Trickery (Curse of the Gods #1) by Jaymin Eve & Jane Washington
Willa Knight: Dweller. Slave. Non-magical being.
In Minatsol, being a dweller means that you are literally no better than dirt. In fact, dirt might actually be more useful than Willa. Her life will be one of servitude to the sols, the magic-blessed beings who could one day be chosen to become gods.
At least her outer village is far removed from the cities of the sols, and she won’t ever be forced to present herself to them... Until one small mistake changes everything, and Willa is awarded a position to serve at Blesswood, the top sol academy in the world—a position that she definitely did not earn.
Under the sudden, watchful eye of the gods, she will be tasked to serve the Abcurse brothers, five sols built of arrogance, perfection and power. They are almost gods themselves, and under their service she is either going to end up sentenced to death, or else they are going to ruin her so badly that she will wish for it.
Either way, she is in trouble.
After getting into the Kit Davenport series, and then quickly catching up on it, I went looking for more reverse harem books/series I needed to read. I asked a couple of friends for recs, because it can be TOUGH to find quality RH, and one of them directed me to the Curse of the Gods series. I'd seen the books around since the first had released and for some reason never picked it up--but now I was like, why not? And now that I've read Trickery, I can very solidly say that while it was such a strange reading experience, I really enjoyed it!
But why was my reading experience so strange? Well. Because I spent so much of the book unsure about it. Was I enjoying it? Was I going to continue the series? Did I actually like what was happening or was I just unable to look away? I read the whole book in a few hours, mostly while watching the Yankees/Braves game. And I was SO entertained throughout it. When I reached the end, I was like "you know...that was actually great." Then I decided to start book 2 tomorrow (which is now today, and I will be starting it just as soon as I finish writing this review).
Now I'm going to break down a few things I liked and a couple of things I didn't like/was on the fence about so maybe y'all can understand why I was so torn about how I felt as I read the book.
Things I liked:
- Willa and Emmy's friendship. This is what the book starts off with, and I was such a fan of how close they were. Like sisters. Devoted and supportive, even while Willa is an annoying clutz and Emmy lectures all the time.
- The Abcurse brothers. First and foremost, they were entertaining as all get out. But also they were so interesting. I loved the time Willa spent with them, and I loved learning about them.
- The...friendship formed between the brothers and Willa. This is my FAVORITE thing. They are so cute and funny and I am here for this dynamic all day every day. Them always sticking together? Yes, please.
- The plot, once it started to shape up. As I said before, I was entertained and could not look away from the pages. I don't know where the series is going next, but I am beyond ready to jump on board for it all.
- The premise. This ties in with the plot, but the ideas in and of themselves that were executed in the novel were so good. Its part of what kept me reading even while I wasn't quite sure how I felt about everything.
Things I didn't like/was on the fence about:
- The world-building. This is kind of a ME problem--I have no patience for world-building. But I feel like the beginning of the book in general is a lot of info-dumping that wasn't necessary considering I just skimmed a lot of it to get to the good stuff and I got the gist just fine.
- Willa's clumsiness...kind of. For the most part it was entertaining and I liked how her friends were like "ugh of course she fell again." Like, it was cute. But it was also...a lot? I don't know. I'm on the fence on this one.
- The Abcurse brothers...kind of. Everything I said in the "Things I liked" section is true. But also, I feel like they're individual personalities need to get more defined because sometimes I had trouble telling them apart. Something would happen and I'd thing it was, like, Siret and then I'd look back and oh, it was actually Yael. I suspect this is something that will improve as the series continues, as we get to know them better and learn more about them individually and they get closer to Willa. But for now, it was a little bit of a qualm I had.
Overall, Trickery was a funny, entertaining series starter, and can't wait to dive into book 2! If you're looking for a reverse harem that isn't insta-love, starts as super great friends, and is borderline addictive, I'd say you've found what you're looking for. And it available with KU! ;)
4 stars - Fun, entertaining, and oh so good!
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