The King of the Land of Fritillary has incurred the wrath of his ex-bestie, the evil wizard Farland Phelps. Farland curses the King's firstborn to die if touched by sunlight, and just like that, Julianna must spend her life in the depths of a castle dungeon (emptied of prisoners and redecorated in the latest fashion, of course). A young woman of infinite resourcefulness, all she needs is a serving spoon, a loose rock in the wall, and eight years of digging, and Julianna is free to explore the city—just not while the sun is out!
In a perfectly normal magical kingdom (magic fueled by powdered asparagus tips, mind you) the first born child of the king is cursed to die if she ever sees daylight. There is a counter curse, but it's so unlikely as to be almost impossible - until the cursed princess tunnels out of her dungeon and literally falls into the man who can break her curse. Shame there's so much else going on they can't get around to actually saving her...
Mixed review today! I enjoyed this overall. It's funny, it's clever, I didn't always guess where it was going, and it sets up the next one nicely without being a total cliffhanger. There is a small amount of instalove, but mostly what's going on is actually friendship, which is much nicer. (In my opinion!)
I did get a bit fed up of the 'clever' narrator, and the constant "Fritillary doesn't have (modern concept) yet." We get it, it's a medieval-esque kingdom, you don't have to keep pushing it at us. I also found some of the timing was weird; it's possible my ebook proof was misaligned, but I felt like some of the chapters, especially early on, stopped very abruptly instead of coming to a natural stop. This did seem to smooth out towards the end, but never fully stopped.
If you like Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, this is definitely the read for you. I can see why some readers aren't liking it, calling it manic or weird, but I'm really glad I tried it. I enjoyed it a lot and I look forward to reading more in the series.
How to Break an Evil Curse publishes on the 6th July, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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