3.5 stars.
An interesting concept and I loved how the stories interwove and changed towards the end. Felt long at times but was pleased with the ending.

I’ve really enjoyed this author’s previous work but I’m not sure if this one was really for me. I enjoyed the storytelling and the characters but the main plot arc was a little bit frustrating. It’s hard to explain without spoilers but I was a little disappointed with the supernatural aspect. Everything else was great, the author writes emotional stories really well and I love peeling back the layers.

I was recently given "Love is a curse" by Keith Stuart to review. I had only ever read "A boy made of blocks" by the author previously which I enjoyed. This book was completely differently though.


I really enjoyed the gothic and supernatural element. Cammie living in a gothic church left to her by her aunt and the belief of a curse.

I dropped 1 star because I felt there were a lot of elements and too many different stories going in within the book. I understand they all related but I don't know if it was the formatting but all of a sudden it was a different time in the book and it would confuse me (easily done to be fair). I felt this could have been a series of books or those chapters could have been shorter.

It was different to most books I have read with elements of a thriller, love story and history. Overall I enjoyed this book and give it 4 stars.

I have enjoyed Keith Stuart's previous books but this one disappointed me. I usually avoid Gothic tales, especially those that include seances. The story was simple, but complicated; a few too many characters - and flitting back and forward in the timeline isn't my favourite way of getting into a story. I enjoyed the research elements but overall it lacked something. But it won't stop me reading his next book as I do enjoy reading authors who write in different genres rather than writing series about the same character/s. With thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an e-ARC to read and review.

This is Keith Stuart’s fourth novel and what I love about his work is how unique each story is. You can see he spends a long time creating the world and characters within each story, and this is no exception.

The gothic and eerie church as the main setting for the story really adds to the supernatural elements of the story. I enjoyed finding out more about Cammy and her family, especially aunt Lorna the mysterious artist. Her great-grandparents love letters sent during World War 1 were also very poignant.

As always with Keith Stuart’s work, I highly recommend reading if you love character driven stories.

Cammie is told by her aunt that the women in their family are cursed and destined never to have a happy love life. So, she is afraid anyone who becomes close to her will suffer in some way.
So, she delves into the family history in the hope of finding out more details. An unusual kind of gothic tale peopled by strong, interesting characters.

When approaching a new novel by Keith Stuart I’ve learnt to expect the unexpected! He’s a writer who continually explores style, themes and characters – and this is true for his recent release of ‘Love is a Curse’.

The novel immediately throws us into a world where the supernatural has dominated the lives of four generations of women of the same family. For nearly a hundred and fifty years they have lived under the curse – their lives have all been touched by it, as its youngest member, fifteen-year-old Camilla Piper is soon to discover on her aunt’s deathbed. Lorna’s last words to her niece are to warn her young Cammy: ‘Just don’t fall in love!’ All the women in the family are destined to lose the ones with whom they fall in love.

Ten years later, Cammy is still unsure of what to make of the declaration. While her sister and mother are quite normal, Cammy always feels lost and like an outsider, she is a goth just like her aunt was, and she is a little-known jewellery designer.

The arts are a critical key element within the novel, especially that of Lorna who was a world-famous artist in her time working together for a while with an equally renowned digital and robotics artist.

As an adult Cammy moves into her aunt’s old place of St. Cyprian’s Church in a small village in Somerset. It is not long before an overwhelming sense of doom falls upon Cammy, a constant feeling of being watched, smelling her aunt’s favourite perfume. She also learns about the horrific fire started by a woman in the late 1800s. A pivotal event, the fire destroyed the manor House nearby, and it turns out later that the woman was related to the family.

One day, just after Cammy declares her love to her new boyfriend during a call as he is driving, Ben crashes for no reason into a tree and is severely injured.

Cammy is convinced the curse is real and she starts to accept that she may never be able to love yet she feels compelled to delve into the past to discover more.

‘Love is a Curse’ becomes a superbly crafted paranormal investigative novel with a deep dark sense of foreboding prevailing throughout. Pathetic fallacy is used to great effect throughout the novel as furious gales and thunderstorms wreak havoc around the church and countryside. The church itself almost becomes a main character in its own right, its spooky and eerie atmosphere heightening the sense of the supernatural.

To help build up the stark threatening tension and mystery the author expertly employs a variety of elaborate narrative techniques including the main first-person POV of Cammy, but also the loving and heartbreaking love letters between her great-grandparents in World War I, her grandmother’s journal revealing a shocking (for the time) love story as well as articles and paintings. The author catches the sense of each era perfectly.

As Cammy gains knowledge of each sorrow endured over the decades a sense of inevitability takes hold over her and leads Cammy to take dramatic actions.

The true tour de force of the novel is how Keith Stuart gradually, and then with increasing dramatic impetus, reveals the truth behind the curse.

Reading furiously at times I had to come up for fresh air. Here his expertise as a storyteller comes to the fore – his characters not only wind their way into our hearts, but the wisdom learned along the way becomes part of the reader’s heart and soul. It is a long time since I have underlined so many paragraphs in a book!

