Review--The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan

After a bizarre accident, Ingrid Waverly is forced to leave London with her mother and younger sister, Gabby, trading a world full of fancy dresses and society events for the unfamiliar city of Paris.

In Paris there are no grand balls or glittering parties for Ingrid, and, disturbingly, the house her twin brother, Grayson, was sent ahead to secure for the family isn’t a house at all. It’s an abandoned abbey, its roof lined with stone gargoyles that could almost be mistaken for living, breathing creatures.

And Grayson is missing.

Yet no one seems worried about his whereabouts save for Luc, a devastatingly handsome servant at their new home.

Ingrid is sure her twin isn’t dead—she can feel it deep in her soul—but she knows he’s in grave danger, and that it's up to her and Gabby to find him before all hope is lost.

The path to Grayson will be twisted, leading Ingrid to discover dark secrets and otherworldly truths that,  once uncovered, can never again be buried.

The Beautiful and the Cursed is Page Morgan's debut into the book world and I gotta say, she picked a great subject; gargoyles!! I love gargoyles! Probably dates back to my obsession with the cartoon show from the 90s! Talk about awesome!

The Beautiful and the Cursed is very much a mystery. Where is Grayson? What's happened to him? The book is told in third person from multiple points of view; Ingrid, Gabby, Luc and Grayson himself. Although when we get to Grayson's mind and what's going on with him, we still don't get a clear idea of what's happening to him. He's being held prisoner somewhere dark and creepy and is being tortured.

Then there's Luc, our beloved gargoyle who is supposed to protect the abbey where Ingrid lives and all who live there and that includes her and her family and even the servants. He is sworn to keep them safe, because the streets of Paris are not at all safe. Young girls are being killed, torn to shreds. Hellhounds roam the streets attacking these girls. Luc does his best to keep Ingrid and Gabby safe, but never before has he dealt with more stubborn humans. Gabby and Ingrid are intent on rescuing their brother despite not knowing where he is.

The sisters meet a group of teens who are apart of a larger group known as the Alliance--ironically, all the adults were called away to Rome so the teens are left in charge. The Alliance basically works to protect the city from the hellhounds and demons that have been wreaking havoc lately. They are sort of partners with the gargoyles also known as the Dispossessed. There are a few varieties of gargoyles too, basically categorized as to what their gargoyle form is for they also take the form of human for the most part.

With so many characters, it's hard not to be overwhelmed with the story, but I found it fascinating! I must admit that at times I really do love these multiple points of view. I found myself so immersed with each character's voice and what was going on with them, their feelings and all that jazz!

I found myself more attuned to Gabby, the younger sister's story moreso than Ingrid. Ingrid is our heroine of course, she naturally falls in love with Luc, but gargoyle-human relationships are forbidden. Then love triangle appearance of Vander, a member of the Alliance is also a contender for Ingrid's heart. But back to Gabby, she was one feisty character. Not yet sixteen, but ready to take on whatever she had to to find her brother. She was daring and bold, but yet...at times I felt like she was shunned. As we learn there's something special about Ingrid and her twin brother, Grayson, but poor Gabby is just plain human, normal. And the Alliance members aren't very considerate of her feelings.

Which brings me to Nolan, the pseudo leader of the teen Alliance members. His father is in charge generally, but with him away, Nolan takes charge of the remaining teens. Gotta say though, I love his Scottish brogue! Nolan gets under Gabby's skin. They don't have the insta love thing going on, which is probably why I enjoyed them so much. Gabby has snark and doesn't always follow Nolan's rules...besides, he's told her more than once she will not be allowed to fight with the rest of them. And so naturally, Gabby does everything she can to defy him.

Gabby does have a hard go with this book. One bad thing after another seemed to happen to her, but I gotta admit to gushing towards the end for her! Go Gabby!

Ingrid was still a great heroine though. I did enjoy her role. I wasn't annoyed by her, I just felt for Gabby a bit more. Ingrid isn't without her own problems though, for Luc has the whole "I love you but I can't be with you" crap going on. And there is logical reasoning behind it, but then he wants to get all he-man jealous when Ingrid is friendly with Vander. And that kind of behavior always drives me crazy! I want to throttle the jealous jerky guy who says there can't be anything between him and the heroine. *Note it also didn't help that I watched an episode of Roswell from season 1 today, where Max was doing the exact same thing to Liz!

But overall, I really, really enjoyed this book! Gargoyles are finally making their way into books and it excites me! I would've written one myself, but a gargoyle hasn't yet to come to me and tell me his/her story...yet...maybe, who knows?! The pacing to this one was fantastic! Never a dull moment and the transitions of narrators was done nicely. You could always tell when there was a new narrator, but sometimes it took a few lines to tell who it was exactly. So very happy that I managed to snag an ARC of the next book which will definitely be making it into my reading queue next week!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars