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Cursed Academy #1
Cursed Academy: Year One
Giselle Bowman never thought she'd be descended from a Greek god...or a monster.
Klutzes and small-town girls don't get taken to Olympian Academy to learn to hone their godlike powers. But when Giselle accidentally summons a void that almost eats her friend, it's done. Except she doesn't get sorted into Olympian, but to Cursed Academy, where the descendants of dark gods and the monsters from Greek mythology learn to serve their betters.
And that's just the start. Giselle 1.) has a new type of magic never seen before and 2.) gets to deal with an epic jerk, Ronin, from Olympian Academy next door. He's a descendant of Zeus, totally hot, and very out of her league.
Giselle quickly learns her void-summoning powers aren't normal and that an unknown enemy--perhaps someone in Cursed Academy already--seeks to use her for a plan so vile, it threatens the gods and the modern world. With nowhere else to turn, Giselle must seek help from Ronin, who might have a clue on what she is. If only he'd stop making fun of her every time she trips over her shoelaces.
Is Giselle ready to learn the terrifying truth about herself and her powers?
Cursed Academy is a teen academy romance series based on the dark side of Greek mythology.
Keywords: teen academy romance, teen academy, greek mythology, paranormal academy, magic academy, magical academy, myths, young adult academy romance, series, book one, monster, contemporary fantasy, first year, year one, teen academy books, magic dark cursed deity powers elemental bully teen academy romance supernatural tracker siren song villain year one freshman magical mythical creatures mythological
Klutzes and small-town girls don't get taken to Olympian Academy to learn to hone their godlike powers. But when Giselle accidentally summons a void that almost eats her friend, it's done. Except she doesn't get sorted into Olympian, but to Cursed Academy, where the descendants of dark gods and the monsters from Greek mythology learn to serve their betters.
And that's just the start. Giselle 1.) has a new type of magic never seen before and 2.) gets to deal with an epic jerk, Ronin, from Olympian Academy next door. He's a descendant of Zeus, totally hot, and very out of her league.
Giselle quickly learns her void-summoning powers aren't normal and that an unknown enemy--perhaps someone in Cursed Academy already--seeks to use her for a plan so vile, it threatens the gods and the modern world. With nowhere else to turn, Giselle must seek help from Ronin, who might have a clue on what she is. If only he'd stop making fun of her every time she trips over her shoelaces.
Is Giselle ready to learn the terrifying truth about herself and her powers?
Cursed Academy is a teen academy romance series based on the dark side of Greek mythology.
Keywords: teen academy romance, teen academy, greek mythology, paranormal academy, magic academy, magical academy, myths, young adult academy romance, series, book one, monster, contemporary fantasy, first year, year one, teen academy books, magic dark cursed deity powers elemental bully teen academy romance supernatural tracker siren song villain year one freshman magical mythical creatures mythological
248 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2019
482 people are currently reading
658 people want to read
About the author
Holly Hook
155 books255 followersHolly Hook is the author of the Destroyers Series, which consists of five young adult books about teens who are walking disasters...literally. She is also the author of the Rita Morse series, a young adult fantasy series still in progress, and After These Messages, a short ya comedy. Currently she is writing Twisted, a spin-off of the Destroyers Series due out in December. When not writing, she enjoys reading books for teens, especially ya fantasy and paranormal series with a unique twist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
July 25, 2019
Skip it. The concept is interesting but the story as sold is definitely in an early draft stage and should be taken offline for further development and work. With choppy and abrupt scene transitions, undeveloped characters, and forced plot points that really don't make sense (you have to be on point with everything else when you are taking the reader into a paranormal universe, there is only so much belief can be suspended and you don't want to waste it on students fighting to the death on their first day of school against the best of the best) this really just isn't a finished product for readers.
The book starts out introducing you to Giselle, a nerdy art girl in a small nothing town as she stumbles upon a message from the gods sitting in her school hallway. Gods have apparently be reawaked and if you have God blood, when your powers awake you have to immediately present yourself at a temple where you will be sorted into one of two academies to learn how to harness your power. Olympus Academy is where you want to end up, it's the one of all the good gods and gets you a cushy job in life. The Cursed Academy has all of the monsters. You do not want to go there, besides finding out you are a monster you will probably die before you graduate, and if you don't, you will be a second class citizen and probably die in war, so, yay. Anyways, you show at the temple, which apparently has TSA security, a titan and a god show up, you know, a represent from each school, the oricale slices your palm, you drip some blood into a pool, your destiny is revealed, the God or titan claims you, marking you with an irreversible mark, and boom, it's off to boarding school you go.
All of that should have been in a few paragraphs together, setting up the world we are in. It wasn't. You are given bits and pieces as you go in awkward manner.
