The Grosvenor’s Curse

by Ruby Frisenda

HRH Prince Arthur Of Wales, third in line to the British monarchy. A royal pain in the backside, some say. A boy too gorgeous to even be real, the papers have written. A total mess and shame to the family, most will say. After returning to his prestigious private school in Westminster—Darcy Mount Academy—Arthur is faced with reaping the consequences from his summer of racking up hundred thousand pound bills at nightclubs and partying till the sun comes up with his banished cousin. Although, this year is different. The night before summer changed everything for him—for them. They’re in too deep. No matter how far he goes, Arthur knows that she will never leave his side. He can try to push her out but he doesn’t want to, really. She’s all he knows. All he has ever known since he was five. And now grappling with the tornado that is addiction, Arthur starts to wonder if they’ll ever make it out alive of their last two years at secondary school.

Lady Phoebe Cadogan, an old money heir to her family’s name. She’s too perfect for him. She’s admired. She’s on the front pages of magazines, posing with her fashion designer mother and high model sister but not anymore. Everyone reads the papers. They’ve all seen what he got up to over the summer. There’s no hiding it. She’s been ripped apart, stripped naked and now has to navigate her way through London’s high society while juggling her friendships, the love she has for herself—or lack thereof—her friendships, her family and most importantly, her relationship. She loves Arthur. Convinced no one could love anyone or anything in a fraction of the way she loves him. Their families have been glued together since their mothers crossed paths at university. There’s no dividing them now. She doesn’t care what her friends think or what her dad thinks or what her sister thinks. All Phoebe knows is that she loves herself just that bit more when she’s Arthur—addiction or not—the love she has for him was carved into the walls of caves by the Greek Gods before us.

The pair did always love Romeo & Juliette, though.“But also, between the cracks of all those things that don't make sense, there are a few things that do. Like religions. Like prayers. Like rules. Like leaders-someone tells you what to do and how to do it and you follow it. Arthur is my religion. He is what I go to when I need things to make sense. Like how Christians believe in three things. The mind, body and soul and all that? It makes sense to them. When they need that reassurance, that guiding light, that is where they go.
To me, Arthur is my three things.”

Genres: Romance, Dark Romance, Contemporary

477 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2024

Reviews

[isabella ❦ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rewriting this review, this book was poorly written and too repetitive. Phoebe is Arthur’s doormat and their relationship is ass basically. I read the book because of the author’s tiktoks about it, claiming it was a bit like Magnolia Parks, Boys of Tommen, and the Addicted/Calloway series. Only part that’s true is the Magnolia one, but god this was terrible to read and a huge disappointment for me, this was worse than a wattpad fanfic. I read some of the author’s replies to comments on tiktok too and they’re pretty immature, people in the comments were asking if the book had things like sh to which the reply was “read and find out”?? On the book there’s also no trigger warning list yet there are VERY triggering topics.

[Daisy · Rating 1 out of 5]

and ykw to each its own, some people say it’s the journey or the destination but this was neither…

[bh · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the deeply moving and emotional themes of this book i thought it was written badly. Every character lacked depth and seemed rather irresponsible.

This could’ve been a really good book, i do like the storyline, but it was not executed well. The language lacked meaning and after a while the repetition of ‘ no one understands the love i have for her/him’ got rather annoying.

[Olivia Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnolia parks x addicted series x boys of tommen

[taylor ୨୧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE ENDING??? WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A STANDALONE????? i need the next book immediately.

imagine joey and aoife (from boys of tommen) but if they were rich royalty. this was joey’s addiction x johnny’s rugby playing x bj ballentine (from magnolia parks) all wrapped up into one. HEAVY on the magnolia parks inspiration. this is SO much drama and so toxic and definitely not for everyone but i ate it up. i love angst, drama, and sadness and that’s exactly what this was. while people might get irritated with arthur and phoebe, this is a very real depiction of how substance abuse is and how sometimes your partner loves you through it.

my only complaint about this is that it felt slow and repetitive sometimes. it also seemed a bit disorganized with explaining some of the side characters and i got a little confused sometimes. but overall, such a good, underrated read if you’re into toxicity and heartache.

[halle♡📖🫧 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ loved this way more than i thought i would

[sky-violet ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, I need the next book immediately. Secondly, I will never forget this book.