It is refreshing to read a book with so many resilient, strong and determined female protagonists, who experience extraordinary and life-changing events yet discover the strength to find the truth and overcome them. It is a joy to read a book where the paranormal and every day are interwoven centred on a convincing and engaging set of characters.

‘Love is a Curse’ is a hugely enjoyable fourth book by Keith Stuart and I look forward to seeing where his imagination will take him next!

Love is a Curse by Keith Stuart is a captivating modern gothic tale that weaves together mystery, suspense, and a little romance in a hugely compelling way. I spent all day reading this book, and couldn't wait to finish it.

Cammy is warned by her dying aunt that she can never 'have what other people have' - that she won't ever be able to have a successful relationship due to a generational family curse. Cammy has always been close to her aunt, and as she moves through life she starts to look into the curse for herself.

There are some excellent twists and turns that I don't want to give away, but Stuart uses old articles, diaries, letters, and journals to make all the characters' stories feel real. The book explores different kinds of love, from family to romance. Each page is super engaging, and Stuart's storytelling will keep you hooked.

If you're into gothic fiction set in the modern day or love a good story of intrigue, you must read this book.

I’ve read a number of Keith Stuart’s books and each one of them has been a delightful surprise. Love is a Curse was no exception. Perfectly plotted to keep you reading late into the night, full to bursting with unique, imperfect and very relatable characters, driven by a unique and interesting storyline tied up with family history and local legends - what more could you ask for? Loved it and will continue to look out for the next Keith Stuart book

My first encounter with Keith Stuart was “The Boy Made Of Blocks” which completely blew me away and I talked about and recommended to anyone that ever mentioned reading a book in front of me.

With that in mind, I dropped into this story, excitement a given. I was disappointed at first as it was a totally different genre and I found it slow to engage with, initially. However, I stuck with it and it grew on me and called out to be read.

It is, actually, a cracking good read, but so different from Blocks that they could have been written by two separate authors.

An enjoyable gothic horror combined with a roller coaster love story set the background for this story and Mr Stuart neatly meshes the threads together. You can’t help but engage with the characters and be interested in their histories.

Worthy of a read.

Beautifully written once again a true gem of a book from Keith, I have loved all his books and this one was no different, full of twists and drama and al you need from a good book, a fantastic novel once again bravo!!!

This has to be my favourite of Keith Stuart’s novels so far.
It is an absolute celebration of the pursuit of love through adversity. Don’t be fooled by the title, this is not a romance novel.

So many twists and turns, so much drama, suspense and historic gothic atmosphere. And so many fabulously colourful and dark characters. Loved them all, even the wicked and cold hearted ones.
Keith Stuart has a wonderful way of weaving a story from page one and it doesn’t take long for the reader to feel invested and immersed within the character’s lives.
Cammy is a fabulous goth protagonist who sets out to solve the family curse and in doing so meets so many intriguing characters.
The visual settings are crafted well and you get a real sense of place. St Cyprian’s church feels very foreboding and threatening and the sense of dread of what is following the main characters, in the dark, throughout the book feels very scary and real.

My heart goes out to two characters in particular. Their story told in the form of a series of love letters, between Daphne and Robbie. The contents of these letters are incredibly moving and give the reader the sense of strength in love and friendship surviving through adversity against the backdrop of war and the attempt to save someone by letting them go. I shed a few tears there.

Well done to Keith for creating yet another emotional rollercoaster ride of a story.

This whole book is an entire feeling. It’s raw, gothic, suspenseful, thought provoking and an emotional read; and you just can’t help but root for the Cammy! Loved it.

Well, what a fabulous read, I suspected it would be as this author never disappoints. Stuart has a gift for storytelling. Not a word is wasted and it reads beautifully.

Don't be fooled by the title - this is not a romance book, but it is a book about romantic love. It's also about parental love, sibling love, love through the ages, forbidden love, all kinds of love. Stories swirling within stories. There is also a healthy dose of the spooky & more than a nod to the era of Victorian seances & family curses - right up my street.

The characters are so fully formed, that they are still living in my imagination, which, for me, is what makes a great book. To make the reader care about the characters & what happens to them, believe in them & think about them outside of the covers is a gift. And Stuart most definitely has that gift.

Family secrets, whispers & half told tales are what may curse love. But love most definitely is a blessing if we let it in. Even the ending was utterly sublime. I loved it.

