As false princess who is trained to replace the Krastel royalty on a moments notice, Astra’s life is not hers to control. She has bridged the link to her kindred soul who she sees in her dreams everynight. But when her carriage is attacked by a disgraced Fae prince, her plan for her life is completely upended. Especially when he shows up and demands the palace to have her hand in marriage.

The story was AMAZING. I throughly enjoyed the story of the book. Astra and Marlak have extremely captivating characters. There are twists and turns that I never saw coming. Their banter is wonderful and watching their relationship grow was fun.

The writing at times was a little repetitive which pulled me out of the story at times. I felt a similar vibe to Iron Flame in terms of the repetition. It just pulled my out enough for me to notice, but not enough to take away from the story.

There will be a kickstarter that will begin on the same day it is released - March 6th, for this BEAUTIFUL special edition.

Thank you Day Leitao and Netgalley for the e-arc.

A Cursed Son is one of the books that I wanted to and have read through for hours on end. Everyone says that they miss the lover they had in their dreams but Astra gets to meet her in reality and boy is it different! The concept of the dreams between Astra and Marlak kept me entranced and keeps me wondering if they are perhaps a glimpse of the future or a past life. The book is well written and truly keeps me in the perspective and thinking of the characters. I especially enjoyed getting a glimpse of Marlaks point of view at the very end. I am on the edge of my seat to find out Master Octavios plans, what does he want from Astra and does he really care about her. Where has Marlak been taken and what really happened that fateful day. Marlak and Astra finally established a connection, a true one, and now once again they must find a way back together after being ripped apart. I thought this was a delightful take on starting the process on becoming comfortable with who you are, finding oneself and making real bonds with others. This magical world leaves me wanting more and I can’t wait for the next book in this series, HOWEVER THAT TWIST AT THE END SHOULD HAVE BEEN ILLEGAL. Hello! Ms.Leitao! Can I have my heart back that you ripped out of my chest. In total this ARC was a golden NetGalley find and is another vote in turning me into an enemies to lovers fan. This book contains enemies to lovers, scary ainnamon roll mmc 😏, fun banter and steamy dreams. Also when you read let me know if you also see actual silver ducks in your mind as their currency! 🤣


Spoiler Note : I love that he starts giving her more kisses after Astra and Tarlia’s conversation 😭😍

Quotes I loved :

“Love makes people stupid. And irresponsible. Barefoot, standing on a thin ledge ten floors above the ground, I’m glad I praise intelligence above all else. But then, perhaps love is what drove me here. A different type of love, the best type of love.”

“Love, or rather, the possibility of love, is like a strange hot iron. You touch it, get burned, but then want to touch it again.”

“ See, there are two versions of me. One of them is giddy with excitement, willing to do whatever it takes to go on this trip, while the other is horrified, facepalming and shaking her head. I’m both of them, so I have the awful experience of being stupid and aware of my stupidity at the same time.”

“ I can’t belong to something unfamiliar, and yet I feel that I belong to a group that would never accept me.”

“In theory, I trained to eat spicy food back in the castle, but it must have been some fake chili peppers because it was nothing like this.“

“When you have no future, you have no love.”

“I think old love is better, love that survives the passage of time, survives tribulations. It’s the kind of love I want.”

“ Want. It’s an odd thing, a luxury we don’t always have. What can I want?”

“ Soon I find azalee, which is indeed a Tiurian word. Odd for me to remember it, when I studied so little of this language. I can’t believe the meaning I read. Wife. But it says it’s wife used as an endearing word, a loving word.”

“ I’m lost and found in his touch.”

“ What I know is that his brother took him, and I’ll have to find a way to free him. Then I’ll yell at him. Oh, I’m going to yell so much.”

How they started :
Astra POV :
“ A young man stands outside. Human, not fae, wearing a black tunic, his shoulder length curly black hair parted on the side with some of it shaved around his left, round ear, showing tattoos and a scar on his head. A long burn scar, in fact, going down to his neck, then his exposed forearm and continuing until his left hand, which is adorned with rings.“
Marlak POV :
“ “You. You tried to kill me.” At least his voice is not like the one in my dreams. It’s anything but soft or smooth.”

This book has it all enemies to lovers, spice, magic and fae. Check, check, check. This book takes a minute to get into but once you do you won’t want to put it down. Great story and a delicious MMC.

Decided to give this book 3/5 stars and 3.25/5 for its spicy scenes.

Average? Yea. Sadly, it is.

Now, let me break down why I'm handing out this so-so rating.

