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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lexi Ryan comes a romantic fantasy in which a human princess armed with death’s kiss and a fae shifter on the run become unlikely allies when a mission to assassinate an evil king collides with a fatal prophecy. Princess Jasalyn has a secret. Armed with an enchanted ring that gives her death’s kiss, Jas has been sneaking away from the palace at night to assassinate her enemies. Shape-shifter Felicity needs a miracle. Fated to kill her magical father, she’s been using her unique ability to evade a fatal prophecy. When rumors of evil king Mordeus’s resurrection spread through the shadow court, Jasalyn decides to end him once and for all. Felicity agrees to take the form of the princess, allowing Jas to covertly hunt Mordeus—and starting Felicity on the path that could finally take her home. While Jasalyn teams up with the charming and handsome Kendrick, Felicity sets out to get closer to the Wild Fae king, Misha. Kendrick helps Jasalyn feel something other than anger for the first time in three years, and Misha makes Felicity wish for a world where she’s free to be her true self. Soon, the girls’ missions are at risk right alongside their hearts. The future of the human and fae realms hangs in the balance as fates intertwine. Between perilous tasks, grim secrets, and forbidden romances, Jasalyn and Felicity find that perhaps their stars are the most cursed of all.
Publication Year: 2024
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0 0~~Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC!~~
Can we please stop pairing minors with 1,000+-year-old men? It's the year of our lord 2024; the conversations about this very subject have been done to death, but the fact it's still prevalent in mainstream YA pisses me off so much.
There's a lot of stuff about this book that pisses me off, too, but I had to say that first.
With that in mind, here's the other things about Beneath These Cursed Stars that I really hated:
The constant use of referring men and women as males and females. WHY IS THIS STILL A THING?? It's gross, weird, dehumanizing, and objectifying all at once. I don't care if this is a fae thing or not (It really doesn't matter because the fae here don't act different than regular humans), I still hate it. Authors! Stop doing this!
Additionally, the fact this book wasn't marketed as a direct sequel to the These Hollow Vows duology is so weird. I think I tried to read the first book when it came out, but I only got 10 pages in. I returned it and never thought of it again. If I had known this book was about this book followed that duology, I never would have picked up the ARC. How the hell was I suppose to know Jas was Brie's sister? The fact the description makes no mention of this is such an act of neglect from the marketers.
This then leads me to the next thing I hate about this book: The worldbuilding. There's constant info-dumps about the fae and the realms and all that, but I still didn't understand anything?? Apparently the humans also have magic, too, but it's different than the fae? Also, elves existed but went extinct?? I had no idea what the hell was going on with this world and how it worked. I don't think Ryan does, either, considering her two main characters think more about their love interests than anything else.
Speaking of which, I found both Jas and Felicity bland, uninspiring, cardboard cutouts explicitly made for their guy love interests to suck lips with. I was more sympathetic with Jas because of her past trauma and the depression she was experiencing throughout the story, but she was still very insufferable due to her stupid romance with Kendrick (Who's 20 compared to her 17 years
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