Ok, so the world building was skipped, but surely the character were developed. No, no they were not. Remember Giselle? Well back at her school she is all ooo a messenger of the gods! Maybe ill be chosen, only I can't be chosen because I'm from a podunk town and they never choose anyone from a podunk town. Ummm why? You are selected to go to God academy because you have ancient God blood running through your veins. Ok, sure if the awakened Gods had to find your human parent and get it on to product you, maybe there is an argument that finding out you are a descendant of a god when you've spent your whole life in a small town would be rare, but that's not how it worked. To be marked as a god your great to the nth god parent had to get it on with your great to the nth human parent centuries ago, and then their descendants migrated into Europe, and then colonized Asia, Africa, and the new world. Literally anyone could have god blood after hundreds of years of human life cycles.
That's not the only thing that doesn't make sense within the first 20% of the book. So, still with Giselle in that hallway, a guy who is her friend shows up behind her in the hall, dude gets all huffy a god descendant is there, ushers Giselle into art club, is tickle attacked so the girls can go look at the god descent and see who is chooses, and then decides to tell Giselle they never had a chance to be a couple, like he knows she is going somewhere, before sexually assaulting her and freeing her powers. It was way too forced and didn't make much sense. It's ok to draw the discovery out for a bit. Have the GD show up at the school and hang around for a few days yo a few weeks being his loveable self (spoiler, he is a jerk) have Randy, the dude, grow increasingly annoyed at GD who always seems to be hanging around, being all perfect with the girls drooling over GD while GD is a jerk who can't give them the time of day. Have Randy and Giselle already going to another dance. Have Randy get drunk and try something on Giselle when the two of them go off on their own to the art room to get something to fix the banner. Have Giselle's powers come forward, she freaks, runs home just like she currently does. That makes So much more sense. We don't have to be given a lot of scenes with the time frame between the hall meeting and the dance, really just a few. Everyone in art club working on the banner while the other girls gossip about how hot GD is and who they think might be the chosen one, randy will be all grumpy, Giselle will be all I don't think GD is really nice, but yeah it would 've cool to go, you know, unless you are a monster, and they would talk about what monster is the worst. You'd get brief summary monologue during the discussion in which Giselle recalls all the times she's into GD while he has been hanging out, growing increasingly annoyed and certain the Oracle was wrong. Giselle would recount how GD accused her of stalking him as they are always running into each other, sometimes literally, like when she tripped and fell at his feet. Instead of helping her up the jerk smirked and said she looked good down there where she belonged.
During this time that GD is waiting for the god spawn to reveal themselves we should be getting to know Giselle. We are first told she doesn't know her parents and are then told they ran off to the city and she lives with her grandma. How long has she been with her grandma? When did her grandpa die? Where is her other set of grandparents? Aunts? Uncle's? Cousins? Do her parents keep in touch? Did they ever, or did they just leave? Does Giselle have friends? Are they like her? Have they been friends since they were in diapers or did something bring them together in middle school? Why doesnt Giselle like to be at home? Is her grandma emotionally or physically abusive? I'd she just distant and cold? Is she bitter she had to raise her grandchild? Was she ever nice and loving? Why does Giselle run out the window and flee from Grandma as though Grandma can physically harm her? These are all things that should have been developed. You have to lay the foundation for your world and characters or else the story is really flat.
The book is rife with problems like this, and jarring switches in attitude or from one scene to the next, like Giselle running away and deciding to hide only in the same sentence deciding to just go home. That needs to be developed a little more. She needs to think through where would she go? What would she do? Are they (and who is they) good at finding the people who don't show up at the temple? What happens if you don't show up?
And once at the school she can't just be dumped in a nice bedroom, excited she has a full shower to herself (side note, what is a full shower? Like you have a shower head, drain, hot/cold water, AND a way to keep the water contained or did she man full bath? I think she mean full bath) arm the security system and then boom! Wake up and go: ah! I'm at an academy! And it's a weekday! I'm probably missing classes and should get out of here and to the class I don't know to go to because I don't have a schedule and wanted given any sort of orientation or tour or anything.
You also have to pay attention to continuity. You can't have a character say I wanted to meet you before Wendy when Wendy is the one who brings Giselle into her room, and you can't say we have hours until class anyone shower later say hurry up, class starts in less than an hour. Or Giselle saying "I don't know what I'm doing here" as she meets her friend group at the Academy for the guy to say "you must have powers". Um yeah, she does, and she knows it. She opened a vortex of death. Kind of a clear "hey ive got powers" sign.
