Review Detail

BENEATH THESE CURSED STARS is a lush and engaging YA fantasy read. Jasalyn, the Shadow Princess, is still suffering from the time she spent being tortured by Mordeus and his followers. The memories plague her with nightmares, and she feels the fear always. To regain some of her power, she traded her immortal life to a witch who gave her a ring that takes away those feelings and also gives her death's kiss, which she uses to get rid of the guards who tortured her.

Her sister fears for her and her psychological health, so when rumors begin swirling that Mordeus is coming back, she decides to send Jas away to stay with the Wild Fae King, Misha. Jas does not want to go and when she heads out to enact more revenge, she is captured by some humans who have their own plots for her. As she realizes their goals align, she agrees to join them, and Felicity, who has a powerful magic of being able to take on another person's appearance and scents, takes her place. Felicity has her own task of getting close to Misha to find a portal they will need.

As they both travel closer to their goals, they find themselves falling in love with the men they are getting close to and unraveling an untold number of secrets along the way.

What I loved: This was a fast-paced and fascinating story that keeps the reader hooked with little reveals and secrets along the way. Themes of fear, trauma, power, and healing are all really strong throughout, as Felicity and Jas are navigating the things that have harmed them in the past while trying to move forward.

The romance was really strong, and each had an element of forbidden romance, but also another layer of uncertainty due to secrets being kept. For instance, Felicity was pretending to be Jas, completely taking over her identity - so how could Misha actually love her and not Jas? She circled this moral question and problematic feelings resulting her growing love towards Misha throughout. Jas's story is complicated by secrets being kept, and by knowing what the future holds for her. Her paramour has his own agenda and complications, so Jas and the reader are kept wondering whether he is using her for his plans or whether he has actual fondness for her as herself. They have a history that is colored by the time that makes things both more intense and more complex.

The story flips between Felicity and Jas, but it was easy to keep track of each perspective and the characters therein. While there were a lot of people, the scope ended up feeling pretty limited as their interactions were generally with only a few. This made the book read faster and it was easy to keep up with the plot.

The quest for power and healing is complicated by trauma and reactions to it, including a desire to take back that power in revenge. Magic makes this even more twisty as the story continues. The reader gets windows into what Jas has suffered and why she feels the way she does through nightmarish scenes along the way, and this really pulled the reader into her character and helped to empathize with the (sometimes poor, though understandable) decisions she is making.

The end is a huge cliffhanger, and it will be tough to wait for the next book. Things are just coming to a head and huge reveals happen - but then the reader finds out there is no more! This will be a very tough wait to the next book, and I cannot wait to see what will happen next.

Final verdict: BENEATH THESE CURSED STARS is a lush and engaging YA fantasy about trauma, revenge, and love that will leave readers begging for the next in the series.