A Curse of Queens by Amanda BouchetMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
If you've read the three preceding books you'll know that Cat and Griffin have united the three kingdoms of Thalyria under their benevolent rule and are intent on ensuring magic users (or Mogoi) don't abuse the non-magic users (Hoi Polloi).
Now Cat is heavily pregnant with a daughter who is prophesised to unite Thalyria, but someone has cursed her by giving her a draft of Olympian immortality - now she will remain eight and half months pregnant forever unless someone can find a cure.
Step forward Griffin's sister Jocasta, petite healer who has felt out-of-place and of no use ever since the family moved to the Palace. Jo has pined after Flynn, Captain of the Palace Guards, ever since he was the boy next door back when her family were just farmers in Sinta. But after humiliating herself as an eighteen-year old, Jo and Flynn have barely exchanged a word. Nevertheless, her family's well-meaning attempts to marry her off to a Thalyrian nobleman are doomed to fail because Flynn is still the only man for her.
When a chance comment by a noble suitor gives Jocasta hope that there could be a cure for Cat, she cobbles together a ragtag team to search for a mythical island and bargain with a witch goddess. With her go Flynn, her brother Carver, a fire mogoi called Bellanca, and Prometheus (yes him). But as they travel, the team come to realise that Cat's poisoning is just a move in a battle for control of Olympus and the humans are merely pawns.
I got a bit tired of the series by the third book TBH, the ratio of romance/smexy times to plot was way off (in my opinion) which was a pity because I thought the world-building was brilliant. Also, I found the intervention of 'real' gods and goddesses in what I thought was a completely new world to be a bit jarring. Anyway, I got over that because the gods are front and centre in this book from the get-go and it works. Also, there is still a LOT of love/lust and a fair amount of smexy times in this book, but it worked for me because Jo and Flynn had loved each other from afar for years.
(view spoiler)
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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