I thank NetGalley and Little Brown Group UK for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel, which I freely chose to review.
This is the fourth novel by Keith Stuart I have read, and I’ve enjoyed them all. This one follows more in the steps of The Frequency of Us (his third novel) perhaps, than A Boy Made of Blocks, but it shows the same affinity for its characters, non-judgemental attitude, and glass-half-full perspective of life which I’ve come to expect and love.
The story starts with a prologue, set in 1892 in Batheaston, a village near Bath, where we meet a woman called Camille, in pretty mysterious circumstances, and the whole episode (which I cannot discuss in detail) has a clear Gothic feel. Then the story moves to the present time of the story (pretty contemporary, although not specified), and we meet another Camille. Everybody calls her Cammy, and she becomes our first-person narrator. And she has quite a story to tell. It seems there is a course going back four generations affecting the women in her family. If they fall in love, things will go wrong. Although not everybody believes in the curse, Cammy takes it to heart, and it seems to fit in with her outlook on life. When her aunt dies and leaves her the old church where she used to live as an inheritance, Cammy becomes more and more convinced the curse is true. Then, things start looking up, only for something terrible to happen that makes her reconsider everything. She starts digging into the story of the female line of her family, and her findings are anything but reassuring. Is it all just a case of confirmation bias, or there is something to the story?
Of course, I am not going to reveal anything that has not already been hinted at in the description, but this is a gripping story, and I became enwrapped in it. The pace isn’t always fast, as tends to be the case when somebody is investigating a long-buried mystery because there is much through and fro —one step forward and one step back— involved, and the difficulties increase the further back she tries to go. Still, I enjoyed the way the story is told, with its mix of memories, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, personal accounts... The narrative jumps about a fair bit, because there is much ground to cover, and there are different versions of events, but I didn’t find it confusing. The way the main protagonist keeps hesitating, changing her opinion, and being put to the test feels quite realistic, and despite the supernatural elements suffusing the story, it does manage to create credible characters whose behaviours and reactions feel true and understandable.
The writing is compelling, with beautiful descriptions of the church, the woods, the landscape, the jewellery (Cammy designs jewels), and the artworks (her aunt, Lorna, was an artist), which I enjoyed and I did not feel it detracted from the story, rather the opposite. The atmosphere of the narrative is fundamental, and though engaging, this is not a story that goes at a breakneck pace, but one that builds up slowly. But don’t get too comfortable, because the tension keeps ramping up as we get closer to the ending (which is very good).
Is this a totally realistic story? No. Does it require suspension of disbelief? Of course. That is the nature of the beast. The writing is compelling and the story manages to combine classic with modern elements and make them work. And it is beautifully constructed and written.
Some of the author's followers were not too impressed with this novel, as it is quite different from the others, especially his first one, but I think this is a case of unfulfilled expectations. I am happy that he keeps exploring and finding new stories to tell. And, anybody who hasn’t read any of his previous work doesn’t need to worry, as each novel is completely separate, independent, and quite different from the rest. I look forward to Stuart’s future writing.
Oh, and for those who love music, there is a playlist to go with the story. The link is at the end of the book.

Love is a Curse by Keith Stuart is an intriguing story about love and loss, heartbreak and hope.
Cammy first learns of the curse on her family when her beloved aunt mentions it on her deathbed, but her mother dismisses it as nonsense. Supposedly the women in the family are cursed to lose those they fall in love with, but to teenage Cammy this seems more than a little ridiculous. It is not until years later when her boyfriend is severely injured by being hit by a car that she begins to wonder more about the curse and where it came from. As she digs into her family history she uncovers a story that is a hundred and fifty years in the making and will reveal the truth behind the tragedies that have befallen the generations of women before her.
This is a very different type of story from Keith Stuart with darker and more gothic vibes than his previous books, not that that is something I am complaining about, in fact I quite enjoyed how atmospheric the book was with its creepy setting in an former church and the bohemian and striking characters, especially Cammy. I admire his skill in creating a story that unfolded slowly yet still held my attention as a reader and I was impressed that he managed to create an ending that worked so well in the context of the story. I also want to give praise for his handling of the recovery process following serious injury, the fear and frustration of Ben, Cammy's boyfriend as he embarked on a long rehabilitation process was brought vividly to life on the page, as was Cammy's guilt and her fear of losing him.
This is a book that will appeal to many readers and I have no doubt that it will be another success for Keith Stuart.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Having thoroughly enjoyed all of Keith Stuart's previous novels, I was really excited to get stuck into this one. It had many of the things that I enjoy about his work: it deals with the complexities of familial relationships and the characters must face challenging hurdles as they navigate life and finding their place in it. However, this book had quite a different feel to it and had an air of menace and creepiness
I am not usually a reader of ghost/ creepy stories but I tried to put that bias aside and enjoy the quality writing that I knew was guaranteed. It has taken me some time to sit down and write a review as I am a little conflicted in that, I love the author and how he writes but struggled to connect with this story and the central characters in it. I didn't find the warmth in the characters that I usually do; maybe the focus on the curse and supernatural elements distanced me from them as a reader. However this is a very personal response as the story is certainly well crafted and unfolds across several generations of women and I liked the way that we were able to see the background story develop and build over time and from different viewpoints.
I would recommend this book as it is well- structured but the themes just weren't for me. This would in no way prevent me rushing to read the next book by this author.

I enjoyed this, having loved Keith’s other books, which are individual and interesting. This was very much a gothic tale, told over different generations of the same family and an attempt to understand how a curse came into being. There were strong characters and a tone of foreboding.

I loved this book. It had everything, suspense, horror, love.
You name it this book had it!
My only complaint was I got a bit lost with who some of the older characters were so a family tree might have been handy.
Never the less I thought it was highly original and great.

I'm afraid I struggled a bit with this book. I thought it quite slow and too many people from the main character Cammy's family ancestors. Trying to keep track of all rhe names and what happened to them needed too much concentration. I nearly gave up but tried again and enjoyed it from about halfway through. Nice ending.