Golden Curse: A Fantasy Romance Novel (The Six Kingdoms Book 1) Kindle Edition

I know this book had a lot of 4 and 4 star reviews, so I guess I am an outlier in thinking it merited two. Like another reviewer noted, the carousel storyline is almost non existent. As I am not a huge fan of fairytale retellings, that wasn't a huge loss. Still, I dislike when a book doesn't live up to what it is supposed to be.Overall, the story is pretty shallow. Etta and Alex are super childish for their ages and life experience. Alex bullies people ( bad people, mostly, but still) and Etta is supposed to be his protector but she spends most of her time away from him or not doing protector things. The adults in this series don't take either Etta or Alex's roles seriously, which means Alex is constantly being told what to do as long and Etta is uselessly staring at her feet. I guess there is consistency here, since neither are particularly capable. Still, it makes for a bad story.FYI the romance is paltry and goes from 0 to 100 in about 5 seconds. There's almost no build up, and it just gets dropped in because hey, why not. I didn't mind the sex (it's not even described) but it was like why is this even happening? Super awkward to the storyline considering how little plot or character development happened.This book just didn't wow me. It was too young in ways that weakened the storyline, nothing much gets accomplished, and nothing surprising happens. Descriptions are minimal because we spend almost no time in each scene. Even the initial tournament is over in a flash; that should have been something that lasted much longer and felt harder. Instead it's like Etta waltzed in and didn't have to try. Boom, she's the protector. Boom she becomes friends with the Prince and sleeps with him. Boom he finds out who she is and has her captured. Everything is just so...shallow.If you are a reader wanting a more in depth experience, I suggest you skip.

Cool concept for a plot line, but the main characters seem disjointed and inconsistent in their personalities and decisions. The plot seems forced for its own sake, not natural or logical based on what you'd expect of the characters' choices. Overly dramatic, and not in a fun way. Also, it has a cliffhanger ending that makes me want to get the next book to see the outcome, despite disliking the writing style and characters.

I don't like giving two star reviews, but the ending. Well.Haven't read such a blatant attempt to get me to buy the next book in years.Perhaps I expected too much, the reviews that led me to buy this book said it was a "retelling of Rapunzel." Yea, right. There are a few vague allusions to the Rapunzel myth, but the book is just another romantic fantasy.Within that genre it's actually pretty good, containing real-ish people in real drama. But not really, it just feels too set up in the end. It was engaging enough at parts. The main characters are actually fairly well drawn, and there's none of the "smoky eyes" or etcetera nonsense.Honestly? If it was wrapped up with a real ending, actually felt like a complete tale then I might very well be buying the next one. Or at least at some point I would buy it, if the price was right. I like junk fantasy quite a lot, have read tons of it, but I won't be coming back to this series.And get it right, it is a series. You buy one, you're in for the load.

There were some aspects of this book that were hard to believe... the heroine becomes the body guard for the prince after winning a tournament? I like a strong female character who can fight just as much as anyone.. but when the male seems to be weak and timid, and needs this woman to "protect" him, it becomes a little distasteful. The prince doesn't seem to have any other winning attributes and she seems to be good at fighting and that's it. She's very rough around the edges, not in a good way. Because I couldn't connect with the characters, it became rather boring and I was quickly detached from the story. I didn't finish.

All the characters refuse to talk to each other and make erratic decisions with no sensible basis for almost the entire book. Hope the next one makes more sense because so many things seemed un-thought out in this one. The part where the main character getting hurt causes someone else to feel pain is erratically used. And makes no sense in how it is used or plays out, historically by this point there should have been certain things noticed and planned for...

This is the first book in the True Story of Rapunzel trilogy from the Fantasy and Fairytales series and was very absorbing, keeping me turning the pages into the early hours to finish it. I've even bought the other two books in the series so I can find out what happens next too! I love the character of Etta, whose independence and stubbornness is very endearing, and you really root for her. Alex, however, really annoys me as he needs to grow a spine and become his own person and learn about real life. Overall though, I loved the story and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy stories or adult fairytale retellings, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series to find out what happens to the characters in the rest of the story.

I thought the premise of this book sounded excellent and actually the bare bones of the plot were fine. Unfortunately aside from that it felt incredibly rushed, almost reading like it was a first draft. Instead of taking the time to describe to the reader what a character was thinking or feeling or experiencing, the author would just put it bluntly. Then these bluntly put sentences would just be continuously repeated.The sense of timing was also completely off. I know there's the cliché for a lot of romance novels to have a bit of a whirlwind element but this was ridiculous and unfortunately I could only suspend disbelief so far. This didn't stop at the main love story - it went for all the friendships and even the family relationships too.I also felt like the characters were very one dimensional and no time had been taken to flesh any of them out. This left me feeling no connection to any of them and meant I really didn't care about what happened to them.Much of the characters and the plot also felt a bit 'ex machina' - y, and only introduced for the purpose of throwing another spanner in the works, instead of being convincingly woven into the story.I did complete this book, only to see if it improved over time. I have to say I will not be picking up any of the rest of the series.

This is my first fantasy novel by M lynn. I have read a few of her other books (under her Michelle MacQueen name) and fell in love with her style. So I was thrilled to see her “other” side!The writing is thorough and the details are beautiful. I really did feel ensconced in the book and hated when I had to put it down. The characters are easy to relate to and feel for where as the villains are equally easy to dislike.It was a slow build up and the drama was stretched out till the very end. This book never lets you rest in the emotional front and it leaves you wanting-no needing- more!I very much look forward to the next books!

This is a bloody good book! Not at all what I was expecting and I'm very glad I found time to read this today. I loved the mix of fairy tales within this book, including rapunzel, sleeping beauty etc. It's such a fantastic story, and I'm excited to read the others in this series! The fact that it's so full of emotional twists and turns is brilliant, much like a majority of Michelle's writing, it will take you on an emotional rollercoaster with a fantastic storyline attached!

Loved the action, secrets and intrigue of this fast paced story.Wonderfully dark characters, and that's just the good guys, a magical world that I got lost in, and a page turner of a plot made it a great read.