I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you so much Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op.

A Cursed Son is the first book of the Remnants of the Fallen Kingdom series. Day Leitao is a new author and a pleasant surprise to me. Her writing is fluid and involving — I love the fact we only have the FMC's POV, I quite enjoy that for fantasy books.

Regarding the plot, the story follows Astra, an elite guard and, most of all, a substitute for the princess of the Krastel Kingdom. She is also a darksoul, coming from the fallen kingdom of Tiuris. However, darksouls were exterminated and for this reason, Astra has always been conditioned to hide her true origin.

As of late, after having her heart broken, Astra started having dreams about her kindred soul. She doesn't know him, but his presence in her dreams is the only comfort she has had.

After a succession of events, Astra is sent to an assignment, but on her way she's intercepted by none other than the disgraced prince of the Crystal Court, Marlak. And to her complete surprise, Marlak is the person she has been dreaming about. Could he and her kindred soul be the same person? Could the man who allegedly killed his entire family be the same man who loves her so deeply in her dreams? She's about to find out.

The beginning is a little slow — not gonna lie — it takes some time for the story to pick up, but once it does, you're sucked right in. But it's something expected for a fantasy book, I always get a little confused trying to understand the world-building and a new magic system. And I found that A Cursed Son is very original in those aspects.

About the romance, you better like slow burn, because these two are as stubborn as they come! I wanted to throw my Kindle away multiple times. But it's so worth it! I loved following the development of their relationship, especially since we only have Astra's POV, which makes everything even more intriguing.

And that cliffhanger was just cruel! I can't wait for the next book.

Why do all romantasy novels have to be a series? This one would have been much better as a standalone. I feel like we spent about 50% of the story just world building and getting character backstory. However, with a world so similar to the ACOTAR series (different courts with different types of magical beings and powers), that doesn’t feel necessary.

That said, I sailed right through this story enjoying the two main characters, Astra and Marlak, and their spicy enemies to lovers situation. I would have preferred learning more about Marlak, his past and his plans instead of so much useless inner monologuing from Astra. That felt very much like poorly written filler, and I skimmed through much of it.

The framework of an interesting story is here, but with so little substance and so much useless filler, it was hard to enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sparkly Wave for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a good read! I was immediately sucked into the story and could not get enough of the characters. I went on a full emotional journey with these characters and I really enjoyed it. The book was easy to read and kept a good pace where I was never bored. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends and family.

Thank you to the publisher and to netgalley for giving me this ARC for an honest review! I really wanted to love this book! The premise and the world are intriguing, and I love all the tropes promised in the blurb, unfortunately the execution fell a bit flat for me.

Our premise: The FMC, Astra, is connected to her soulmate through spicy and loving dreams - surprise surprise it is our grumpy, super powerful MMC, Marlak. Having been trained from birth as some kind of royal substitute (read: guard, assassin, jack-of-all-trades in a weird semblance of indentured servitude) Astra is forced to keep her heritage a secret for her own safety. As the story unfolds her life becomes entwined with Marlaks, making her leave behind the human world and go into the fae one, exploring her connection with Marlak and questioning her role to her kingdom.

I liked the plot for the most part, it was the prose that had me wishing the book could go a biiiiiit faster. Often Astra, our narrator, says the same thing in different ways for an entire paragraph, and over explains plot points that could be made clear through showing over telling. This isn’t to say this book isn’t fun, it just read like it could’ve had another pass through to create more seamless storytelling.

At around the 80% mark things got more interesting and a lot of my prose issues started to work themselves out. In all honesty this isn’t a book I would read again, or recommend (purely because I found the prose clunky) but I would keep an eye out for what Day Leitao writes next - she is clearly an imaginative and gifted world builder.

That being said, if you love the premise and tropes and don’t mind clunky prose, this book is a fun easy read with an interesting world and story to continue in book two, A Traitor Sister. It’s also included (at the time of this review) in Kindle Unlimited, so you can have a try and see if it is for you! Happy reading!

I read the ARC for this book. I felt the main character was relatable with how she can't be herself with others around her. The character development was really well written. It was a really good book. I was sucked into it from the beginning. I thought the concepts in the book were clever and neat.. Can't wait to read the second book!

