I am so excited to share an AMAZING new release with you today! Of Curses and Kisses is the first in a new collection by Sandhya Menon (of When Dimple Met Rishi fame). If you love swoon-worthy stories and fairytale re-tellings, then this is for you!

Keep reading for details, purchase links, AND my full review!

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Of Curses and Kisses
by Sandhya Menon
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: 18th February 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary

Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon is a contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast set at an elite boarding school in the mountains–think Beauty and the Beast meets Gossip Girl! It’s out February 18th, 2020 and even has a *map* in the hardcover.

Featuring an Indian princess and a misanthropic British aristocrat, it’s immersive, glamorous, and full of smouldering kisses! I hope you guys will order it wherever you get your books! Read on for the official description from the back of the book…

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 demeanour 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. Sparkling and elegant, Jaya’s, unlike anyone Grey, has ever met. Still, 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.

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Sandhya Menon is easily one of my top contemporary authors, and the only YA contemporary author who is on my auto-buy list! When I heard she was releasing a new series, I was THRILLED, and found myself in the extremely fortunate position of being able to read an ARC! Let me tell you, this book is everything I expected and more!

I am a sucker for fairytale retellings, and OCAK does a beautiful job bringing in Beauty and the Beast elements to a modern setting! Jaya and Grey are absolutely adorable and I found myself reading furiously because I just needed to know what was going to happen next! Grey, especially, is just a total cinnamon roll and my heart broke a little for him every time we learned more of his story. I love me some angst, and this delivered!

I also loved the world Menon created with St. Rosetta’s, from the beautiful setting to the awesome cast of side characters. There are more books planned for this collection, and I cannot wait to see which character(s) get the fairytale treatment next!

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Sandhya Menon is the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi, Of Curses and Kisses, and many other novels that also feature lots of kissing, girl power, and swoony boys. Her books have been included in several cool places, including the Today show, Teen Vogue, NPR, BuzzFeed, and Seventeen. A full-time dog servant and part-time writer, she makes her home in the foggy mountains of Colorado.

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