Don’t Marry The Cursed is a sequel to Don’t Date the Haunted, a wonderful series by C. Rae D’Arc. In the Haunted Romance series, the world is divided into regions of literary genres and subgenres. Lands exist for Horror, Fantasy, Romance (both contemporary and regency), Mystery, etc. Cursed is primarily set in Fantasy. This review will contain spoilers for the first book.
After Pansy Finster and Lord Theodor (Theo) Fromm start dating, Theo’s brother’s ring appears on his finger. This strange event indicates that his older brother, the next in line to become the Duke of Margen, is dead and Theo The Trusted must ascend to the title. Friends and family think Theo unworthy of the family name because his ability to see people’s auras seems useless.
The ring’s presence disrupts Theo’s plan to settle quietly somewhere in Novel. Instead, he and Pansy head off to Fantasy to embark on a grand adventure of creatures, spells, and dark rituals. Told from both of their points of view, the reader is introduced to the world (Pansy’s POV) and drawn deep into its traditions (Theo’s POV) as the narrative progresses. In the first book, we met Pansy’s friends in her college dorm. In this one, we meet Theo’s family and friends—with a surprise from the past—as the events unfold. For a fantasy novel, the author packs a lot in a short number of pages.
While this book resembles a portal fantasy in many ways, the novel subverts some of the traditions of that subgenre. Pansy, a resident of Horror, is aware of Fantasy from the beginning. No one needs to convince her of magic or the supernatural. She regards fantasy creatures as monsters because of her birthplace, and she uses her survival skills from Horror effectively to fight in Fantasy. The novel progresses in the usual way for speculative fiction but with self-aware characters.
Multiple points-of-view is hard to pull off, but the author does an excellent job. The reader switches between Pansy and Theo, and each character’s voice is distinct and personable. Even when it happens within a chapter, the switch is easily identified and doesn’t disrupt the flow in action. The multiple POV was new to the middle book of the trilogy and a welcome addition.
For high fantasy enthusiasts, Don’t Marry the Cursed delivers as well. Different lands, titles and lineage, political and family squabbles, and unique settings are all part of the package. Some portal fantasies lean toward urban fantasies—not so here. Given the first book was a superb urban fantasy, this succeeds in its cousin genre, the high fantasy.
Though the reader starts in Romance and a bit of Sci-Fi is discussed, the majority of this tale takes place in the Fantasy corner of Novel. Book One’s setting was Romance but had many horror elements with nods across the regions. With such a premise, Don’t Marry the Cursed is surprisingly narrow-focused on fantasy though it references customs and characters outside. When it does reach outside its border, even as a reference, the book really shines.
Author D’Arc introduces a suite of new characters who will likely continue in the future. Many sentences could portend a future plot, sub-plot, or (possibly?) a branching series. The writing here is top-notch. Not only is it well-structured and easy to read, it’s fun. A four-word sentence with two words with over twenty characters wins as my favorite sentence of the year. The story is filled with witty remarks. Sure to delight is one involving Pansy and her friend Heather explaining post-marriage life with dolls. The author sprinkles similar little gems across the novel.
Don’t Marry the Cursed continues the tradition of excellent offerings in this series. Both as a standalone and as a sequel, it succeeds, driving the narrative of Pansy and Theo forward in a playful and exciting way. Getting in the spirit of the titles, this reviewer’s advice is “Don’t Pass Up This Series.”
On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091F5Q2J4