This book had me hooked with such a unique and interesting premise of using steamy dreams to encourage and facilitate enemies-to-lovers. Our main characters, Astra and Marlak, each have their own suspicions of why this is occurring, and must eventually learn to trust each other.

For their own reasons, Astra and Marlak don’t trust each other, but their vulnerabilities widen the disconnect because each wants the other to believe that they don’t care or are even repulsed by the other. It’s EXTREMELY rare for me to enjoy the miscommunication trope, but I felt like Day did a great job - the characters didn’t seem like idiots, they just seemed like deeply vulnerable individuals who have never felt safe. And the banter - *chef’s kiss*

The world-building is fascinating, and I liked how Astra’s training to be a decoy princess helps to fill in the blanks for fae politics and geography. The magic is fascinating, but Astra has clearly been misled to believe certain things and manipulated for the gain of others. I’m looking forward to seeing more truths in the next book.

I also want to call out that I really loved that Marlak doesn’t fit the typical villain mold. He’s also badly scarred, which haunts him both physically and mentally. I have a soft spot for MMCs with tragic backstories, so of course I adored him.

The ending was an emotional rollercoaster that drove straight off a cliff. I will definitely be reading Book 2.

✨Thank you to @NetGalley and Day Leitao for the opportunity to review this book.✨

TROPES
🟪 Enemies to Lovers
🟪 Scary Cinnamon Roll MMC
🟪 Kindred Spirits
🟪 Connected Dreams

I really enjoyed this story. From the premise of the “substitutes” to the idea that Astra has been dreaming about this one person for so long, only to find out it isn’t who she thought it would be, everything was pieced together in a way that made me hopeful for Astra but also worried for her future.

Her banter and chemistry with Marlak are great but also force you to question what he isn’t telling her, what she will never know, and what his end goal is. Sure, we think we know what it is because he tells Astra what it supposedly is, but I can’t help but wonder what lurks underneath the surface. With this being 99% Astra’s POV, we may know more in the second book, but I don’t have my hopes up quite yet, considering the ending.

And, that ending. If we hadn’t had the last chapter, I would be torn about continuing the series. I do not love it when books end in sudden 180s, but because we had context, it worked well in this instance. I feel like I know just enough about Marlak’s thought process there that I want to see it through, how he achieves his goals, and what that means for Astra.

DNF'd at 41%. I really wanted to enjoy this book. I did. But the writing was so repetitive and arduous. There was very little dialogue, just paragraph after paragraph of internal musings. It had all the right elements to be a great first book of a new fantasy series, but I just couldn't do it anymore.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

༻❥☆☀️☆❥༺
📖🄱🄾🄾🄺•🅁🄴🅅🄸🄴🅆📖
──────☆☀️🌸☀️☆──────
📚🧚‍♀️🌸✨𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊•𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐒✨🌸🧚‍♀️📚
☀️𝙰 𝙲𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙴𝙳 𝚂𝙾𝙽 𝙱𝚈 𝙳𝙰𝚈 𝙻𝙴𝙸𝚃𝙰𝙾
☀️𝙱𝙾𝙾𝙺 𝟷 𝙸𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚁𝙴𝙼𝙽𝙰𝙽𝚃𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙴𝙽 𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶𝙳𝙾𝙼 𝚂𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙴𝚂
☀️𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄: 𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙸𝙲 𝙵𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰𝚂𝚈
☀️𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄: 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙷 𝟼𝚃𝙷 , 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟺
╰┈❥𝙰𝚅𝙰𝙸𝙻𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴 𝙾𝙽 𝙺𝚄!✨
☀️𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ || 𝟻
☀️𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐋: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ || 𝟻
☀️𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐒
──────☆☀️🌸☀️☆──────
✨✨𝑀𝑦 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠✨✨
Thank you so much to @day_leitao & @netgalley for my gifted eARC of 𝐀 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐧!

This was AMAZING! This book was one I couldn’t put down, didn’t want to end, & had me literally feeling all the emotions, especially after THAT ending! Leitao really created something amazing with this book. It’s a beautifully written romantic fantasy that has characters you can easily connect with, detailed world building, & a truly unique & amazing plot with an imaginative magic system! There is not one thing I didn’t love about this book.