1) The MC's judgmental, stubborn, and arrogant vibes ruined the greatness of the book for me. About 70% of the book, she's the antagonist in my eyes. While 30% is okay, I get why she did what she did, but still not my favorite. Because this book is from the first POV and the narrator is unlikeable, sadly I can't enjoy this book (until chapter 20 that is).

2) I'm not sure if this applies to all readers or not. But, it seems the writing style in this book involves quite a bit of "information dump" in the middle of the narrative, the plot. For me, this info dump can be quite distracting. Some feelings I build get lost due to this.

3) Too many redundant things, especially about the "disgraced prince" and MC's negative thoughts.

4) I'd say the characters almost have the same personality. What's that called again? Lack of diversity?

5) The world-building is still too messy to understand.

But, despite all that, this book has many great points. Such as:

- It's written with a straightforward style, making it easy to understand.
- Great plot and a strong backstory.
- The action part is excellent, detailed, and in this section, it's more action than talk.
- The ending is so great! I like it!

I've also post this review on my X (@kangrantdanmei2)

3.8 stars

Acool blend of romance and fantasy. Astra's dreams get tangled up with reality when she meets a frosty fae prince who's more than he seems. While the story's fun with its magical twist, some parts felt predictable. Still, if you're into fae, arranged marriage, and enemies-to-lovers vibes, give it a shot!

“When someone’s beneath me, I don’t care about their opinion.”

A unique story filled with emotionally charged adventure, magic, and of course some good ole fashioned enemies to lovers. The plot centers around political intrigue, secrets & betrayal.

I really enjoyed this book! Astra is a wonderful FMC, an orphan, a substitute who trained to pass as the princess of the kingdom Kastel. I genuinely was so anxious the whole time she would be discovered!
Malark was everything I’ve come to like in a MMC. A disgraced fae prince, the unlikely but oh so good love interest.

What really sold me though, were the unicorns. I honestly need more books with them.. but they are just magical!

I do think the ending was a tad rushed and do wish I could’ve gotten another few chapters to round everything out.

I can’t wait to see more of Astra and Malark!

Thank you to NetGalley & Dei Leitao for this ARC! All opinions are my own! ❤️

Aaahhh Marlak 🥰 What a nice MMC! Communication isn’t his strong suit, but who cares? He will protect Astra with everything he has and die trying. I just love him and want to hug him until his dark past fades away.

So I really liked my read! Fae, political intrigues, forced marriage; it had a lot of great tropes.

The only thing I deplore is that there are too many things happening and it gets confusing. Like the Darksoul thing, the substitute thing, the Mother Almighty/Light thing, the kindred soul thing, the Crisine thing (what happened to her??)… I’m telling you, too many things.

Still a good story annnnd I might need to read the next book 🙈🙈

This book took me so much longer than I thought, and I’m so glad that I finally finished it.

This book ended in a cliffhanger, and mostly when I read books with a cliffhanger at the end, I always want to know what happens next and have the urge to write my thoughts and theories about what could happen in the next book, but sadly, I didn’t have this feeling with this book.☹️

Will I read the second book? Who knows?
Maybe I will.

౨ৎᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏᴇᴅ:

Astra, the woman that you are, I have loved her since page one.🥹🤞🏼

"𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦'𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦, 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯."

I want this quote printed on a t-shirt.
Thank you very much.🤗

What I also really enjoyed is that unicorns existed in this book. My 10-year-old would sure eat this up. So please, authors, add a little cute unicorn to your fantasy books. It doesn’t hurt anyone, right?🥹

𝚂𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎: 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝙼𝚈 𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗. 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚛 𝚗𝚘𝚝.🫂

A Cursed Son starts us in a very human world that quickly lets us know how it differs from our world. There’s magic! But human magic bad… except for the main character? This theme is continuously repeated throughout the book, likely to remind us that the main character must unlearn this to succeed. While helpful the first few times, I definitely started to roll my eyes a bit when this continued well through the third act.
Astra is not like other girls even beyond her magic. She has secret purple hair and evil ancestors and is a princess body-double/assassin/guard/prisoner. Marlak is not like other boys, because he is fae. And also evil but not evil. And maybe killed all of his family. But he’s half-hot in more ways than one!
I say all this because the characters and their themes are repeated constantly, yet I often found these characters on a roller coaster with their actions. Something is bad and forbidden-I should do this, it’s right-Something is bad and forbidden. This repeats itself often with Astra.
Despite some characterization complaints, I did genuinely enjoy the overall story. I found myself captured by Marlak’s mystery and Astra’s newfound freedom. I found myself excited when they would make progress on their relationship and reasonably bummed as a reader should be when it sometimes turned into two steps back. I thought the pacing of their relationship genuinely made sense and it was nice to see the strength of this relationship play out in the end. I am definitely going to be reading the sequel when it is out. Although this book is listed as New Adult, I would definitely recommend this more to readers who enjoy a slightly more juvenile narrative with some spice sprinkled in. I would encourage the author to add more action descriptions in the next book when it pertains to fights, arguments, and even just friends reuniting. Overall, I rated this book 3.5/5 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️/5


