#casey odell

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Review: Cursed by Casey Odell

Cursed by Casey Odell My rating: 4 of 5 stars A four-star rating is pushing it. Mainly because I decided to try to read Book Two, I’m hoping it will get better. I picked this first book up in 2013. I kept putting off reading it. I was getting tired of Young Adult books, even then. Most are so angsty. Sadly, thirteen years later, I feel the same way. The story started interesting enough, but as…

Review: Cursed by Casey Odell

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Cursed (Cursed Magic Series) by Casey Odell

The first instalment to Casey Odell’s Cursed Magic Series is similar to the typical young adult fantasy novels by Kristen Cashore, Maria V. Snyder and Cassandra Rose Clarke’s debut novel The Assassins Curse. Maybe not as refined but there is definitely something intriguing and alluring for fans of the young adults fantasy genre and is an enjoyable start to the series.

Cursed follows Claire Tanith forced from her small and secluded life, her village having been attacked by centaurs she never knew existed, and is sent by her mother into the forbidden forest with the puzzling words: ‘they will protect you’. Entering into the unknown Claire finds out that she shares a world with elves and magic. But magic has ceased to exist for over a hundred years due to the battle between humans and elves and when a miraculous mark suddenly appears on Claire’s arm, a curse for her but a beckon of hope for the elves, Claire is rushed on a mission with two elves: a mischievous Aeron and a brooding Farron (and of course as the majority of young adult fantasy romances goes I think we can all figure out where the love story lies between).

Odell’s brings us instantly into a quick and fast paced opening sequence with the attack upon Claire’s small home, which was well written, replicated the suddenness of the moment perfectly. Unfortunately this quickness followed into the story and for someone like me who reads a lot of YA fantasy, often the kind aimed at female readers, the build up of the plot fell somewhat flat and frustratingly the story bombarded throughout the novel recklessly making the understanding of the plot quite confusing. It needed a moment of clarity to better explain the history of the elves and what had happened for magic to disappear. 

However despite this the characters managed to keep the plot moving, the interactions between them funny and entertaining. And I love a good romance and am a sucker for characters trying to test the boundaries of each other, teasing and all. The interaction between Claire and Farron kept me turning the pages, and there are definitely a lot of moments between them which are always interesting. Farron is the typical mysterious and menacing character who appears annoyed at having to babysit the sheltered and curious Claire whose eager to learn, question and can stand up for herself, which is always commendable. However, her naivety of both the world and love for the General who ends up joining them on their mission I found rather annoying and I believe this was my main problem with this novel, for this relationship felt unbelievable and awkwardly foolish which (spoiler (?)!) was and it was easy to know, frustratingly, what was coming.

Yet despite this ‘curse’ of falling into the clichés of YA fantasy/romances novels (excuse the pun I couldn’t resist), Cursed is an enjoyable fix for fantasy and young adult fans who love a typical plot of young women who isn’t to do what she has to do and those small but intimate moments that always make the fantasy romance oh so sweet.