Arthur was written so beautifully, his character is one I’ll struggle to ever erase from my mind. Phoebe was phenomenal, a character unlike any i’ve ever read. Spencer, my girl, my favourite. I need more Spencer content immediately. Bliss, a style icon, an icon in general. Connie, the funniest of them all, especially with some of the things he would come out with (tied with some of Bliss’ lines). Albie, my mystery man. George (don’t get me started on him), I NEED more of George than I need air.

Such a complex and beautifully written book. This book held my mind hostage until I finished it, and even now after finishing it I don’t think it’ll leave my head any time soon. Some people are truly born to write and Ruby is one of them.

Am I gonna ever shut up about this book? Probably not!

The quotes. The characters. The fashion. The places. The storylines. The details. Every word written was immaculate.

[jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

i’ve never been more confused by a book. like i read the entire thing and still don’t know if i read any of it. the plot was repetitive and i still don’t think i know or understand any of the characters. more than half of the plot was extremely vague and overall writing execution was not the best. the time jumps were confusing and i felt like i missed things over and over again. we were in january and then suddenly its three months later with no context. i’m so confused what happened to theo. the fact that we didnt read the letter is also very annoying. and the end of the book felt so unsatisfying. nothing was gained throughout any of the book.

[Mandy Monahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good . No words. I loved it, I want nothing more than to read the next .

Ruby, I beg, please start writing .

[Rachel Inman · Rating 1 out of 5]

okay i’m officially done trying, i am considering this as part of this months list because i got to over 250 pages. this has potential but it felt like i was rereading the same thing over and over again.

[Grace Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely magnolia parks adjacent.

i did feel like it was a little long and that pacing was quite worked out but otherwise i really enjoyed it! TW for addiction and SH/SI and i appreciated the lack of glamour surrounding those topics despite the obviously glamorous cast

[Ellie Gay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally decided to give up on this got worse and worse

[tiana · Rating 1 out of 5]

personally i found both the main characters insufferable, i felt like the same things were happening in every chapter and it just got so repetitive, i tried to trust the process in hopes that the ending made up for it but i just found it very boring, one thing i did live however was the side characters they were hilarious

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. My. God. THIS BOOK! From the very first page, it grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. It pulls you into the whirlwind lives of its characters, taking you through the highs and lows of addiction while showing just how powerful love can be—even when it feels like everything’s falling apart.

Each character brings something unique to the table, and honestly, I loved every single one of them. I won’t spoil anything, but I’m telling you, this definitely isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of Phoebe and Prince Arthur. Their story is just getting started, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

Connie? Absolute legend. He had me laughing out loud, but also, he was the kind of friend everyone needs—honest, supportive, and always keeping things real. I seriously need more of him in my life!

The friendship group? Chef's kiss. These guys aren’t just there to cheer each other on; they call each other out, challenge their flaws, and make each other better people. It's that perfect balance of tough love and genuine care. And yeah, they mess up sometimes, but that’s what makes them so real. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but that’s what makes their bonds so authentic.

As a Brit, I was living for the British slang—it added so much flavor and made the characters feel like real people you could bump into in any pub. I loved how the royals or the people in power were just as messy and relatable as anyone else.

This has been one of my favourite read in a long time! This book definitely needs more hype!

[Miha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to start by saying that this book is not for everyone.
Definitely not a soft, happy read. So don't go into this book expecting something like that. This book reminded me a lot of Gossip girl and Magnolia Parks. It has some beautiful and deep quotes/dialogues that come with pain, is it a literal master piece? No. It has some weird time lapses, the characters can get annoying, and I hate that we didn't get to see the letters BUT throughout the book I had to remind myself that these are just teenagers who needed help and did the best they could with what they knew. At some point I got annoyed with the fmc because she couldn't bring herself to do something about the whole situation, she coped by staying and accepting him exactly like that even though it was very bad for everyone. That thought changed when I realized this book is about a person (Phoebe) loving and accepting someone even with their biggest flaws, addictions etc. Holding on to someone even when they try to do bad for themselves, because you'd rather have them that way than not at all. It's toxic and painful, but it shows how love can make you do things that others from outside can't understand. I am definitely looking forward for the second book, and I hope that Arthur will YEARN for Phoebe to make up for everything that happened.

