Review: The Curse Keepers, Denise Grover Swank

The Curse Keepers by Denise Grover Swank
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Actual rating 3.5 stars.

My request to view this title was approved by Netgalley.

Curse Keepers is a fantastic paranormal romance based on Native American mythology. Ellie Lancaster has been told by her father she is a Curse Keeper but Ellie flat out refuses to believe him. Until the day Collin Daily walks into the restaurant she works at and everything changes.

I must admit when I read the first chapter and the hot guy walked in, the connection felt by Ellie, I was thinking oh no, here we go, insta love. But it wasn't insta-love at all. Their meeting sparks an ancient curse, opening the gates of hell and the mythology tells that the two Curse Keepers now have seven days to close the Gates of Hell before chaos erupts and gods and spirits are set loose on the earth.

The story was compelling, I loved the setting, and the Native American mythology. Ellie was a pretty kick ass heroine. There was some wonderful writing and description as the plot progressed. Ellie had a hard time still believing the whole thing was real before reluctantly accepting her duty. When she finally did - it was awesome.

My main issue with the book as to why it was a three star not five star was Ellie's push and pull relationship with Collin. I hated his character. He was an asshole right from the start. Pretty pissed off that he had been training for this Curse Keeper thing his whole life and Ellie hadn't (reasons for Ellie's lack of training and belief were explained in the novel). and he talked down to her a lot. He was beyond arrogant, with a very iffy background. He and Ellie bickered like children a lot and that really got annoying.

While as much as I disliked Collin, as the novel progressed, he and Ellie became more and more attracted to each other and the romance was pretty damn sizzling. Until a twist at the end changed everything.

Even though I hated the male lead, I still did thoroughly enjoy the novel and it did have a kick ass ending so I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel.

So thank you Netgalley for approving my view request and to 47 North as well who gave me my first Netgalley auto-approval.