A Cursed Embrace: A Weird Girls Novel

Cecy is a wildly gifted story teller who leads you on a journey into a world much like your own and yet beyond reality, beyond your imagination and expected limitations. She draws you into the lives of characters that become your own as they face unbelievable struggles in unpredictable twists and turns that leave you reeling and spinning, yet yearning for more!
Thank you Cecy for dreaming, for daring and sharing your gift in print!! Your books are courageous because you are courageous!!!

First, A Cursed Embrace: A Weird Girls Novel is a sequel to The Weird Girls: A Novella and Sealed with a Curse. This book doesn’t stand alone well, so read at least SwaC first.

Since I didn’t particularly enjoy this book, I’ll just run through the reasons why. Those reasons may or may not match your tastes, which is why I go into such detail—it might be enough info for you to decide you do want to read the book if you’re so inclined. In the unlikely event that the author stumbles across this: I recommend you stop reading here. There’s no reason for you to give yourself heartburn over one reviewer’s opinions.

The book is told entirely in the first person from Celia’s point of view. This makes some of her thoughts remarkably narcissistic:

"One hand curled around my waist, while his opposite hand traveled beneath my long chocolate waves to cup the nape of my neck." -- Seriously? She’s being felt up by the werewolf of her dreams and her thoughts go to her “long chocolate waves”? Not only is that an awkward way to work description in, but it’s also highly self-centered in a first-person narrative. And no, that quote wasn’t the only example of this, nor is Celia deliberately painted as such a narcissistic personality.

But wait, there’s also the purple prose and over-the-top dialogue: “You couldn’t have, sweetness. Your heart’s too pure to cause something so vile.”

Let’s move on to Aric (source of the above quote), the werewolf Celia has fallen for, and the other members of his pack. It’s love at first sight (from the last book)—everyone instantly pairs up, with Celia and all three of her sisters lining up neatly with Aric and his three pack members. It happened in the blink of an eye, and it’s a blatant pubescent teenage wish-fulfillment fantasy, plopped into the middle of a series that clearly isn’t meant for that age group (I’ll get back to that later). As for Aric himself, he comes across as the (often negative) stereotype of a college fraternity jock, which hardly makes him an attractive romantic interest. (Not to mention I felt very little chemistry between him and Celia.)

Celia is a Mary Sue character, which isn’t a compliment. She’s a supposed maladroit dork of a character, who just happens to have two of the most powerful and attractive men in town vying wildly for her affections. (I hate to say it, but the similarity between the name Celia and the author’s name (Cecy) doesn’t help that impression.) Even Celia’s imperfections serve largely to make her more adorable or awkwardly sweet rather than truly flawed.

Some of Celia’s reactions to Misha, that vampire, leave me with difficulties. He spies on her while she’s naked, and after she tells him that she’s with Aric now he all but sexually assaults her. Her reaction? Oh, damn, he wants her! Other than that? Eh, mild annoyance. And of course when she interacts with him later, it’s all good again.

Celia and her sisters are nurses, but as far as I can tell they’re only required to work when it’s plot-convenient. Nice gig if you can get it.

The first-person narrative is a problem in another sense. Celia feels the need to over-analyze and over-explain everything in her thoughts. This gets ridiculous, but worse, she keeps doing it during what should be fast-paced climactic plot events. It assumes stupidity on the part of the reader (nothing is left to the reader to figure out or understand), totally derails the pacing, and again, makes her seem narcissistic.

So here’s the thing. Celia comes across as a Mary Sue. All of the sisters feel like characters in a teenage wish-fulfillment fantasy. And yet, some of the material in A Cursed Embrace gets dark. Horrifically sexually dark--definitely not aimed at the teenage wish-fulfillment fantasy crowd. These two factors clash, both in tone and in audience expectation. I got jerked right out of the narrative by the tonal/content dive toward the end of the book.

I can’t recommend this book. I guess it could work for someone who wants the relationship and character development more common to some young adult books, while getting a serving of horror tossed in for good measure.

NOTE: Review book free from publisher

I am a new convert to Urban Fantasy/Romance novels thanks to Cecy Robson's Weird Girls series. I really enjoyed reading "Sealed with a Curse" but "A Cursed Embrace" rocked! I hoped, I anticipated, I laughed, and I cried. The Wird sisters and their Vamp and Were friends' adventures were fun and just that - fantasy. But the friendship and romance between the characters could happen to anyone. I am looking forward to reading the third novel, "Cursed by Destiny" due out in January 2014.