⭐️ forced marriage
⭐️ enemies to lovers
⭐️ Human x Fae
⭐️ Strong FMC

Astra is a substitute to a royal family. Trained to pretend to be the princess & protect her at all costs. She would dream of a man with a star on his chest who ended up being prince marlak.

Prince Marlak is a fallen prince who everyone fears. He killed his family & was exhiled.

Astra is forced to marry Prince Marlak. He assumes she is forcing herself into his dreams to get his secrets. He marries her to keep them secret. Neither are sure why the dreams are happening, but it feels real to them. In the dreams, they are in love & happy but In real life, they hate each other.


Really started to get lost in the middle to end of the book. It was a really good story line that instantly got me hooked but then I started to get confused towards the middle of the book. I think the flow of the plot needed to be stronger. It also felt very flat in places and just didn’t really engage me. I would definitely read book 2 as the cliffhanger was 😭. I just hope it’s a little easier to follow & more plot twists!

If I could give it a 3.5 stars right now I would. Astra, the kick-butt FMC, and Marlak the grumpy and sweet MMC have such amazing chemistry-mixed in with the slow burn...WOOH! I devoured A Cursed Son in two days flat and had no regrets. The ONLY reason I didn't give it 4 stars is because some of the descriptive actions were very repetitive and would almost make me break from my reading trance. That being said, LOVED.IT. So rounding that 3.5 to a 4 ⭐

Thank you NetGalley and Sparkly Wave for this ARC Copy!

3.5 Stars rounded up.

I was in the mood for a quick romantasy book and and this book did not disappoint. It hits on all the favorite romantasy points, with forced proximity, enemies to lovers, slow burn, and political intrigue.

Our FMC is a guard for the princess who has trained her whole life to be able to protect her, and take her place if needed. Her life and all of her plans are suddenly changed when the disgraced fae prince comes into her life.

The first half of the book I felt like I was just trudging though and it took me several days to really get invested but then I stayed up until 3am last night to finish the last half of the book so the story definitely began to pick up once everything began to play out.

There is a cliff hanger, but it is not one that will make you angry.. probably. But it will definitely make you want to read the next book.

Where do I start? I was entranced from the first chapter. This book consist of so many of my favorite tropes.
The world building was easy. The character development was perfect. There were moments where I wanted to strangle the two main characters so bad for their repetitive arguing. But it made it so much more better when the enemies turned to lovers. Or did they?
Yep this book leaves you on a cliffhanger.
I can’t wait to see how Astra and Marlak’s story ends.
I genuinely enjoyed this book. Four out of five stars. If I had to say something, I didn’t like the book, I would say some of the names were a little outrageous to me. I don’t even think knew how to pronounce them. Some of the arguing between the two main characters was really repetitive, but this could very well have been insane at their stubbornness..
Thank you, netgalley & Day Leitao for this arc .

Day Leitao's "A Cursed Son" is a fascinating mix of fantasy, adventure, and romance that will enthrall readers from beginning to conclusion. The plot, which is set in a universe where dreams and reality collide, centers on Astra, a royal ruse educated to stand in for the Krastel princess in diplomatic situations. Astra finds comfort in her dreams, where a strange guy envelops her in love, despite her life of obligation.

When Astra learns that the guy she is dreaming of is actually the disgraced fairy prince, who was banished for his transgressions against the Crystal Court, her dreams take a perilous turn. Astra must negotiate the difficulties of their forbidden relationship as their paths meet, all the while avoiding the threat of strong magic and shady political dealings.

Leitao creates a gripping, passionate, and humorous enemies-to-lovers plot that is sure to captivate readers. The prince and Astra's chemistry is bursting with vitality, and their playful banter gives their developing bond more nuance. Readers will find themselves pulling for their love to triumph as they struggle with their affections for one another in the midst of their chaotic world.

"A Cursed Son" has a complex and engrossing world-building, enhanced by evocative descriptions that breathe life into the magical universe. Leitao builds a world that seems both dangerous and magical, from the complex intrigues of the Crystal Court to the threats that lurk in the shadows.

