30 November, 2014

#BookReview :: The Curse Keepers (Curse Keepers #1) by Denise Grover Swank

The wall between our world and that of vengeful spirits has protected humanity for more than 400 years. It’s about to come crashing down.
Ellie Lancaster has lived her whole life by the site of the mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke, the Virginia settlement that vanished without a trace around 1590. Only the descendants of the two men who banished the spirits of an enemy tribe from the material realm know what really happened to the colony. Ellie is one of those descendants—a Curse Keeper. Her father took pains to teach her what he knew of the curse and the responsibilities of its guardians. He taught her that if the two Curse Keepers ever meet, the curse will be lifted, the gate will open, and the raging Native American spirits will be unleashed to seek their revenge.
Despite her father’s seriousness, Ellie has always taken the legend for a harmless fairy tale. Until she meets the darkly handsome, but downright infuriating, Collin Dailey and realizes everything she was told is true. For when they meet, it’s like the air is sucked from the room. Collin’s presence is electrifying… and it’s not just attraction Ellie feels, but the inexorable pull toward her destiny. The prophecy is real, and now Ellie and Collin must battle supernatural forces and their loathing—and passion—for each other to set things right.
The Curse Keepers are all that stand between the world and its destruction.


Ellie Lancaster has always lived by the mysterious site of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. She has never been far from the place as she physically cannot leave the place. Something pulls her to her hometown.  Being one of the Curse keepers, Ellie’s father taught her all about the curse from her childhood. However, Ellie only ever took it as a fairytale and after the loss of her mother, she blocked out everything. The arrival of Collin Dailey ignites something within Ellie and when they touch, the curse is broken. Ellie and Collin have seven days to close back the gates or else hell will rule the earth.

First of all, the characters in the story failed to make an impression on me, except maybe Ellie’s dad. Ellie seemed to be a constant state of denial at the beginning even though everything seemed to be pointing in one direction. Her stubbornness was another aspect of her personality that irked me a lot. Collin on the other hand turned out to be an arrogant jerk. Their characters remained flat and lacked any growth in the story. And their growing relationship, if one can call that so, seemed downright absurd.

The plot on the other had had great potential. I mean the notion of two men banishing a whole village of people from the material world, then its sudden reappearance and two curse breakers in control of the fate of the earth – it is intriguing. Actually it was the idea of it that made me pick up this book by reading the blurb. But the author let us down in the follow through. The seven days’ time that they had to close the gate could have actually shown us a lot of action. But most of it was spent at Ellie’s work, her house, her time with her friend and in whether or not Ellie and Collin would actually work together. Also, information was provided to us at really awkward situations.

I was thoroughly disappointed with this book and had almost abandoned it in 2/3rd of the way. I struggled to finish and it was certainly not my cup of coffee. I will not be picking up the next book in the series.




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