duo again? I am kind of interested in Brian and Parry's romance, so maybe I'll check that out if it's ever written.

(Gotta say: ahhhhhh I love this cover. <3)