I stumbled upon this book when scrolling through tiktok; I immediately knew I had to read this and couldn't wait to know the release date, so imagine my happiness when the author asked me if I was interested in reading an ARC of her book! The sun illuminated the area enough for her to witness the exhilaration on Rion’s face and the Fairy Folk that played at their feet. I must admit I found the romance a little boring. In some ways, the dynamic and the immeasurably melodramatic love they felt for each other, reminded me a lot of Twilight's Edward and Bella with their histrionic speeches. I guess we could say it's a very emotional relationship rather, than a physical one, and while I appreciated the way it was presented, I would have liked it to be a little less intense in its telling and a little more audacious in its showing. I´m just going to start of by saying OMG this book was SO GOOD! I literally could´t put it down and finished it within a day! I really should be focusing on my exams, but this book was too good!

From award-winning author J.E. Reed comes a breathtaking new series full of curses, love, and survival. A queen in hiding. When eighteen-year-old Arianna is stolen from her family and sold into slavery, she spends months disguised as a half-breed Fae struggling against the devastations of a decade-long war. But she never expected to find herself at the mercy of her country’s greatest enemy. General Rion is ruthless and commanding. He relishes in his reputation as The Demon-a vile creature incapable of love or compassion. With a secret no one can know, Arianna strives to placate him while plotting her escape, but sometimes fate has other plans and rumors can’t always be trusted. She’ll have to make a choice. Kill the most feared male on the continent or stay and let a forbidden bond take root. But what will happen when he discovers her secret? The Divine and the Cursed by J.E. Reed – eBook Details I appreciated the choice the author made, because it's in line with his troubled past that eventually resulted in him hating being touched.I thought the writing was amazing and it really had a good storyline, but something about this book just didn't pull me in and I can't put my finger on it. I absolutely love Romeo and Juliet and when I saw this was a retelling, I just had to have it. The story follows our reluctant heroine, Arianna, who, though pushed to safety by her friend in the middle of a war, was captured regardless and sold into slavery. For the last year and a half, Arianna has done whatever she could to survive, including keeping herself out of the males' beds, by disguising herself as a half-breed Fae. Enter Rion, The Demon, the most ruthless, most feared male in all of Alastriona whose vile, abhorrent magic was enough to condemn him from birth, who now has her life in his hands. Now let's get into the world-building details. Some important pieces of information would have had more weight at the beginning of the book rather than at the end. For example, Fiadh’s actions would have meant more if we learned more about them sooner. I had too many questions at the end that made me feel like the author didn’t know what was going to happen at the end until they wrote it. Not a bad thing, but noticeable to me.

This was dark, twisted, addicting, magical, and romantic, all in one book that you’ll want to read cover to cover in as few sittings as possible. This takes the enemies to lovers/forbidden love trope to a whole new level. I love seeing new twists on popular tropes, and Reed kept me guessing at every turn. I was dying trying to figure out what was happening next, and whether Arianna would find her HEA. No spoilers, you’ll have to find out where she lands on your own! (And it may not be where you expect). Arianna is an amazing heroine, and you can’t help but fall in love with her, she’s strong, smart, and determined. I didn’t want to like Rion, but I’ll let you form your own opinion on him. Final note…we are getting a sequel…right?! She'll have to make a choice. Kill the most feared male on the continent or stay and let a forbidden bond take root. But what will happen when he discovers her secret? Because you can hurt me in ways I’ve never been hurt. Without lifting a finger, you could shatter me completely.” This book includes some elemental magic being used in unexpected ways. Using sand to kill?!? Gruesome, but cool? Don’t know what that says about me but it’s definitely different! I couldn't come up with any good sides, so maybe this should be a one star, lol. Tbf, I didn't realize so many things had annoyed me until I actually started writing the list lol.First things first, this is not my preferred genre, but I've really enjoyed The Chronopoint Chronicles so far, that when the author asked if I wanted to be an early reviewer for TDATC, of course, I jumped on it straight away. Finally the slavery aspect. The couple meet when the female MC is the MMC’s slave. At the beginning he doesn’t make a strong stance of being anti slave at all despite us later finding out he’s a lord and could have been fighting harder for that instead of just sneaking his slaves out. It feels like we’re supposed to excuse him and his family having slaves cause “they treat them well” which will make you hate any main character. I found it hard to love this MMC a lot because HE AND HIS FAMILY HAD SLAVES and wasn’t more vocal about abolishing it, rather just making sure they were treated nicely. I didn’t like the multiple POVs. Although I can see them being useful, they felt randomly placed. I would have rather had dual POV for Arianna and Rion.

So I finally finished this book. And it is no mistake in the plot, quality of writing (which is excellent), or the story why it took me so long. It's just I enjoyed this as an audiobook, which I received from the author directly, and I didn't really have a lot of time with everything going on in my life to sit down and listen to the book. I did like the setting and realm, it was magical and brilliant with wonder. I thought the world building was impeccable and well developed. The fae setting, a growing war between enemy kingdoms, and the chase of being on run and finding refuge in a commander not known for being kind was a very well, thought out balance. When 18-year-old Arianna is stolen from her family and sold into slavery, she spends months disguised as a half-breed Fae struggling against the devastations of a decade-long war. But she never expected to find herself at the mercy of her country's greatest enemy. As for cons. Where´s the world building?? And the changing POV´s sometimes had me a little confused. But I might just be really slow lol. To put it plainly, this was terrible. The only reason it doesn't have one star is that I don't think I actively hated it, but it was just so painful to read. From everything being terribly plot convenient, to there being no stakes at all in any point of the book because everything happened in the most predictable way... I truly should've dnf'd it halfway through.Speaking of bad communication most of it is because the MMC DOESN’T TALK. He has very limited dialogue most of the book and not in the “Rowan in heir of fire Sarah j Maas” quiet tension but like this man just does not talk at all. To the point where it feels like the female MC is living with an angry animal. It doesn’t feel like they have a gradual falling in love either, the switch just flips without her knowing THAT much about him (cause he doesn’t really talk) and that was hard to swallow. However, the reason I’m rating it low is that this book is desperately in need of an editor. There were so many errors that it consistently brought me out of moments in the book. There is a scene between a villain fae and his commander that was super unnecessary and felt like not trusting the readers to connect the dots. There were some errors in the sentences and the pacing didn’t make sense. Even when nothing major was happening, the way the descriptions were written kept me interested, and I can say with all honesty, that I never felt bored while reading the book. As I said earlier, the book has a really fast pace, so that probably helped as well.

This book has everything you want in a Romantasy. And even tho this book is not spicy there is a bit of steam because of the description towards the attraction they have for each other. The beginning of this book starts off as a love triangle but that’s because relationships are allowed if you have not yet found your mate. Clearly she found her mate and she turned feral to protect him from anyone who would hurt him. She protects him and he protects her.His trust issues did annoy me quite a lot though. After the first one, I couldn't not roll my eyes every time he explained what had happened to him. The premise, world building and magic in this book are incredible! I really enjoyed all those aspects and seeing how the story unfurled! The writing and pacing I felt were good as well.