Book Review: The Curse that Binds

Late last year I read and really enjoyed the first two books in the Bewitched series – Bewitched and Bespelled. The last book in the series by Laura Thalassa comes out this summer, but in the meantime I read the 3rd book which is actually a prequel, The Curse that Binds.

The prequel follows how Roxilana (Selene) and Memnon met and fell in love before the curse befell them and Memnon was cursed to sleep for thousands of years and Selene forgot everything about their past and her past life. Roxilana was born in Brittania, but the Romans attacked her village and abducted her after killing her family. It is a Roman village that she starts to hear a voice in her head. Once they learn they can communicate with each other we learn the voice is of a boy around her age, but he lives far away and is Sarmatian. Their communication and friendship becomes something they can both rely on for years and when the time comes that Roxilana is being arranged to marry a Senator’s son, Memnon travels months to Rome to save her.

The novel continues on to show their growing deep love for one another, their growing powers/magic, and Memnon – king of the Sarmatians – warring with other kingdoms and ongoing fight with the Romans. It all leads to what we know happens that leads to Bewitched.

I loved the premise of this book and I really enjoyed learning about how they met and got together. Their love was so deep, all-consuming, and fated. I did enjoy most of the book, but I felt like it was a little long for a prequel and I didn’t think it needed to be quite so drawn out. I also felt like while I really liked Memnon and Roxilana for the most part in the first two books, sometimes they did things or acted a certain way in this prequel that I felt made me like them less – like it made them less likable at times.

The one thing the book did do is made me look forward to the conclusion to the series even more. Now I need to know how it’s all going to end and I need to see Roxilana (Selene) and Memnon get their revenge and get their happy ending. So although I didn’t love The Curse that Binds, the desire it sparked in me to read the last book when it comes out this summer, is great.

If you’ve read Bewtiched and Bespelled, definitely read this for more context and background information before the last book, Bedeviled, comes out.

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