I absolutely fell in love with the Weird Girls series by Cecy Robson last year. The first book in the series, Sealed with a Curse, was such a winning debut for Ms. Robson that I was a little fearful of the dreaded "sophomore slump" that accompanies some second books in a series. I can unequivocally (yes, I did have to look that word up) say that this book, A Cursed Embrace, at least for me, blows the first book out of the water, throws it down the hill, ties it up on the railroad tracks, waits for the train to go by, and then beats the ever-loving socks off the first book. Okay, I over-exaggerate. But I actually LOVED Embrace better than Sealed!! Here's why...

Characters

Let me start with the supporting characters first. I love living, err, reading about these sisters! I love Taran and her "I'm sex on a stick walking" -vibe she gives off. Who wears high heels to track bad guys in the woods?? Shayna is the tomboy little sister that might have picked up a opossum on the way home from school and wanted to keep it as a pet because it was "fluffy and white". Emme is just so gosh darn cute and you know she'll grow up to be an elementary school teacher. Seriously, I know these girls - these characters are plenty fleshed out :)

And then there is Celia, one of my favorite tortured heroines of all time. She's been cursed to live with a tigress inside her that she can shapeshift into. But her strong, fierce personality leaks out and scares off any potential friends or suitors of the human variety. On the other side, to the supernatural Were community, she just isn't good enough to be dating their potential leader. Her and her sisters are considered freaks. This affects Celia the worst out of all the sisters because if there's any race that could relate to her, it's the were community. Either way, she's been alone for a long time. She's spent her years looking out for her younger sisters without regard to her dating needs.

Aric, the object of her affection, is the alpha of all alphas (at least that's what I think). He happens to be one of the few pure-blood weres left in the world. Unfortunately for him, the elders get cranky when he dates non-pure bloods and they really blow a gasket when he takes an interest in Celia. Aric is young, cocky, extremely alpha, and he is truly possessive and protective of what he deems is his. He's one of the few who can handle and respect Celia's strength.

But there is another who respects and wants Celia. Misha is the master vampire living in the Tahoe area whom Celia has helped in the past. Of course he's hot. Of course he's always there to protect Celia when she needs help and to get under Aric's fur.... skin, whatever.
To say that there's a love triangle in this book is not entirely accurate. Celia knows who she wants. And she makes it clear to everyone involved on several occasions. I'd ruin the story if I discussed the non-triangle further (I'm such a tease, no?)

Story

Ms. Robson has written my personal favorite type of book: an urban fantasy with romance that is weighted 50/50 for each. The urban fantasy genre, for me, is mystery, conflict, action, with a bit of supernatural gore thrown in for good measure. But you have GOT to have good writing to make sure the reader understands what the author is trying to convey in the scene. Bad writing, and this all ends up a hot mess of confusion. Ms. Robson does an excellent job writing these scenes and putting the reader right there in the action and all the emotions.

Speaking of emotions... it's in the romance half of the story that my soul was utterly ripped to pieces. I've read emotional love stories before; heck, I cried for a few of the Brothers in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. But something about this story really gets to me. If I comment any more than that, I might be giving something away so I'll just shut up now. I'll just say that I absolutely loved the ending (as a reader) and I don't think you can get a better last sentence for a book than what Ms. Robson wrote.

Ms. Robson, you ROCK! A Cursed Embrace is definitely on my list of Best/Favorite Reads of 2013, if not at the top.

Yup, I kind of liked this book.

Short Review - just read it!

Long Review - in case the short review wasn't long enough, here is a little more detail. Celia Wird and her sisters just saved their town and it is time to do it all over again. The story starts oddly enough with an exploding wereraccoon which is a pretty clear sign that things are getting weird again. Demons are in town and supes are killing each other.

I really love our little tigress, Celia, even though she vacillated between bad-ass warrior chick and emotionally vulnerable waif. Robson handles these facets of Celia's personality well. I know that the focus of the book was supposed to be Celia and Aric but the bond she has with her sisters trumped it. The other sisters have clearly found happiness with their werewolf boyfriends (even though one can't seem to grasp the `come hither' signals very well) but life has never been that easy for Celia. Aric has been getting clear signals from his superiors to abandon Celia and marry a werewolf. Communication is not his strong point so time and time again he callously hurts Celia's feelings. He can't however bear the thought of her with anyone else. Misha pops up every so often to remind Celia how hot he is and that he will do practically anything for her. I wish we had a bit more time with him as he and the naughty Catholic school girl vamps bring a much needed lighter touch.

We run the full gamut of emotions in this novel even though Celia's relationship is the most heart-breaking. This novel is darker than the others and with demon children clawing their way out of their host mother's stomach. The fight scenes are quite gory and you just know Celia is going to get hideously injured and covered in goo, pus, blood etc before she gets even. I like that there are limits to the girls' crazy skills and the only way they can defeat the baddies is if they operate as a team. The cliff-hanger irritated me as we stopped at the good bit.