The book starts out introducing you to Giselle, a nerdy art girl in a small nothing town as she stumbles upon a message from the gods sitting in her school hallway. Gods have apparently be reawaked and if you have God blood, when your powers awake you have to immediately present yourself at a temple where you will be sorted into one of two academies to learn how to harness your power. Olympus Academy is where you want to end up, it's the one of all the good gods and gets you a cushy job in life. The Cursed Academy has all of the monsters. You do not want to go there, besides finding out you are a monster you will probably die before you graduate, and if you don't, you will be a second class citizen and probably die in war, so, yay. Anyways, you show at the temple, which apparently has TSA security, a titan and a god show up, you know, a represent from each school, the oricale slices your palm, you drip some blood into a pool, your destiny is revealed, the God or titan claims you, marking you with an irreversible mark, and boom, it's off to boarding school you go.
All of that should have been in a few paragraphs together, setting up the world we are in. It wasn't. You are given bits and pieces as you go in awkward manner.
Ok, so the world building was skipped, but surely the character were developed. No, no they were not. Remember Giselle? Well back at her school she is all ooo a messenger of the gods! Maybe ill be chosen, only I can't be chosen because I'm from a podunk town and they never choose anyone from a podunk town. Ummm why? You are selected to go to God academy because you have ancient God blood running through your veins. Ok, sure if the awakened Gods had to find your human parent and get it on to product you, maybe there is an argument that finding out you are a descendant of a god when you've spent your whole life in a small town would be rare, but that's not how it worked. To be marked as a god your great to the nth god parent had to get it on with your great to the nth human parent centuries ago, and then their descendants migrated into Europe, and then colonized Asia, Africa, and the new world. Literally anyone could have god blood after hundreds of years of human life cycles.
That's not the only thing that doesn't make sense within the first 20% of the book. So, still with Giselle in that hallway, a guy who is her friend shows up behind her in the hall, dude gets all huffy a god descendant is there, ushers Giselle into art club, is tickle attacked so the girls can go look at the god descent and see who is chooses, and then decides to tell Giselle they never had a chance to be a couple, like he knows she is going somewhere, before sexually assaulting her and freeing her powers. It was way too forced and didn't make much sense. It's ok to draw the discovery out for a bit. Have the GD show up at the school and hang around for a few days yo a few weeks being his loveable self (spoiler, he is a jerk) have Randy, the dude, grow increasingly annoyed at GD who always seems to be hanging around, being all perfect with the girls drooling over GD while GD is a jerk who can't give them the time of day. Have Randy and Giselle already going to another dance. Have Randy get drunk and try something on Giselle when the two of them go off on their own to the art room to get something to fix the banner. Have Giselle's powers come forward, she freaks, runs home just like she currently does. That makes So much more sense. We don't have to be given a lot of scenes with the time frame between the hall meeting and the dance, really just a few. Everyone in art club working on the banner while the other girls gossip about how hot GD is and who they think might be the chosen one, randy will be all grumpy, Giselle will be all I don't think GD is really nice, but yeah it would 've cool to go, you know, unless you are a monster, and they would talk about what monster is the worst. You'd get brief summary monologue during the discussion in which Giselle recalls all the times she's into GD while he has been hanging out, growing increasingly annoyed and certain the Oracle was wrong. Giselle would recount how GD accused her of stalking him as they are always running into each other, sometimes literally, like when she tripped and fell at his feet. Instead of helping her up the jerk smirked and said she looked good down there where she belonged.
During this time that GD is waiting for the god spawn to reveal themselves we should be getting to know Giselle. We are first told she doesn't know her parents and are then told they ran off to the city and she lives with her grandma. How long has she been with her grandma? When did her grandpa die? Where is her other set of grandparents? Aunts? Uncle's? Cousins? Do her parents keep in touch? Did they ever, or did they just leave? Does Giselle have friends? Are they like her? Have they been friends since they were in diapers or did something bring them together in middle school? Why doesnt Giselle like to be at home? Is her grandma emotionally or physically abusive? I'd she just distant and cold? Is she bitter she had to raise her grandchild? Was she ever nice and loving? Why does Giselle run out the window and flee from Grandma as though Grandma can physically harm her? These are all things that should have been developed. You have to lay the foundation for your world and characters or else the story is really flat.
The book is rife with problems like this, and jarring switches in attitude or from one scene to the next, like Giselle running away and deciding to hide only in the same sentence deciding to just go home. That needs to be developed a little more. She needs to think through where would she go? What would she do? Are they (and who is they) good at finding the people who don't show up at the temple? What happens if you don't show up?
And once at the school she can't just be dumped in a nice bedroom, excited she has a full shower to herself (side note, what is a full shower? Like you have a shower head, drain, hot/cold water, AND a way to keep the water contained or did she man full bath? I think she mean full bath) arm the security system and then boom! Wake up and go: ah! I'm at an academy! And it's a weekday! I'm probably missing classes and should get out of here and to the class I don't know to go to because I don't have a schedule and wanted given any sort of orientation or tour or anything.
