This was the first book I read from J.E Reed, but her writing captivated me so much, I promised myself I’ll read many more in the future!

I absolutely loved the worldbuilding and magic in this. The descriptions of how the magic worked and wound itself around the characters and how they used it were incredibly unique for a take on elemental magic and beautifully written. 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.My heart broke for them so many times. I ugly cried a lot, so I craved the sweet moments as much as I crave chocolate ice cream...every damn minute. The story was compelling and I really thought the idea was original in lots of ways and would read a series of it. Oh, so there is a sequel in the works. Well, good then! There’s still hope for this story to redeem itself. Nobody told me it was the first book of a series. Imagine my surprise when I got to the cliffhanger ending 😭😭😭

Because you can hurt me in ways I’ve never been hurt. Without lifting a finger, you could shatter me completely.” First of all, I just want to say a grateful thank you to the author for sending me a free copy of this audiobook, I enjoyed most of it a lot! But there were a few things I have to be honest about 💗

Furthermore, I couldn’t connect with the characters, mainly because I didn’t know much about them. We know Arianna is a secret queen on the run, and Rion is the commander of an army, but that’s all we know about them personally. I think forming connections to them and their pasts as individuals would pull me in closer, deepening the readers love for them as people. Any posts that need to be posted after 4AM Eastern US are not guaranteed to be posted anywhere except social media – tours need to be top posts and most need to be scheduled before then. THANKFULLY, I'd add, because The Divine and the Cursed is actually avwell written and interesting little gem that will definitely surprise its reader.

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. 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. I also want to give a major, major shout-out to Laura Horowitz, who did the audiobook for this. She did an amazing read of all of this, and I definitely increased my enjoyment of the story. I loved the way that she managed to give a personality and a distinct voice to every single one of the characters that were portrayed. This book begins by introducing the main character, Arianna, who has been captured and enslaved. I really liked that the author does not give the full story upfront, but reels you in slowly. You learn about her anquish and pain she is experiencing and piece by piece how she came to be there.It took me a little to convince myself to add it to my tbr, because, let's be honest, the current one doesn't do it justice and it almost made me wanna pull a Kaz Brekker on my own eyeballs. Rion, aka The Demon, is one of the sweetest and most complex male MC I have ever read! Of course, he looks intimidating and scary at first, but I loved those first moments he starts to open up and show some vulnerability. Their relationship loosely reminds me of Beauty and the Beast, because Arianna is the only one that sees beyond the monster and into his soul. 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. With her death foretold, Althea Zoltaire only has three years to become what she’s always dreamed of being: a warrior legend.