[Addison Gallagher · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book but I feel like I've been jipped -- mainly because when I saw this book teased on TikTok, it was using a sort of "Who hurt you?" trope that I fall for every time. What wasn't made clear was that it was the MMC who hurt the FMC? I am all for complex and morally grey characters, but why would you advertise it as that kind of romance when it was the opposite? I guess it worked, considering I bought the book from that post, but if you, like me, saw the author's TikToks and are thinking of reading -- I suggest not!

This book also could've been cut by 250 pages at least. There was no need for it to be 500 pages, especially when nothing of substance happened for majority of them. There were subplots that were completely unnecessary or altogether forgotten, and the time and energy it took to write those could have instead be put to something better... namely, the conclusion?

I genuinely could not tell you how this book ends because I don't think the author knows either. I literally had to laugh out loud at the last sentence because it made absolutely no sense. I don't enjoy leaving negative reviews, but I'm so frustrated that I wasted so much time on false advertising and a book without a conclusion to literally any of it.

[Lezara · Rating 1 out of 5]

It felt more rewarding returning this book to Kindle Unlimited than it did marking it as read. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, I don’t know what will.

As soon as I started chapter one, I knew this book was going to be a rough ride. The writing was almost laughable, like genuinely hard to take seriously. I kept telling myself, "maybe they accidentally published the draft?" Because I honestly can’t believe this was the final, polished version.

This book reminds me of those videos with the audio that goes, “girl we been knowing how to draw. Beatboxing puppy. Huh?” But instead it's writers using the sound like, “girl I’ve been knowing how to write,” followed by “write smut." and their screen shows: “He kissed me. I kissed him. We kissed each other.”

This books writing felt exactly like the joke of that trend, except this author was being dead serious and in no way satire when they published this.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

felt like the longest book, very stale and predictable. pheobe loves arthur, arthur loves pheobe but he’s a prince and a drug addict, the end, you have read the whole book. and that’s not even a spoiler, from the beginning to the end it’s all the same. and they are both very annoying, prone to lackluster tangents, and unlikable. the friends (connie, george, his twin, spencer, and the others lol) are fun, i guess, but they are also annoying and unnecessary additions

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

i swear to god this book is so amazing how incredibly written by this artist, i am dyslexic (functioning autism too ) and i still was able to read this every page felt like gold dust and left shivers down my spine there is twists that are MASSIVE and the highs and LOWWWs in this book make it really intresting especially when it TAPERRRs down to the end with a smooth FADEEEEE

[Chloe Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh

The writing was confusing the storyline went around in circles while also leaving a bunch of plot points open. To be honest this was a frustrating read. And then its left on a cliffhanger. It could of been half the length and then it would've really highlighted the main theme of addiction.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t know how to feel at first. The story sometimes dragged a bit and the characters could be so annoying.
But holy shit, I am not able to stop thinking about these characters. They are so messed up and I am so obsessed.

Exactly what I needed while I was missing the addicted universe so fucking badly

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved the writing & detail. This was just the book i was looking for - after a day spent in Mayfair i wanted to read a book just like this! I adored the parties and refrences ( Valley of the dolls and etc ). Thank you for writing this book!!

[Paxtin Gagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words cannot describe what I have to say about this book. I connected to it on a different level and will never be calling any other book my favorite. This book is my Arthur, my heroine, my sex. I need the second book immediately.

[Aliyah Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

BRO THIS BOOK WAS SAD BUT THE REALLY SAD PARTS WERE TOO SKIPPED FOWARD WITH NOT MUCH DETAIL. AND STOP I LOVE PHEOBE BUT SHE NEEDS TO SEE HOW BRO IS NOT UNDERSTANDING AND BRO THE FACT THAT SHE KEPT LETTING HIM USE HER BODY ANNOYED ME SO MUCH

[Gracie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Arthur can be described as nothing but ludicrously manipulative and toxic in all the wrong ways.
Phoebe can either be described as a doormat or a victim.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

👑💫

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this book so much, love ones set like this, please let me know if anyone has recommendations of books like this and magnolia parks?

[Ava]

DNF

[sisi · Rating 1 out of 5]

i had to dnf

[Karoliina · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I wanted to DNF it but I still finished it. At first it was slow and nothing happened but in the end it was really good. I would wanna read the next book about Arthur and Phoebe.