You really need to read the books in order so you can see just how much Celia has evolved as a character and Aric in pre-emotional constipation mode.

This series has quickly become one of my favorites! It has everything you could want in a series, great action, humor, emotion and love. Although, the love part does not come easy for miss Celia as predator it takes a strong man to handle her. Now finally she thinks she has found a man that can be her everything in Aric, but fate may have other plans.

This book is more of an emotional journey for Celia then the previous book; she runs the full gauntlet of emotions causing the read to feel those emotions with her. I know I did, I even misted up a few times because the emotion was so strong. That is one thing you can count on with Cecy Robson she knows how to pull you in and make you feel what the characters feel. This book is in turn joyous and heartbreaking. For those action fans don't you worry your pretty little heads, there is still plenty of action to be had as the sisters and the werewolves face their most lethal foe yet. This time they fear they may not all walk away as more and more lives are lost fighting demons that are set on extinguishing all supernatural races. For the first time all supernaturals will have to work together to protect not only their lives but to keep from going extinct.

This was one of my favorite books so far this year! Miss Robson can certainly spin a tale that will make you want to keep coming back for more. I know I can't wait for the third book in this series, especially after that ending!

I freaking LOVE this series. Robson has once again blown me away with the greatness that is her writing. The characters she creates and the world they live in is just...well I really don't' think I have words great enough to convey how wonderful they are. How engaging, funny, flawed, real and totally kick ass.

I have eagerly (and not so patiently) been awaiting the arrive of this book since finishing the first, Sealed With a Curse months ago. Sealed With a Curse blew me away and I was really hoping that this one would too and that it wouldn't suffer from the dreaded second book syndrome so many second books in series do and this one totally rocked it. I should never have doubted Robson, NEVER, this girl can seriously write and captivate an audience with her witty character's (Shayna and her "dudes" crack me up every single time!), fast paced plot, swoon worthy male leads and her unparalleled character dialogue.

I should have known better than trying to start this in the middle of the day when I had other things to do because as soon as I picked this up thinking I would just read a "couple of pages", those couple of pages turned into chapters and those chapters turned into half the book and then half the book turned into..well you get the idea. Needless to say, nothing got done until I completely devoured this. And devoured it I did.

I absolutely love the secondary characters as much as the primary. Some of the best moments in this book are between the sisters and their vile neighbor Mrs. Mancuso. Who would have thought a woman in her eighties with an affinity to give people the bird would be so hilarious? I seriously was dying reading the scenes with her in it. Taran and Mancuso were just so dang funny, at one point I think I had tears streaking down my face I laughed so hard. I could vividly picture it all in my head.

And that is the thing, this whole book is like that, so crisp in detail the characters feel real to me and I care about them all deeply. Who would have thought I would be in love with wolves or a nerd or even a vamp? But I am. In fact, I love them all the more after reading this. Aric was just...wow, just wow. I truly love him in every way but I have to admit, I still adore Misha, how could I not?

Celia opened up so much more in this installment and it was so nice to see and to watch her character grow not only in physical strength but emotional as well. She really is one tough chick. The ending just about broke my heart, in fact I think it did break my heart. Felt everything Celia felt, her loss, her love, her despair and then later, her strength and her courage.

I don't know where this series will go from here but I know that where ever it goes I will follow because I am in love. In love with it all and I want more, lots more.

A fabulous follow-up to the first book! You never know when you love the first book whether the next one will live up to it. Well, this one not only lived up but surpassed the first book. I loved this book! So much great action, drama and snark. I completely blame Ms. Robson for my lack of sleep. I couldn't put it down. Amazing addition to the Weird Girls series.

For starters I need to say that I have never been a fan of star-crossed lovers stories, so that is going to color a lot of my review. This book was good while I was reading it, although I will admit that I was not a big fan of the last 100 pages. The characters were still unusual and interesting, and the story was pretty good. Demons aren't usually dealt with like this. The problem comes with the relationship between the two main characters. Again I am not a fan of star-cross lovers. I am also not a fan of getting involved in a story for 2/3rds of the story only to have the rug yanked out from under you right at the end. I also feel like this is a story that was better as you were reading it. The more I think about it the more I hate the last third of the book and the less I want to read the next book. It wasn't bad but I would prefer writers to stop thinking that all romances have to have some inherent drama to them. There is more than enough drama in the outside world to have to stretch the logic of the world and the story to create it in a romantic relationship.

Great story of the sisters and the curse that made them what they are. Sometimes things should happen to us to change our lives like this did to them.