I absolutely adored our main characters, Astra & Marlak. I love it when the enemies to lovers are TRUE enemies to lovers & these two are TRUE enemies to lovers. Enemies, to friends, to lovers. Their banter is literally everything &, at times, had me laughing at loud. I was eating up every second of their slow burn journey to lovers! I loved their interactions so much & Leitao did an absolutely perfect job of conveying how much chemistry they had together. I was craving every time they were on page together! I literally couldn’t get enough of them. And the dream connection?! So unique!! I loved it!

This book is full of everything that I love in a really amazing romantic fantasy. I loved the way the romance & fantasy blended together to make a really perfect story. The ending?! Absolutely shattered me. I LOVED reading this as an eARC but now I have to wait longer for the next book & I’m just so sad about that!

☀️✨𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄...✨☀️
❥Enemies to Lovers
❥Snarky Banter
❥Steamy Dreams
❥Forced Proximity
❥Arranged Marriage
❥Elemental Magic
──────☆☀️🌸☀️☆──────

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn't influence my review. This was an okay read, the only problem I had was with the dreams, they made everything so awkward and it didn't make sense while also messing up the romance.

This book was a fun read. Enemies to lovers with banter, tension, high stake, betrayal, spice and a cliffhanger.

Thank you NetGalley and Day Leitao for this ARC!
The story follows Astra, an elite guard whose job it is to be the princess double (think Kiera knightly in Star Wars). But she gets sent away for a marriage to an exiled prince, Marlak.

Reading the blurb I was super interesting and it felt like it was the kind of book I would like, and for the most part it was. I love a good arranged marriage trope and fated mates tropes. Astra was an interesting character but she felt too mysterious for it being from her POV. And when stuff was revealed about her and her past it felt anticlimactic, it just happened. Same goes for Marlak, his behavior felt forced and I wasn't getting the secret pining from him.
The dreams they shared were better than the real parts. I did enjoy the world and all the things that happened, but the writing style felt off. It seem more like a rambling of thoughts than a book.
The ending was a cliff hanger so I might read the next book but I wouldn't go out of my way to. Overall fun read but not my favorite.

Thank you to Day Leitao and Net Galley for the ARC of this book.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. The FMC reads very immature, as does the writing, and there are some colloquialisms (“facepalming”) that made this difficult for me. The FMC is 19, but acts more like she is 12. I think as a first foray into adult fantasy, there needs to be some adjustment in the writing style.

This book offers everything I love about fantasy. A main character with a secret history, told to be less by others - with a morally grey love interest who you can't help but love. You meet Astra, a member of the elite guard is Krastel, who is kidnapped into an arranged marriage with Malark, a disgraced prince accused of killing his family.

Astra is a good main character, she is kind and very open with how she feels which helps you to invest in her story and her view point on the world. Malark is portrayed well, and from the start I wanted to know more about him and the secrets surrounding his family and his "fiery prince reputation".

Although I am a fan of stream of consciousness narration, at times it felt a little childlike with a lot of rhetorical questions and answers that sometimes made me cringe, taking me away from the plot. The second part of the book was paced really well, and I was completely absorbed into the story. The cliff hanger ending has left me very much wanting to read the next!

Overall, it is a book with lots of potential, and with a little polishing of the writing style would be a really strong fantasy book. I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series to find out more about the history of Malark.

A really gripping read, I thought the characters were intriguing and I'm going to look out for more by this author.

I was so excited to read this book! It did take me a bit to get into it and I’m sure being ill did not help with that.

The beginning was a little confusing and felt awkward as did much of the dialogue between characters throughout the book. It has an interesting magic system and a good premise to potentially build upon a for series if the author chose to develop more storyline.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise of the book but feel like this was more character driven than anything else. I would like to see what’s next from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Okay, Y'ALL. Just finished "A Cursed Son" and I need to scream about it for a sec. Imagine the juiciest, most tangled-up story of dreams meeting reality, and then throw in some fae magic, because why not? This book? It's that, but make it romantic, steamy, and loaded with banter that'll have you cackling one minute and fanning yourself the next.

Astra is basically living every decoy's nightmare: stand in for a princess and maybe, just maybe, marry for politics. But at night? She's getting all the dreamy cuddles from a mysterious dude who feels oh-so-right. Cut to real life, and BAM, she's kidnapped by a prince who's more ice than Mr. Nice. Plot twist? He's her dream guy. Talk about awkward meet-cutes.