You also have to pay attention to continuity. You can't have a character say I wanted to meet you before Wendy when Wendy is the one who brings Giselle into her room, and you can't say we have hours until class anyone shower later say hurry up, class starts in less than an hour. Or Giselle saying "I don't know what I'm doing here" as she meets her friend group at the Academy for the guy to say "you must have powers". Um yeah, she does, and she knows it. She opened a vortex of death. Kind of a clear "hey ive got powers" sign.
June 3, 2019
Cursed Academy (Year one) is the first book in a new series by Holly Hook. I loved this book! The characters are amazing and I can't wait to find out what happens next!
July 4, 2019
It seems like everyone is putting out a series involving an academy of some sort these days. It makes sense considering how that whole series about Hogwarts went, after all. Lots of these involve Greek Gods, again a logical move considering how well (best sellers plus movies) Percy Jackson did. Some criticize this, but to me it’s no different then any other genre and all I care about is if it’s well done or not. Holly Hook’s new series, Cursed Academy, is definitely an example of how this can be done well. Yes, by its own description this is yet another “Supernatural Academy Romance” and, yes, it’s another academy series involving Greek mythology, but it is so (so) we’ll done. I totally adored it’s first two books, Cursed Academy (Year One), and Cursed Academy (Year One and a Half), love the imaginative twist here (the academy is not for descendants of the Olympian gods but rather of the “lesser” dark gods and the monsters from Greek mythology), love the klutzy feisty heroine here, Giselle, and all her clear potential and mystery (including those cool not understood powers) and the literally godly Ronin is pretty darn fantastic too. It’s gonna be fun watching Giselle (and Ronin) develop over the series. Add in superb writing, great plots filled with wonderful characters, and what looks to be a great overarching story arc in the making. The result is a fantastic new series that just happens to be - and make perfect use of - an academy setting. Totally fun, but for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review to my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises. These two books and the series itself definitely deserve it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the books and series are most definitely easy to highly recommend. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.
June 28, 2019
Giselle finds out the hard way that she is destined for one of two academies The Cursed Academy, run by Prometheus, and The Olympian Academy, run by Zeus. Ronin is sent to pick up Giselle at her school when she develops her powers. He follows her home where her Grandma is dead against Giselle leaving to go to the either academy b/c she is supposed to stay there and help her run the store. Giselle goes to her ceremony only to be picked Prometheus, even though Zeus was trying to claim her. Prometheus marks her wrist and sends her to Cursed Academy. She makes friends with Maria and Mikey, who turn out to be really great friends and go above and beyond for Giselle. Ronin acts like a jerk from the beginning but Giselle thinks he is really hot. After the Lower Order attacks Giselle, Mikey and Maria at the Olympian Library, Zeus directs Ronin to train Giselle every day after he classes at Cursed Academy.
I look forward to reading the second book to see how these relationships bloom. I want to see how Giselle's powers explode and allow her to broaden her path to escape the Lower Order. I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't sure how I was going to take it but it caught me right away and I couldn't put it down.
I look forward to reading the second book to see how these relationships bloom. I want to see how Giselle's powers explode and allow her to broaden her path to escape the Lower Order. I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't sure how I was going to take it but it caught me right away and I couldn't put it down.
June 5, 2019
Ancient Greeks in the modern age
I’m a huge fan of anything with Ancient Greek mythology as a background so no surprise that I loved this book! In modern times the Ancient Greek gods have woken up and to save humanity from themselves and their descendants they’ve opened schools to teach the children how to safely use their powers.
Giselle is a small town girl with no hopes of getting out of her backwater town until Ronin shows up a messenger sent to find one with magic. To everyone’s surprise including Giselle’s she’s the one he’s meant to find. Instead of Olympian she ends up at Cursed Academy and the weird just keeps on coming. Her powers are like nothing anyone has seen before. And many factions are trying to use and or abuse them and her. With loyal friends at her side and the snarky Ronin with whom more is developing Giselle takes the first steps to control her future.
A wonderful beginning! Lots of drama, lots of action and while centered around high school aged kids a story that is fit for any age. I eagerly anticipate book two!
I received an ARC from the author. I voluntarily review this book. This is my honest review.
I’m a huge fan of anything with Ancient Greek mythology as a background so no surprise that I loved this book! In modern times the Ancient Greek gods have woken up and to save humanity from themselves and their descendants they’ve opened schools to teach the children how to safely use their powers.
Giselle is a small town girl with no hopes of getting out of her backwater town until Ronin shows up a messenger sent to find one with magic. To everyone’s surprise including Giselle’s she’s the one he’s meant to find. Instead of Olympian she ends up at Cursed Academy and the weird just keeps on coming. Her powers are like nothing anyone has seen before. And many factions are trying to use and or abuse them and her. With loyal friends at her side and the snarky Ronin with whom more is developing Giselle takes the first steps to control her future.
