Description
An unputdownable gothic contemporary fantasy with the feuding families of Romeo and Juliet, the dark magic of Krystal Sutherland and a love triangle to rival The Inheritance Games.
The locals of Idlewood whisper of a tragic love story that began a decades long blood feud.
For as long as anyone can remember, the De Luca witches and the wealthy Barrion family have been sworn enemies. Ever since the curse that changed their fates forever. Now, if a Barrion falls in love with you, you'll die.
But when Penny Emberly's mother becomes the curse's latest victim, she must bring together two bitter rivals, Alonso and Corey, in order to save her mum's life and stop the feud for good.
But as the trio navigates unpredictable magic, the tangled web of their family histories, and complicated attractions, it becomes clear that there's more than dark secrets at play.
Can Penny find a way to break the curse . . . without losing her heart in the process?
Review
Set in a small US country town, with a huge family feud dating back generations between the wealthy Barrion family, who own and control most of the town, and the De Luca family, who most see as evil, and possibly magical.
Our main character is Penny Emberly, a quiet and anxious teen who tries to keep her head down. Then Penny’s mother has an accident, leaving her in a coma. Penny discovers that she has become part of a curse that leads to the death of anyone that the Barrion family fall in love with, as she was secretly seeing a Barrion aunt...
Penny needs to gather all of her strength and guile to try to find a cure. But magic and curses are involved, which is something totally alien to her. Not so alien to the dark and brooding Alonso De Luca, who is hated or feared by most at school, but Penny knows his secret. Can she get Alonso to use his magic, a magic that was supposed to have been taken from his family, to save her mother?
And then there is the much-loved Corey Barrion, heir to the Barrion empire, school quarterback and nemesis to Alonso. The curse involves his family too, and Penny must get them all working together to try to break it...
This sets the scene for a love triangle in a race against time to find the magic and get these enemies to work together. Then maybe, just maybe, this curse can be broken and the truth of how this feud all started can finally be uncovered.
You will love Penny from the outset, and this is a thrilling, fast-paced and magical novel. Full of small country town prejudices and generational biases, magic, curses, and with the underlying angst of Penny falling in love with either Alonso or Corey, maybe even both of them, is a novel that readers in lower secondary and above will love.
