Review: “Cursed” by K.K. Allen

Series: Enchanted Gods, #1

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫

Steam: 🔥

Release Date: July 6th, 2021

“𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘴.”⁣⁣
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Katrina Summer always knew she was different. Her fiery temper seems to perpetually land her in hot water, making her an outcast among her peers. When tragedy strikes and she’s sent to live with her only remaining family in the tiny coastal town of Apollo Beach, Katrina starts counting down the days until her eighteenth birthday.⁣⁣
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Only then will she finally be free.⁣⁣
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As Katrina learns the legends of her Ancient Greek ancestors, secrets from her heritage are exposed—secrets that her mother purposefully concealed. Her only solace is found in Alec Stone, the gorgeous guy next door. With his devastatingly charming smile, his persistent flirtation, and a love that sparks from the flames of friendship, he offers her a much-needed escape from the turmoil.⁣⁣
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If only she wasn’t cursed.⁣⁣
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As powerful forces threaten the lives in Apollo Beach, Katrina can’t escape the evocative world of mythological enchantment and evil prophecies that lurk around every corner.

When it comes to K.K. Allen’s books, the one thing you can be guaranteed is the world building. And in the first book from her new young adult series, you’re transported from the real world to Apollo Beach where everything is absolutely beautiful and the people are the same, but different. Her books also suck you in and you find yourself flipping pages desperately trying to get to the bottom of the story, wanting to know everything there is about what you’re reading. And Cursed makes you feel no different. That’s the true test of how powerful an author is.

Cursed follows Katrina Summers and the weird way her life is turning out. After she’s been expelled from her school, Katrina loses her mother and then gets shipped off to Apollo Beach where her grandmother lives. Her whole life, Katrina has only heard stories about this grandmother, she’s never met the infamous Rose Summers. And in a place like Apollo Beach, Rose is a legend. The Summers family is famous for having built the town and Katrina is thrust into this world without any warning. And if that’s not enough, she’s starting to feel all kinds of things that she can’t explain or put her finger on. The only comforting thing about Apollo Beach is how normal all the people are – there’s a cute boy who likes her, there’s two bitchy teens who don’t.

While I was rushing through this book to get to the end, it started out a little slow. Katrina doesn’t know anything about her true heritage and everyone around her is being very cryptic about who she is and what all of this means. It only annoys her that there’s all these secrets and nobody is telling her anything. I’m incredibly curious about all these supporting characters because I like Alec, he’s your typical gorgeous boy next door. But I love Johnny, because you can tell that he’s going to make Katrina’s life even more interesting.

My biggest issues with this book are that it follows the tried and tested format of YA fantasy where this young girl knows nothing about her true heritage or her magic and then when she turns 18, everything is revealed. It works, because that is a well known format, but I wish we’d been thrust into the middle of Katrina learning about her powers instead of all of the build up. The other was that the fantasy part really only comes to light in the second half of the book and even then, it’s not a lot.

I loved the world building and the connection to Greek mythology and the world that Katrina is now embedded in, and I am definitely eager to see what the rest of the season gives us.

Thanks to K.K. Allen and Wildfire Marketing Solutions for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.