Book Review: Cursed Luck by Kelley Armstrong

If you know me at all, then you know that I absolutely adore Kelley Armstrong. I’m doing a reread of her Women of the Otherworld books currently. And I keep an eye out for her new releases. This is one I had my eye on and had preordered. But seeing that audiobook available to request on NetGalley?

Well, I obviously had to request it. And I got it! I was so excited that I could start this book straight away. It took me no time at all to get through, and I can’t recommend it more.

This is the start of a new series where some people have magic in their family lines. These are specific forms of magic, thought to go back to groups of mystical people from the Ancient Greeks etc. Kennedy Bennett is a curse weaver with an antique shop. When a man walks in one day asking to hire her for a job, she doesn’t realise he’s asking for more than he’s saying. Aiden Connolly is a luck worker, and he needs a curse weaver to help him win and remove the curse from an important necklace. But he’s not the only one looking for a curse weaver, so when Kennedy’s sisters are in danger. She has to team up with him to find them.

I mentioned the Ancient Greek part, though it isn’t in the summary on the back. Because where their powers come from is important. I can’t go into detail as spoilers. But if you’re into Greek mythology, then this book will definitely be for you. I didn’t know about it going into it, it was a great surprise. But I’d have been more excited for the book had I known about it.

The gods are obviously mentioned a lot, so one thing that I loved that I wanna add: non-binary Hermes. All I’m gonna say on the god front. It excites me, and it should excite you too.

This book was so good. If you’re looking for a book with a ship that has a lot of banter? As well as a great cast of side characters? This is definitely the book for you. I adored Kennedy and Aiden’s interactions. They were so funny, and despite how different they were from each other, they really worked. They kind of reminded me of a mix between Paige and Lucas from her Otherworld books with Olivia and Gabriel from the Cainsville books. I did also like their interactions with the side characters. I like both Kennedy and Aiden’s siblings. I’m kind of excited to read more about them too. They’re so different to our protagonists, but I love their relationships all the same.

If you like cosy mysteries as well as paranormal books, you might be interested in this one. There’s definitely action, but it very much had a cosy mystery vibe. Kennedy is from a small town; she loves her cat, and she runs an antique store. She stumbles across everything through her work, and there’s a love of museums and mysteries and things. It didn’t detract from the paranormal side of the book. It actually added to it. As it gave you a good understanding of the world, whilst still making it a lot of fun to read.

I should add something about the narrator since I did read this as an audiobook. The narrator was good. She changed her voice enough to suit the different characters, so it didn’t feel one-note. But even when she did accents, it didn’t seem too ridiculous. She had a good voice, and it was genuinely enjoyable to listen to. I didn’t feel the need to stop and listen to something else for a bit. So I count that as a win. I listened on x2.5 speed and was able to chores whilst still listening along and understanding. For me, it really worked.

If you can’t tell, I absolutely loved this book. I knew I would likely enjoy it. But I didn’t know how much. I said earlier I may have been more excited if I knew about the greek mythology to come. The book does start off a lot like you’d expect a paranormal cosy mystery to be. But once you really get into the story, and you start finding things out? Oh my god. There are some changes to the Greek mythology. It’s just really things like Hermes gender, and who is who’s kid mostly. Stuff you expect to see changed in mythology retellings. So it wasn’t irritating. It made sense for the story. And when your characters are talking about myths anyway, you never know what version the author has decided the characters know. So that all worked.

This probably going to wind up being my favourite book of the month, if not the year. I am so excited to delve more into this series. And I think you should all be reading it too.

5/5 Stars

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