Rinda Elliott pops up in my recommendations on Goodreads pretty often, but I'd never read her before. I figured the beginning of a new series was a good time to start and I was certainly not disappointed. Raisonne Curse was a quick read, but I really enjoyed it.

I loved the attention to detail in Elliott's bayou. I could really see and smell it all along with Elita. You expect to encounter some colorful characters there as well. I loved Elita's grandmother who refuses to act her age, and often to wear clothes, her boyfriend Tooter and the LaBarres (OMG the LaBarres are awesome!) They're all interesting and eccentric without being over the top and cartoon-y.

When I try to describe Elita she sounds like a red-headed version of Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog for any of you who don't know your Disney princesses) wanting to open her own restaurant for her authentic Louisiana cooking, but I loved her passion for food. It really added to the authentic bayou atmosphere for me. The family curse essentially causes her to be accident prone in the most extreme and painful way possible.

I thought the way the curse was personified, as a shadowy and sometimes sentient figure following Elita, was both effective and different from anything I've read before. I did want to know more about the different types of curses and their casters, as well as the magic that the brothers perform to break them. I got the sense that it may be explored more in the next book, though, so I'll reserve judgment a little. What I did learn about the Berneaux's magic is both totally original and really frightening.

I'm often just as wary of insta-passion as insta-love, but the magical circumstances seemed to make the relationship between Elita and Pryor work for me. His brothers don't show up until close to the end, but I really liked the dynamics with the three of them and Elita as well. I can already get a sense of how the series will shape up and I can't wait to read the rest of it.

When a woman turns down an offer of marriage, she has no idea that the result will be a curse that plagues her family for generations. Elita has lost her mother and her aunts to the curse and she is now recovering from a near fatal accident. Elita’s grandmother knows the curse placed upon her all those years ago will take Elita too, unless she can get help from the Bernaux brothers. Elita travels deep into the Louisiana bayous, searching for salvation and finds it in the form of Pryor Berneaux. Pryor recognized the curse hanging over Elita and knows he could break it – if his brothers were home. Without them, he has little chance of success, but when his feelings for Elita wish for a future he swore he would never want, Pryor knows he will have to intercede to save the woman he has come to love, even if it means sacrificing his own life. Sexy, steamy, magical romp through the bayou