Review: The Curse of the King by Winnie Lyon
Hello bookworms!
Happy release day to “The Curse of the King” by Winnie Lyon! This book is a “Macbeth” retelling in a way that’s never been done before and also features LGBTQ+ characters. Also, Winnie is just 18 years old and she is already published! That’s such an amazing accomplishment so kudos to her 🎉🎇 Thank you to Parliament House Press for the eARC!
Laura Wilson is the heir to an ancient curse.
As a young witch descending from the very powerful trio of witches that had cursed Macbeth, the pressure she faces daily is non-stop. When Laura is forced to participate in her school’s rendition of the classic play, she gives herself a single task: breaking the curse once and for all.
This task proves itself to be more difficult than she ever could have imagined when a miscast spell leads to the summoning of her dead ancestor, Cecily Wilson, one of the very witches that cursed Macbeth.
As Laura attempts to send her resurrected relative back beyond the veil, she is faced with one of the harsh realities of high school—having a crush on her best friend, Holly. However, things only get more complicated as Holly pines after Peter, a lonely, quick-witted vampire.
While she grows closer to Cecily, Laura sees first-hand the true horrors of being a witch in Elizabethan England as demonic forces arise in her little town of Shipley Hollow.
Can Laura break the curse and save her family name before the curtains rise on opening night?
Brought to you by Winnie Lyon, The Curse of the King is an action-packed novel with mysterious and magical twists at every turn.
Review:
So I really enjoyed reading this book. The curse, the drama, the magic, the romance, the spells, the characters, oh my! First, I just want to take a moment and say that the spells in this book were awesome! They were like poetry and were so cleverly written, I was extremely impressed! There was non-stop action happening in the plot so this book was a real page-turner. So much happens to the characters in a single weekend, it’s amazing they can still pull themselves out of bed for school on Monday morning. I loved the supportive friendship between Laura, Holly, and Peter and the romance that comes later on (I won’t say between who, you’ll have to read the book to find out). The nicknames that Laura and Peter came up with for each other were so entertaining to read. Another thing I really enjoyed were the flashback scenes Laura experienced where she would go back in time as her ancestor Cecily to experience moments she went through during the European witch trials.
Some problems I had with the book were about Laura’s mother and the rules of the magic world. There’s a part in the book where Laura gets in huge trouble with her mother because of something she did and her mother ends up kicking her out of the house. I thought this was a little over dramatic because kicking your kid out of the house is never a solution and it’s not going to help fix the problem. Her mother was also super caring towards Holly, who had a bad relationship with her family so you’d think that Laura’s mother wouldn’t recreate this behaviour with her own daughter. Onto the rules of the magic world. Sometimes I felt like the rules were just there to help the plot but did not make sense in the overall scheme of things. Even Peter from the book thought so cause he says “The rules of magic sound like bullshit" 😂 The final problem I had was super random but… who doesn’t warm up their pasta sauce before they mix it with the pasta noodles?!?! There’s a scene in the book where Peter is cooking pasta and the noodles are done and he “pulls a jar of marinara…from the fridge” and the girls just put that straight onto their pasta… Who does this?!
Anyway this was a pretty great book overall and I enjoyed reading the story! If you love Shakespeare, theatre, witches, curses, and LGBTQ+ representation then definitely go check this book out! Also please tell me in the comments if you eat your pasta like Laura and Holly 😊
Rating: 3.5/5🌟
Winnie Lyon’s Links:
Instagram: @winnieclyon
Twitter: @winnieclyon
Goodreads: Winnie Lyon
Website: winnielyon.com
Parliament Press:
Instagram: @theparliamentpress
Twitter: @parliamentbooks
Facebook: @theparliamenthouse