A wonderful beginning! Lots of drama, lots of action and while centered around high school aged kids a story that is fit for any age. I eagerly anticipate book two!
I received an ARC from the author. I voluntarily review this book. This is my honest review.
September 16, 2020
Great book, great series, read them all. Its YA i think, but after reading by accident RH which i hate as theyre basically porn, i enjoyed it all the more. A great worldset which has the gods of Olympus part of everyday life, when you reach the age of 15/qy you may suddenly have some type of magic appear from out of the blue from you. Someone will automaticaly appear to take you away to a sorting temple, to find out which academy you will go to. The so called Light one led by Zeus is called Olympus Academy, which is where everyone wants to go. Or you may end up at Cursed Academy, where the best you can mature into is a witch or dark magic user, worst is turning into what they term "monster" which in your 4th an final year year you could turn into a shifter...lion,wolf,spider etc or most dreaded cyclops or siren, as your fangs and singing abilities may be kool..but wanting to eat people and have the bottom half of a snale to slither on isnt Oh and i forgot centaurs...not a popular one.
So a good 6 book finished series was well worth the read, will even miss the characters etc
So a good 6 book finished series was well worth the read, will even miss the characters etc
April 2, 2020
I bought the whole series for 0.99 USD in my Kindle and really hoped that this would be worth it. Okay, it was cheap and the reason why I bought it was because I'm a sucker for anything that involves mythology. There's not a single good thing about it. Here is a list of why I hate this freaking joke of a novel.
1. The story seemed like it was written by a nine year old and I'm not talking about nine year olds with potential or gifts when it came to writing.
2. Giselle Bowman is strong but so dumb. She thinks like a freaking kid. Everyone around her acts like children!
3. There is no character development.
4. Characters are plain. I don't even care about the characters, They didn't matter because they didn't make an impression.
5. My gosh. The action scenes are so terrible.
Since I bought the whole series and like to torture myself, I will continue reading the rest of the series. OCD strikes!
1. The story seemed like it was written by a nine year old and I'm not talking about nine year olds with potential or gifts when it came to writing.
2. Giselle Bowman is strong but so dumb. She thinks like a freaking kid. Everyone around her acts like children!
3. There is no character development.
4. Characters are plain. I don't even care about the characters, They didn't matter because they didn't make an impression.
5. My gosh. The action scenes are so terrible.
Since I bought the whole series and like to torture myself, I will continue reading the rest of the series. OCD strikes!
January 17, 2024
Oh my, this book surprised me. When I started this book I had to think about this meme about the main character being almost the same sort of type with every YA book out there. You know, normal but beautiful, clumsy yet kickass. I was wrong to think the main character from this book would be the stereotype protagonist.
Although Giselle is a klutz, there is such an interesting theory behind that. It wouldn’t be right if she wasn’t who she was, once again, Holly manages to weave together a very realistic storyline. I love this character and her friends and her off campus trainer (lol) and can’t wait to read what happens in the next instalment. This book was fun and the further I read, the more captivating it got. And the ending was very thrilling and boy, what a great plot twist.
Although Giselle is a klutz, there is such an interesting theory behind that. It wouldn’t be right if she wasn’t who she was, once again, Holly manages to weave together a very realistic storyline. I love this character and her friends and her off campus trainer (lol) and can’t wait to read what happens in the next instalment. This book was fun and the further I read, the more captivating it got. And the ending was very thrilling and boy, what a great plot twist.
July 9, 2019
Giselle finds out the hard way that she is destined for one of two academies The Cursed Academy and The Olympian Academy. Cursed being run by Prometheus the one for Dark demi gods like Hade's children and monsters. Olympian being run by Zeus the one for the other demigods like Zeus' children and Athena's. Ronin is sent to pick up Giselle and when she goes to her ceremony to be picked Prometheus after seeing something in the oracle's water jumps the gun and marks her sending her to Cursed Academy. She makes friends with Mikey and Maria who are just great characters and great friends I really loved them. also the way Ronin poking shots at Giselle is the only way her powers come out is really funny.
June 20, 2020
After growing up miserable in a small town in the middle of nowhere, Giselle suddenly finds herself yanked away into a program meant to teach those with magical potential, or some other hereditary background. At the sorting pond, she is snatched by Prometheus before Zeus can even blink, and find herself bound to the Cursed Academy instead of Olympian. What does she do? She makes the best of it. She makes friends. She crushes on a guy. And she does her best to keep the dark feeling growing inside her from getting worse.
