Curse of the Divine by Kim Smejkal is a highly anticipated sequel. In a world of tattoo magic, Celia Sand must destroy the Curse of the Divine.
Celia Sand faced Diavala, and she won, destroying the Profeta who ruled the world. However, when she won, she lost her best friend and her ability to trust. As Diavala is not, in fact, destroyed and currently residing in her friend Griffin, things are not going as planned. Celia and Griffin are heading to Wisteria to seek out Halcyon Ronnea- the only person who survived Diavala.
This book further explains the curse of Diavala and why she has to inhabit body after body to continue to exist. It also pushed the boundaries of ink magic and our expectations of its abilities. Celia Sand realizes what things are worth fighting for and what things are worth dying for.
“I admit I quite like you. There’s just as much hate inside you as love, like a perfectly balanced scale. The trouble with such a balance, though, is that any little thing has the ability to tip it in the wrong way.”
I liked this book. I loved the magic in it and the way the tattoo magic evolved. I found Griffin much more entertaining in this book than in the last book. I also found Diavala more satisfying to read about than in the first book. However, Celia Sand is still the same impulsive Celia Sand. There only seemed to be a little bit of character growth for our Celia, and it didn’t come till around the end. This was a bit frustrating, as you would think that she would have changed more with Anya’s death.
“You only just started to look at me, Celia Sand, before you started to look away.”
The relationship between Griffin and Celia was charming to read. I liked the experience in the second half a lot. In the beginning, it felt as though the romance wasn’t needed at all, but as things progressed, I could see how it would play an essential role in this book. The new characters we got to interact with were fascinating, but only one of them got the most focus. Lyric shows themselves incredibly important in the book, and even Lyric didn’t get much backstory or information. This is on par with the first book, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed that.
“They were dealing with the overlord of the afterlife, the devil himself.”
However, the ending of this story was not satisfying. When I finished the book, I felt like I needed more. The end of the first book left me feeling that way as well, and I find that frustrating. As the story began to wrap up, it felt like I read 75% of the book to pass the time and only the last bit of the book really concluded things. The only reason this is salvageable is because the characters and world is so fascinating to me. This is why I have given this book 3.5 stars instead of a full star review. I was left wanting more, and knowing I wouldn’t get it.
“I hate how much I want to kiss you, and how much I want to fly away. I hate how well you know me, because that means you know how to hurt me…”
“I hate that I still want to trust you even though you’ve proved I can’t trust you. I hate that I understand your ghosts, I hate that you understand mine. You’ve always been both my begging and my end.”
Thank you to Edelweiss for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.