Thursday, October 10, 2013

Madeleine Ribbon - Blessed Curses

Though he’s a sorcerer with a talent for creating blessings, David can do very little with any other magic. He works the night shift for his cousin’s magical supply shop because he’s cursed—his brother did it when they were kids—and now people can’t stand to be near David since he inspires irrational fear. Many experts have tried to remove it, but the curse has proven completely binding. Then David meets Vaughn at his brother's wedding. 
Vaughn works for the magical enforcers, picking apart complex curses and making sure sorcerers stay within the law. He has the ability to dampen magical effects around him and loves solving supposedly irreversible curses like David’s. He quickly develops a more personal interest in David. Despite the distance David attempts to keep between them, he finally realizes when Vaughn is injured on the job that he doesn’t want to stay away anymore. But what about the curse?

Comment: While shopping for another book, I've come across this one and the blurb caught my eye immediately. I thought his would be a very interesting story and it would be romantic and well done.
I also loved the cover, it's so beautiful, isn't it?

The story focuses on David, he's a young man with a curse his brother put on him when they were children. Cursed to live with it, David can only bear his brother's touch because it's a repellent curse to everyone else, many people feel unsafe and worried and unwell around him.
On his brother's wedding, David meets Vaughn, an enforcer, sort of a cop. Vaughn loves challenges and he wants to find out more about David's curse whit so many magicians said to be incurable. But David is a person beyond his curse and Vaughn likes what he sees and gets to know better...

This story was very promising but in the end it turned out to be only OK. I think what disappointed me the most was their relationship, how it promised to be explosive but it was more sugary than what I think it had to be. When the guys met it seemed Vaughn would be alpha enough to conduct things without being too much overpowering but I confess I wasn't expecting him to show a sweet side too much..it ind of removed most of my awe of him.
David was an innocent and not much into people considering how others react around him. He had reasons to be distant and feel isolated and brushed aside. I thought it would be an interesting sub plot to see him getting more confidence or self esteem and on this side I was mildly happy with things. David learned how to deal with others, how to admit he wanted Vaughn, but as much of the plot revolved around the two guys' relationship and being this not so well done in my point of view, David also wasn't as overly amazing as that.

The writing was well done I guess. It was easy to read, the story was told in a very easy and fluid way. Sometimes the easier the telling, the more beautiful the story. In this case it could have been better. If the angst had been a little bit better done or if there was a more serious tone to things I think it would only improve the story.

This story has an interesting background..I mean, it's ful of magic and many people practice magic. There are humans too, pretty much against it. I think it would have been interesting to see the world a bit more developed. My feeling is this wasn't the author's goal. She intended to write a story about those two guys, perhaps more focused on the romance than the settings. I wished she could have written a bigger story where she could develop everything a bit more. This is what it feels like, that she could have done more but chose not to or had the page limit or something..but it's a world with possibilities...
Grade 6/10

No comments:

Post a Comment