June 18, 2019
Cursed Academy (Year One)[A Teen Academy Romance] by Holly Hook is an awesome story that I have had the pleasure of reading. This is book number one an awesome start to a brand new series that I loved reading. I highly recommend this story to everyone who loves reading about Greek mythology for teenagers in their stories I know I loved it very much.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book
January 16, 2022
Greek mythology? Check
Female lead who thinks she's ordinary but finds out she has powers that no one has seen before? Check
Sexy male lead who is an arse but has a soft spot for said female lead? Check
But good writing? Maybe not.
Cursed Academy is set in a backdrop where ancient greek mythology collides with 21st century society.
The gods are some of the most powerful people in the world, who run everything. They are the good ones, the ones on the right side of history. Then come Titans, monsters and dark gods who are second grade people and mostly settle for secondary roles.
Their descendents have powers and are filtered into two academies. Olympian Academy for the godly people and Cursed Academy for the Titans and monster people.
Giselle is an okay MC and on finding out who she descended from I did a literal double take. I actually kinda related to how her mind works but there's only so many times I can take her calling Ronin hot. It got to the point where she was literally facing death and she still made a point to address Ronin's hotness.
There is a lot of redundancy, Ronin must have 'worked his jaw' about fifty times. Every two pages, Giselle's arm 'tingled' with Ronin's electric touch. Oh and I can't leave out the 'icy darkness' gripping her insides.
Ronin's character is kinda okay too. I didn't like him a lot but maybe I will in the later books. His and Giselle's relation develops too quickly for my liking.
My favourite characters are Maria and Mikey and I'm looking forward to more screentime for the two of them. Also I really dig Prometheus's character. He is rather comforting but sadly there's not a lot of him in the book.
Another thing that struck me as odd was the lack of physical descriptions of the characters. I've read 191 pages and I still don't know how Giselle or most of the other characters look. At least Giselle is up on the cover.
Speaking of the cover, I am not a fan of the design at all. Even I who struggles to operate Canva could have come out with something better.
I will be coming back for the rest of the books in the series because the concept is something I want to see develop further but the writing can certainly do better.
Female lead who thinks she's ordinary but finds out she has powers that no one has seen before? Check
Sexy male lead who is an arse but has a soft spot for said female lead? Check
But good writing? Maybe not.
Cursed Academy is set in a backdrop where ancient greek mythology collides with 21st century society.
The gods are some of the most powerful people in the world, who run everything. They are the good ones, the ones on the right side of history. Then come Titans, monsters and dark gods who are second grade people and mostly settle for secondary roles.
Their descendents have powers and are filtered into two academies. Olympian Academy for the godly people and Cursed Academy for the Titans and monster people.
Giselle is an okay MC and on finding out who she descended from I did a literal double take. I actually kinda related to how her mind works but there's only so many times I can take her calling Ronin hot. It got to the point where she was literally facing death and she still made a point to address Ronin's hotness.
There is a lot of redundancy, Ronin must have 'worked his jaw' about fifty times. Every two pages, Giselle's arm 'tingled' with Ronin's electric touch. Oh and I can't leave out the 'icy darkness' gripping her insides.
Ronin's character is kinda okay too. I didn't like him a lot but maybe I will in the later books. His and Giselle's relation develops too quickly for my liking.
My favourite characters are Maria and Mikey and I'm looking forward to more screentime for the two of them. Also I really dig Prometheus's character. He is rather comforting but sadly there's not a lot of him in the book.
Another thing that struck me as odd was the lack of physical descriptions of the characters. I've read 191 pages and I still don't know how Giselle or most of the other characters look. At least Giselle is up on the cover.
Speaking of the cover, I am not a fan of the design at all. Even I who struggles to operate Canva could have come out with something better.
I will be coming back for the rest of the books in the series because the concept is something I want to see develop further but the writing can certainly do better.
September 16, 2019
I didnt reach the third chapter.
This book was that badly edited and the conversation that horribly abrupt.
We have a character called Randy (nice name) who apparently comes to school with grass pieces on his shirt cos you know, thats how you identify a county hick and a boor.
Then we have a hero Ronin (whats with all names starting with R for guys?) who is a weirdo jerk from the scratch - no reason,no rationale, just is so.
Then we have a heroine Giselle who mostly runs.
The biggest problem with this book is the lack of background and conversations.
For e.g. in 2nd chapter where Ronin comes to her home to collect her, Giselle's friend is also present. She brought him home by stealth and they climbed her home window to her bedroom. Why? Why is any normal person climbing someone else's window with a complete stranger without permission?
Its the slightest bit understandable if its commonly known that Giselle's grandma is crazy or if Giselle has a terrible home situation that she can only be met in sly.
But no.
Carmen a girl, decided that the neatest way to bring a strange guy to her friend's home is via her friend's bed room window - cos u know, hot guys cant ever rap e.
This book is filled with such inconsistencies from the start.
