The tale about Belle and the Beast she helped turn human again is as old as time. Still, it has fascinated many and made into different adaptations again and again for movies, TV shows, and as an outline for books. The brilliant Sandhya Menon, of whom I have read everything she has written so far and loved to pieces, has twisted the story a bit and spiced it up with a feud between two royal families. Menon balances the famous tale perfectly between the conservative Indian royalty with an air of magic.
In Of Curses and Kisses, due to a leaked photo of Jaya’s sister Isha, the Rao sisters are forced to leave their home country and enrol at St. Rosetta Academy in Aspen. Far from home, Jaya feels more determined than ever to protect her sister and to fulfil her plan to seek revenge on the boy who is responsible for their misery: Grey Emerson.
Despite the fact that Grey has a handful of friends, he prefers to be a lone wolf. He does not want to be near anyone too long so that no one can feel attached to him or vice versa. One day, the Rao sisters show up on the boarding school”s doorstep and if that was not enough, one of them is mocking him by wearing the cursed ruby in a form of a rose pendant around her neck. Probably to remind him that he soon will die on his 18th birthday to be precise. But is there a chance to break the curse? Could it really be possible? In the end, they need each other to save themselves from their planned future of which they both thought they could never run away from…
Jaya is the first born, a princess, and she has known for all her life that she will end up marrying not for love, but for her country. She feels the pressure and the responsibility of her dynasty on her shoulders and does everything she can do to put her sister Isha back on the path that is suitable for young women of their position. It is just the way it is, why bother to think there could be a way out?
Her character is the stereotypical good and loyal daughter who is raised after an old model of society that once had a higher meaning. Nowadays, most countries accept their royal families, but they do not have anything to say anymore when it comes to leading a country. There is no place for something like that in the modern world we are living in. No wonder Jaya thinks everything is normal and the way it should be, because she never knew that there is a possibility to take another path. One where not everything is planned out by a codex or simply because “it has to be that way”. But, Jaya will soon learn that there is no shame in being at least a bit selfish.
While Jaya is the perfect royal daughter, Isha is quite the opposite. You could call her a rebel, if being a genius mechanic and loving the modern way of life is falling within that category. Isha’s life choices brought the Rao sisters to St. Rosetta Academy as a picture of Isha working at a motorcycle workshop leaked to the public, which made the Indian population furious. This caused the people to say that someone like her is not fit to lead or represent their country properly one day. Well, was Queen Elizabeth II not a mechanic during World War II? And look where she ended up being…
Jaya was told that the ones responsible for the leak are the Emerson’s, a royal British family of which their heir is a student at Jaya’s new school. Of course, she makes up a plan quickly to let him feel as bad as her family feels right now. However, Grey does not know of anything that had happened to the sisters, because he is so deep in minding his own business that he simply would not have the time to think about anything like that. Abandoned by his father, who blames him to be the reason why his mother died, Grey heard that he is cursed because of what his ancestors stole from the Rao’s centuries back. Knowing that, he never thought about living a normal life. All he wants is to be left alone, waiting for the day when it will all be over.
Here comes the big difference between the original tale and Menon’s story. In the tale, the Beast is desperate to be cured, to find the one who will end his suffering. Grey is not interested in this at all. He has accepted his fate and kind of made peace with it. The only thing he is truly suffering from is the fact that his father has never wanted him and that because of knowing about the curse, he has always stopped himself to make friends or go out on a date with a beautiful girl.
In Of Curses and Kisses, the girl does not become a princess and turn the Beast back into a human. Menon rather shows you what can be accomplished when you stop believing what others tell you and what can happen if you choose your own path and decide for yourself what makes you happy. I for one cannot wait to see what St. Rosetta Academy has in store in the second volume.
Of Curses and Kisses is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of February 18th 2020.
Will you be picking up Of Curses and Kisses? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
From the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi comes the first novel in a brand-new series set at an elite international boarding school, that’s a contemporary spin on Beauty and the Beast.
Will the princess save the beast?
For Princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart. But much to Jaya’s annoyance, Grey’s brooding demeanor and lupine blue eyes have drawn her in. There’s simply no way she and her sworn enemy could find their fairy-tale ending…right?
His Lordship Grey Emerson is a misanthrope. Thanks to an ancient curse by a Rao matriarch, Grey knows he’s doomed once he turns eighteen. Sequestered away in the mountains at St. Rosetta’s International Academy, he’s lived an isolated existence—until Jaya Rao bursts into his life, but he can’t shake the feeling that she’s hiding something. Something that might just have to do with the rose-shaped ruby pendant around her neck…
As the stars conspire to keep them apart, Jaya and Grey grapple with questions of love, loyalty, and whether it’s possible to write your own happy ending.
