Genre: Romantasy
Publisher: One More Chapter/Fairyloot
Pages: 356
Release Date: October 1, 2024
A dark and steamy fairytale re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood. Perfect for romantasy readers and lovers of smuttok Is it possible to be drawn to someone you’ve never met? When Ruby feels the eyes of a stranger in the woods, she knows she should be scared, that she should run away, but she can’t. Instead, she feels a thrill, feels drawn to this stranger who follows her in the woods. Yearns for his eyes on her every night as she walks home, hoping to hear the crunch of leaves under his feet that signals he’s there. Will he ever reveal himself? After all, fate doesn’t make mistakes . . .
I decided to pick up A Curse of Blood and Wolves because it’s the May pick for Fairyloot’s Romantasy subscription box. I hope Fairyloot starts picking better books because A Curse of Blood and Wolves was not it.
A Curse of Blood and Wolves follows Ruby as she walks home from work every night through the woods. She feels a presence watching her but can’t help but feel exhilarated by it.
McTernan’s writing was juvenile and unpolished, consequently making the characters all one dimension and the world building messy.
Ruby is not like all the other girls because she’s the weird goth girl who’s into the morbid because her parents died at a young age. Ruby was needlessly sexualized.
Rafe’s personality boiled down to he was a big sexy werewolf who growls more often than not.
There’s an interesting world buried underneath the poor writing and character work. Unfortunately, readers are left with a world full of magical creatures that are just sort of there with multiple mysteries left unresolved.
Halfway through the novel, the little plot the book had disappeared in favour of spice. The cover promotes the novel as being a 4 chili pepper spice level, however I strongly disagree. I would rate it a generous 3. With the added spice comes Rafe’s indecision. Buddy couldn’t make a decision and stick to it to save his life. It was incredibly annoying.
The novel randomly ends with no resolution and with an epilogue from another character’s perspective implying that the next novel will follow a different set of characters. While I was happy to leave Ruby and Rafe’s perspectives, this change was unexpected and, as mentioned previously, there is a lot left unresolved.
Overall, A Curse of Blood and Wolves was a disappointing read with one dimensional characters and messy world building that lacked direction.
Have you read A Curse of Blood and Wolves? What did you think?
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