I really didnt have the patience to sit through any more torture.
This book was that badly edited and the conversation that horribly abrupt.
We have a character called Randy (nice name) who apparently comes to school with grass pieces on his shirt cos you know, thats how you identify a county hick and a boor.
Then we have a hero Ronin (whats with all names starting with R for guys?) who is a weirdo jerk from the scratch - no reason,no rationale, just is so.
Then we have a heroine Giselle who mostly runs.
The biggest problem with this book is the lack of background and conversations.
For e.g. in 2nd chapter where Ronin comes to her home to collect her, Giselle's friend is also present. She brought him home by stealth and they climbed her home window to her bedroom. Why? Why is any normal person climbing someone else's window with a complete stranger without permission?
Its the slightest bit understandable if its commonly known that Giselle's grandma is crazy or if Giselle has a terrible home situation that she can only be met in sly.
But no.
Carmen a girl, decided that the neatest way to bring a strange guy to her friend's home is via her friend's bed room window - cos u know, hot guys cant ever rap e.
This book is filled with such inconsistencies from the start.
I really didnt have the patience to sit through any more torture.
June 27, 2022
The whole story takes place in a single month, although it's supposed to be "year one". I guess next book will be skipping over several months.
I didn't like the main character. The author might have wanted to make her "endearing" by making her a klutz. She was just annoying. Every time she showed a lack of backbone I wanted to slap her. Every time she tripped over her shoelaces I wanted to teach her to tie them up properly and have her wearing laceless shoes in the meantime. Like a kid. And every time she stumbled over her own two feet I wanted to take her to a gym and teach her how to run in a straight line. All the times she could only concentrate on how handsome Ronin was didn't help, either. This girl needs some confidence, backbone, and better concentration. A whole personality swap.
Ronin was not what I expected but also I am not impressed. He ended up being not a total asshole but he still is annoying. And Giselle turns so useless with him around I didn't want to see more of him.
The final was not that great, either. Let's see if the next book gets better.
I didn't like the main character. The author might have wanted to make her "endearing" by making her a klutz. She was just annoying. Every time she showed a lack of backbone I wanted to slap her. Every time she tripped over her shoelaces I wanted to teach her to tie them up properly and have her wearing laceless shoes in the meantime. Like a kid. And every time she stumbled over her own two feet I wanted to take her to a gym and teach her how to run in a straight line. All the times she could only concentrate on how handsome Ronin was didn't help, either. This girl needs some confidence, backbone, and better concentration. A whole personality swap.
Ronin was not what I expected but also I am not impressed. He ended up being not a total asshole but he still is annoying. And Giselle turns so useless with him around I didn't want to see more of him.
The final was not that great, either. Let's see if the next book gets better.
May 31, 2025
This book is extremely inconsistent and poorly edited. At one point a friend of the FMC wakes up and stretches and then 2 paragraphs down he then wakes up again and stretches. Or how about how it says no one can take your chosen weapon from you or hold it and yet Ronin the MMC just carries around the FMC dagger all the time with zero issues. Make it make sense? All the dialogue is poorly done and extremely boring. Not only that but the FMC just constantly whines and complains about everything. And not only does she let people treat her badly she can’t even tell her supposed best friend that Randy tried to assault her. She thinks about it for 2 seconds and decides it’s not a good idea because there’s just no way Randy would do that to Carmen. And I don’t know anyone who meets someone on the first day and decides that they trust them explicitly and then tries to break in somewhere together. This book just annoyed me and just isn’t worth the read. It had a great concept but was executed so badly it was no where near the mark.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 7, 2025
Audiobook: This was my first experience with this author's work, and it was an entertaining story. I admired the worldbuilding regarding the supernatural beings and magic system. I enjoyed the relationship development between Giselle and Ronin. I liked all the twists and turns. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. I thought Louise Cooksey's narration was great as her performance kept my attention. I was given a copy of the audiobook. I volunteered, without financial gain, to post this review which reflected my honest opinions regarding this audiobook.
June 6, 2019
Forced my way to the end
The book isn’t too bad but i guess I’m used to tough Fenale leads and i guess Giselle fell flat for me.. her tripping and klutziness was cute for a minute then i kept hoping she’d man tf up and stop gushing over The male lead which i don’t understand why she was.. he was sorta a big douche though it got better toward the end of course .. not a bad book just hope the heroine gets stronger emotionally and well stops tripping.
The book isn’t too bad but i guess I’m used to tough Fenale leads and i guess Giselle fell flat for me.. her tripping and klutziness was cute for a minute then i kept hoping she’d man tf up and stop gushing over The male lead which i don’t understand why she was.. he was sorta a big douche though it got better toward the end of course .. not a bad book just hope the heroine gets stronger emotionally and well stops tripping.
