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Published Jan 2019
496 pages
Genre: Romance
Publication Information
In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.
Fall in love, break the curse.
It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she's instead somehow sucked into Rhen's cursed world.
Break the curse, save the kingdom.
A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall ... and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.
"Starred Review. A fast-paced, richly detailed feminist epic." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. This enthralling modern fable champions altruism while illustrating intimacy's relationship with honesty, respect, trust, and consent." - Publishers Weekly
"A fresh twist on an old story... . Fans of Sarah J. Maas will be eager for this one." - Booklist
"A unique world filled with fantasy and menace ... will leave readers anxious to see what happens next." - School Library Journal
"Absolutely spellbinding. A Curse So Dark and Lonely expands on all the beloved themes of 'Beauty and the Beast' to create an intensely original retelling: one full of fierce new characters, wicked magic, and wondrous amounts of heart. Brigid Kemmerer doesn't just tell a story, she builds an entire world that you will never want to leave." - Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Caraval and Legendary
"I couldn't get this creative, suspenseful take on 'Beauty and the Beast' out of my head." - Sara Holland, New York Times bestselling author of Everless
"Slow burning, big hearted, magical fun! I loved every minute." - New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins
"Heartwarming, thoughtful, and romantic: Brigid Kemmerer took me on a magical journey with this dark fairy tale about growing up, falling in love, and making impossible choices. I can't wait to see where these characters go next." - Jodi Meadows, New York Times bestselling co-author of My Lady Jane and My Plain Jane
"Beautifully dark, filled with wild adventure and a modern-day heroine every reader will find a bit of themselves in." - Alexandra Christo, author of To Kill A Kingdom
This information about A Curse So Dark and Lonely was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Brigid Kemmerer is the author More Than We Can Tell, Letters to the Lost, and the Elementals series. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, though her parents quickly moved her all over the United States, from the desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the lakeside in Cleveland, Ohio, and several stops in between, eventually settling near Annapolis, Maryland.
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