Prince Marlak is our brooding, disgraced fae with a chip on his shoulder and magic that could make your brain do backflips. Dude's got layers, and not all of them are chilly. His and Astra's dynamic is like mixing fireworks with more fireworks—explosive, bright, and impossible to ignore.

Their back-and-forth had me living for every snarky exchange and electric touch. It's like, enemies-to-lovers with a side of "oops, did we just fall for each other in our dreams?" Spicy? Heck yes. The kind of spice that makes you wish for dream connections to be a real thing.

Let's not forget the tropes that had me at hello:

A fae prince with a moodier vibe than a thunderstorm.
A heroine who's not about to let anyone push her around.
Dreamy connections that are literally what fantasies are made of.
Magic so cool, you'll wish you could enroll at Fae U.

And the ending? I won't spoil, but let's just say I'm already pacing the floor for the next book. I need to know what happens like I need my next coffee fix.

It's official, I am in my romantasy era. A Cursed Son is my newest favourite start to a series and I'm so excited to see where this is gonna go!

I love Astra, she's down to earth and loyal but she's been so conditioned to believe she is unimportant, nothing special and only good as a spare part in her kingdom, that she is lost when it comes to relationships.

Marlak.. oof. Daddy? That you? It's clear to see he adores Astra but he doesn't know how to show it. I loved how he got embarrassed by the dreams, he's a cinnamon roll in a beautifully scarred body.

Honestly, this was miscommunication trope all day long, however it's due to the complicated backgrounds of both characters. Astra can't believe she may mean something to Marlak whilst he believes she's been sent to destroy him. There's crazy attraction but 0 trust and they have to learn to live together.

I 100% enjoyed this book and will be continuing with the series when it's released!

I want to start off by saying thank you to NetGalley, publisher, and author for this ARC.

Let me premise saying that I unfortunately DNF’ed this book about 40% of the way through. The idea was interesting but there were too many parts that fell flat and felt too familiar to other titles.

I liked the idea of a decoy in for the queen, but having three felt like too many. It took away from the MFC being given the most importance of the story. It was a little diluted for her and the time and effort to write in the scene where she poisoned the others to be able to be in the carriage with the prince’s stand in felt too forced. The character herself, Astra, fell a little flat in terms of what her objective or goal was. I wished the dreams were fleshed out more versus only seeing a glimpse towards the end of her dream, so I was a little confused. I wish we got more time in the dream world from the beginning. Also she had to explain many times to him that she was not the one behind the dreams. It felt too repetitive to stand up for herself. The sacred items like the one that Ziven had on the way to the wedding rehearsal (I was confused on that as well) was not explained at least in the beginning. That small scene felt awkward and didn’t do anything for the plot. It just reinforced that I wanted to see her and Ziven more. That being said, things may have improved or been explained better as the book progressed, but DNF’ing this title I didn’t see it out. But for that reason, it didn’t keep my attention from the beginning of the novel.

The plot felt a little too similar to The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L Jensen. It was too similar in the way of she was forced into an arranged marriage to an enemy kingdom and he was aloof of her. It was also mixed in with a little of This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi with him thinking that she was in his head and dreams messing with him. I felt very little chemistry between them. However, I did feel much more chemistry and actually really wanted her and Ziven together and more time to see them develop. I skipped closer to the end to see if he was still a part of her story and it seemed more him trying to help her along with another decoy. Though the plot would’ve shifted from enemies to lovers to something a little more mild with Astra and Ziven, I would’ve loved to see that more throughout what I had read. The world building and magic system was a little all over the place and it confused me from too early on.

I understand what the author was trying to do, but again, it felt a little flat and it didn’t keep my attention. I would love to keep an eye on a new series in the future and hope to see better writing and a stronger plot and world building!

The story of Astra and Marlak is a rollercoaster of emotions, brilliantly navigating the thin line between dreams and reality. As a decoy for royalty, Astra finds her nightly dreams of warmth and love clashing with her encounters with the cold and powerful Marlak, a banished fae prince. Their unexpected connection, revealed after a dramatic carriage attack, weaves a complex tale of intrigue and budding romance. The book excels in exploring themes like deception, identity, and the quest for truth, all set against a rich tapestry of magic and fae lore. It's a thrilling read that kept me engaged from start to finish.