September 18, 2020
A YA tale dealing with opposing Academies. One for descendants of Gods, and the other for those destined for less than greatness and possibly descendants of the unsavory. This author places the MC as an unknown, a unique descendant with no clear good or bad path with both sides scrambling to grab her. A great beginning that has me wondering her fate! All my reviews are always voluntarily written.
August 23, 2022
I love the idea of gods in the modern world and their descendants at an academy. Giselle is wonderful. She's odd, clumsy, definitely not your typical hero! I adored her. Mikey and Maria are also great characters. I love how they defended and became friends with Giselle. There is so much going on in this book though. Maybe too much. I felt a little overwhelmed with everything that was happening. Giselle gifts are terrifying and amazing! I will probably finish the series at some point.
August 4, 2024
This was an ok read. It went right into the story but didn’t take long to figure out the main points. The fast pacing continued through the rest of the book. Also, some of the moments and lines were a little cheesy. I always enjoy the incorporation of mythology into the modern world and how that was done here was interesting. There wasn’t a lot of character depth yet, but there’s potential within the rest of the series. It’s an enjoyable enough book for younger readers.
June 1, 2019
Intriguing
This book was interesting and intriguing. A view of the Greek gods in modern day. The storyline was enjoyable and entertaining, I did love the training. The characters were fun to read about and interactions between characters was in part funny and part entertaining. Very interested in the book in the series.
This book was interesting and intriguing. A view of the Greek gods in modern day. The storyline was enjoyable and entertaining, I did love the training. The characters were fun to read about and interactions between characters was in part funny and part entertaining. Very interested in the book in the series.
January 2, 2020
Cursed?
Giselle realizes she is some kind of paranormal, but no one seems to know what she is. Or isn't telling? She has to get her powers under control and remain out of the reach of the Lower Order. And what is the deal with Zeus and Prometheus, both wanting her in their school ?? Great action packed read!
Giselle realizes she is some kind of paranormal, but no one seems to know what she is. Or isn't telling? She has to get her powers under control and remain out of the reach of the Lower Order. And what is the deal with Zeus and Prometheus, both wanting her in their school ?? Great action packed read!
July 27, 2022
Not an ordinary academy tale
Okay, so there are Olympian gods and titans and their descendents with witches and werewolves etc...but there is another level...one that everyone wants. With the help of new friends, can the what be discovered before everything becomes chaos?!! Next.....
Okay, so there are Olympian gods and titans and their descendents with witches and werewolves etc...but there is another level...one that everyone wants. With the help of new friends, can the what be discovered before everything becomes chaos?!! Next.....
June 16, 2019
Unique
I like the plot and the uniqueness of the story considering how many books share a similar idea. It definitely is a series I’ll continue reading though hopefully there will be less errors in the rest of the books.
I like the plot and the uniqueness of the story considering how many books share a similar idea. It definitely is a series I’ll continue reading though hopefully there will be less errors in the rest of the books.
July 22, 2019
Enjoyable
This book is a fun read. A few twists and turns, a hot demigod and a question as to what Giselle truly is. I liked the characters and the world that the author build . A unique story.
This book is a fun read. A few twists and turns, a hot demigod and a question as to what Giselle truly is. I liked the characters and the world that the author build . A unique story.
July 28, 2019
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August 18, 2019
Most kids who attend Cursed or Olympian Academy don't know just what they will become. That is definitely true for Giselle. When she attends the Sorting, everyone seems confused by the vision in the Sorting Pool and when she is chosen for Cursed Academy, chaos ensues.
Full of twists and action, this book sucks you in from page one. The suspense is killing me as I anxiously wait for book 2!
Full of twists and action, this book sucks you in from page one. The suspense is killing me as I anxiously wait for book 2!
August 28, 2019
A fast paced read.
Spoiler alert..
I will probably read more in the series, but I had a really hard time getting into a relationship with a guy as a jerk. This to me is the definition of a emotionally abusive relationship. I did love the friendships though.
Spoiler alert..
I will probably read more in the series, but I had a really hard time getting into a relationship with a guy as a jerk. This to me is the definition of a emotionally abusive relationship. I did love the friendships though.
August 27, 2020
Interesting concept. I think it would have been great, but the characters should have been developed more. There is too much focus on how "hot" or how much of a "jerk" a character is rather than why Giselle was sent to the school in the first place and what that means for her future.
June 5, 2025
Awesome Book
I think people know more than they’re saying just to be difficult. Zeus is a jerk that needs to stop cheating on his wife and go to parenting classes. Her principal is shady and so is Wendy and her gang of jerks.
I think people know more than they’re saying just to be difficult. Zeus is a jerk that needs to stop cheating on his wife and go to parenting classes. Her principal is shady and so is Wendy and her gang of jerks.
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