The beginning was a bit confusing but once I figured out what was going on I fell in love with the world. I love how the fae were truly fae. Astra is a great main character and I adored following her journey of love and most importantly; self discovery.

I adored this book! The worldbuilding, the characters, and the storyline were fantastic. The unexpected plot twists start at the beginning and are sprinkled throughout the story. The way the enemies-to-lovers aspect and shared dreams contribute to the development of the relationship between the FMC and MMC is perfection. The entire plot was a captivating journey that kept me so excited to continue reading that I finished this book in one sitting.

If you’re looking for an action-packed adventure filled with a unique magic system, royalty, fae, mystery, secrets, slow-burn romance, fated mates, and a roller coaster of emotions, you will thoroughly enjoy this book! Also, it does leave on a heart-clenching cliffhanger. However, I loved it so much that I am definitely going to purchase a physical copy of this book. I am so excited to see what the author has in store for the next book in this series!

Thank you so much to Victory Editing for providing this ARC book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

First of all, thank you so much to the team for sending me this arc. If you like romance, fantasy. fated mates, adventure, magic, hidden magic, and more this book is perfect for you!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its unknowns. I was captivated by Astra and her visions as well as what she was and what she did as a guard/substitute. As the story progresses with her dreams and the contrast to reality it was very intriguing to find out why she has those dreams and what they mean. I feel like the book just got better and better with every page. The ending twist was so captivating, and I can't wait to read the next book and see where Astra and Marlak's journey goes and the truth of Marlak's past.

My only small dislike on this book is that the beginning is a little dense with the amount of inner monologue that Astra has and little interactions with others. As well as the number of times that they refer to each other as husband and wife. Although it is a jest in their relationship, at times, it feels redundant. But this is just my personal preference, I still think that it was easy to overlook and enjoy the story and look forward to more!

thank you netgalley and victory editing for the arc!

just wow. i literally have no words. i absolutely LOVED this book. the characters, the world, just everything about it. the twists and turns kept me at the edge of my seat and i CANNOT wait until the next book in the series is out.

a true enemies to lovers, with some spice sprinkled in.

The way I had excitement running through me when I saw that this story had an enemies to lovers theme going on with a blend of fantasy elements mixed into it because that is on of my favorite tropes, and something so easily for me to get into. I was thrilled and rightfully so because the author really did this trope and the story itself justice!

The story centers around Astra, our main female character, a young woman raised in a unique educational institution where she and her peers are groomed to serve as stand-ins for the kingdom's royal figures in times of need. Astra must navigate the delicate balance of concealing her true lineage while preparing for her role. Despite her training, Astra yearns for a deeper connection, a soulmate, someone she envisions but cannot identify. Following an unexpected encounter with this mysterious individual, Astra is coerced into a marriage with the malevolent brother of the king, Marlak. As she adjusts to her new life with Marlak, a series of revelations unfold, unveiling hidden powers, unexplored realms, newfound friendships, and unexpected love.

This book took me on a captivating journey filled with magic and mystery. Right from the start, the story drew me in and held my attention until the very end. Astra, the main character, is someone I found myself rooting for due to her complexity and intriguing magical powers, setting her apart in the world of fantasy.

What makes this book stand out is the exceptional development of its characters. Witnessing Astra's growth throughout the narrative was a pleasure, and I look forward to seeing how she continues to evolve in future parts of the series. The relationship between Astra and Marlak, the unconventional antagonist turned ally, is skillfully portrayed, adding depth and tension to the story.

As I said before, I particularly enjoyed how the enemies-to-lovers trope executed in this book. The gradual transition from foes to friends to something more was expertly done, adding an extra layer of excitement to the plot. Despite Marlak's atypical appearance and backstory for a fantasy villain, he remains a compelling character.

While the story ended on a cliffhanger, leaving me eager for the next installment, I did feel that there were moments where more world-building could have enhanced the narrative. Nevertheless, the anticipation for what's to come only grew stronger.

Although there were instances where the storytelling felt more descriptive than immersive, and the big plot twist wasn't entirely surprising, I still believe this book is worth recommending.

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the arc in exchange for an honest review! I will be posting my review on goodreads close to the book's release date but already posted my review on storygraph!

The premise of this was so good, it was giving Ruhn Danaan fanfic vibes, but the writing was terrible. I could barely get through it. I wanted to love this! I wish an editor or beta had taken a look at this. There’s so much promise here! It just needs to be refined!! I was also very frustrated with all of the back and forth miscommunication dialogue. It was reminiscent of iron flame’s “I can’t trust you!” Recurring fights. The ending where he fake betrays her was also very tired and mid.