Cursed: Brides of the Kindred by Evangeline Anderson

Cursed: Brides of the Kindred (Book 13) by Evangeline Anderson  

Release Date: October 31st, 2014

Review by Phoenix Andrews, 3 out of 5

I adore the Brides of the Kindred books. I've read every one within a week of the release date and will continue to read the next books in this series. Having said that...CURSED had a problem I just couldn't get past. This book challenged my ability to suspend disbelief. Any romance, sci-fi romance in particular, requires the reader to suspend disbelief in order to get into the story. What bothered me about CURSED was the running theme of "let's pretend we're just doing this for the job". 

I felt like the heroine was too selfish, walking around thinking she could use the hero in whatever way she deemed necessary and never consider his feelings. The hero was Kindred, not an emotionless android, so this left me feeling unsympathetic toward the heroine. 

The hero was so self-sacrificing I almost couldn't see him as strong enough to be the hero at all. Not all heroes need to be cavemen or alphas but they need the ability to stand up for themselves at some point in the story.  

What finally knocked my rating of this book down from a 4 or 5 to a 3 was the game of "just the tip" the hero and heroine engaged in toward the end of the book. It reinforced the heroine's self-centered personality and the hero's doormat tendencies and made me feel like I was reading a scene about two teenagers instead of two fully grown, mature adults. "Just the tip" can be hot but this scene reminded me of sixteen year old kids trying to create a line between complete sexual satisfaction and technical virginity which simply doesn't exist. I found it unbelievable two mature adults would find it more acceptable if the penis was inserted only a certain amount or inserted fully but no thrusting took place. Spoiler Alert: If there is any amount of penis inside your vagina it counts as sex. Own it, call it like it is and don't demoralize either one of you by pretending it's not something it obviously is. 

The world building was great and on par with the standard for Evangeline Anderson's books. I spotted very few editing errors which I appreciate immensely. I found the author's writing technique and "voice" familiar yet engaging. The cover rocks! 

Despite my dislike for parts of CURSED I look forward to reading more stories by this author.