Release Day Review: Raisonne Curse by Rinda Elliot

Raisonne Curse
(The Brothers Berneaux #1)
Rinda Elliott
Release: July 14, 2015
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For the past five years, Elita Raisonne has been on the run from a curse that started with her grandmother, and gradually reached out evil tendrils to kill her mother and her aunts. Now, healing from another nasty accident, Elita can feel the curse coming for her like icy breath on the back of her neck.

Her only hope: trek deep into Louisiana’s Atchafayala Basin and ask the mysterious Bernaux brothers for help.

Pryor Bernaux takes one look at the black smudge clinging to Elita like a shroud, and recognizes the work of a powerful hex worker. Together, all three Bernaux brothers could easily break it—if Mercer and Wyatt weren’t away.

As the curse sinks deeper into Elita’s soul, Pryor realizes time is running out for the beautiful redhead who makes him want things he and his brothers swore they’d never have. He has no choice but to help her. But the magical backlash is torture. And without his brothers’ help, it could even be deadly.

Review:
Rinda Elliott pops up in my recommendations on Goodreads pretty often, but I'd never read her before. I figured the beginning of a new series was a good time to start and I was certainly not disappointed. Raisonne Curse was a quick read, but I really enjoyed it.

I loved the attention to detail in Elliott's bayou. I could really see and smell it all along with Elita. You expect to encounter some colorful characters there and they delivered as well. I loved Elita's grandmother who refuses to act her age, and often to wear clothes, her boyfriend Tooter and the LaBarres (OMG the LaBarres are awesome!) They're all interesting and eccentric without being over the top and cartoon-y.

When I try to describe Elita she sounds like a red-headed version of Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog for any of you who don't know your Disney princesses) wanting to open her own restaurant for her authentic Louisiana cooking, but I loved her passion for food. It really added to the authentic bayou atmosphere for me. The family curse essentially causes her to be accident prone in the most extreme and painful way possible, but she doesn't let it turn her into a damsel in distress.

I thought the way the curse was personified, as a shadowy and sometimes sentient figure following Elita, was both effective and different from anything I've read before. I did want to know more about the different types of curses and their casters, as well as the magic that the brothers perform to break them. I got the sense that it may be explored more in the next book, though, so I'll reserve judgment a little. What I did learn about the Berneaux's magic is both totally original and really frightening.

I'm often just as wary of insta-passion as insta-love, but the magical circumstances seemed to make the relationship between Elita and Pryor work for me. His brothers don't show up until close to the end, but I really liked the dynamics with the three of them and Elita as well. I can already get a sense of how the series will shape up and I can't wait to read the rest of it.

Recommended for fans of: Southern Gothic Romance

ARC provided by the publisher

    

4  stars