Rating: 4 stars

After the devastating events at Zodiac Academy, we have to deal with this darker world we’re faced with. Lionel seeks to hurt us, the Nymphs seek to hurt the entire Fae race, and between all of it, we just have to try and survive each day as it comes. I’m afraid of everything falling apart, but it looks like it already has.

After reading Shadow Princess, I didn’t think life for the Vega twins and the Heirs could get any worse. But turns out I was wrong. Things got much worse in Cursed Fates, but I continued to read on as I found myself wanting to see what would happen next and what everyone would do as their worlds started falling apart. I really enjoyed what I read because I felt like there was a lot in this book in the series I didn’t expect to happen, and I finally felt like the twins and Heirs were actually on the same side as I believe they all finally realized who the real threat to the throne is.

What I enjoyed about reading the fifth book in the Zodiac Academy series was seeing the different relationships between all of the Heirs and Darcy and Geraldine as they were working to try and change fate. In particular, I felt like Darcy was starting to form a good relationship with both Darius and Seth in this book especially after everything that happened as this book continued. I also enjoyed seeing Darius and Tory’s relationship continue to grow as you start to see how much they both care about each other despite their denial of how they felt for so long. You finally get to see all of the Heirs and twins working together as the Heirs finally find out the truth about what’s going on and I’m happy about it. I’m happy about it because it means there’s still hope that things can get better for all of them despite how bad things continue to get. And things got really damn rough as this book went on.

While Tory’s character annoyed me in Shadow Princess, I feel like she didn’t annoy me quite as much in this book. I don’t know if it’s because there was a point in this book where she was willing to admit her mistakes with regards to everything that happened between her and Darius and she actually realized she didn’t hate him as much as she once did. It was almost like they finally gave her character more development in this book than its predecessor to where she wasn’t complaining all the time and making as many bad decisions. She also was starting to actually listen to what people were saying to her instead of immediately jumping to conclusions and realizing that maybe the people around her are just trying to help her. I also feel like Darcy also went through some growth as well, though maybe not nearly as much as Tory. But I feel like her growth came through the way her relationship with Seth turned out once he was honest with her about how he actually saw her. I feel like once that conversation happened, the dynamic of their relationship changed for the better and she started to realize that the Heirs weren’t completely bad.

I will say however, that one character I wasn’t pleased with when reading Cursed Fates was Orion. While I understand the choice he decided to make regarding his relationship with Darcy, I still wasn’t happy with him making that decision. I feel like a big part of that for me is because I honestly believe that if he hadn’t made that choice, this book wouldn’t have ended the way it did. I say this because I feel like with the way things turned out, he’s needed by everyone now more than ever, but he made a big choice that resulted in him being somewhere where he’s of no help to those who need him most. I do still like his character because you can see how much he and Darcy love each other and their relationship is one of my favorites in this series. But I feel like in this book, he made all of the wrong choices which resulted in things turning out the way they did.

Another thing about Cursed Fates I’m not at all pleased about is the ending. I feel like each time I read a book in this series, I’m no longer surprised that something bad has happened to the characters. I’m at the point where I expect it. However, that doesn’t mean I want these books to always have a dark ending because I don’t. I especially didn’t like this book’s ending not only because of what Lionel does to Tory but also because of the pointless death that’s at the end of the book too. The death of a character I stopped caring about many books ago as he’s someone who I feel like didn’t have that much of a role in this series. Yes, his family has been helping Lionel with his evil plans and he was able to help get insight into what they were planning, but I feel like his overall character was just there in the books. As a Fae, he wasn’t all that strong in comparison to his peers at the academy and he just didn’t add all that much to me with the story either. He was a character I originally liked when he was introduced but as the books went on, I felt like he didn’t add anything to the story and like I would’ve never noticed if his character never appeared in these books. So seeing him die despite everything else that was going on didn’t add much to the story for me other than being relieved that nobody else had been killed. 

Overall, I enjoyed reading Cursed Fates. When I think this series can’t get any darker and things can’t get worse, the next book in the series always ends up proving me wrong. But I’m excited to continue reading this series to see what happens next.