Bunny's Reviews: The Brother's Curse Review Spotlight

Welcome to the book tour for The Brother's Curse by Christine M. Germain. Read on for more details and a chance to win a fantastic giveaway!

The Brother’s Curse is the first book in Christine M. German’s The Brother’s Curse saga. You’re about to meet a cast of characters that will have you page-turning. You’re going to be eagerly devouring this book to see who survives this sordid tale, and who falls victim to the dangers that lie within.

For readers who enjoy paranormal novels with some romance woven in, this is the book to check out. Especially if you’re like me and love a good dose of horror mixed in. You’ll find that there are a lot of authors out there who promise you horror, but then fail to deliver. Not this Christine M. German. She promises you horror and absolutely delivers.

Prepare to meet Crystal Francois. She left home after high school, but now she’s coming back. If she knew what was waiting for her, she would never have returned. However, this is the path that Fate has set for her. Brutal killings have been happening all over town. Young men are disappearing only to turn up dead – in the worst ways imaginable. The police are baffled, and things only get worse when the killings strike closer to them. Lakeview Falls has a dark and bloody past, but things are only going to get more intense and dark.

The Brother’s Curse is a page-turner of a novel. I enjoyed the variety of characters that the author creates. It’s nice to have strong African American females as the main characters in this book. I appreciate the diversity of the cast in this book. You’re going to get a lot of emotional play from these characters, so be prepared. Crystal narrates the story here and there in this novel, but those moments are brief. I personally would have liked a little more of that element.

One of my favorite things about this book is the amount of diversity the author weaves into this book. You get strong black female characters, you get Hispanic/Mexican characters, and you get white characters. It's a nice variety to really give you a nice balance throughout the story. It's a nice balance that brings a lot of diversity to this story to take the engagement level up a notch.

You’re going to appreciate how the author works hard to make the characters as realistic as possible. They showcase an array of emotions, but there are moments when things seem a bit erratic. One minute someone is sobbing on a friend’s shoulder, the next they are accusing them of something heinous. These moments of whiplash throw you off the rails a bit because it’s unexpected. You’ll literally be rereading parts of the story to try and figure out if you missed something somewhere. Trust me, you didn’t. Don’t worry though, those situations are few and far between.

This book definitely has its twists woven into it. You get the obvious “devil” in this book. However, you’ll start to think “aren’t there supposed to be two?” Yes, there are supposed to be. Now begins the fun – who is the second? As I read this book, I kept wondering this very thing. As the pieces start to come together, they fall into place. Trust me, you’re going to come to the same conclusion yourself – one particular scene will cement the truth for you.

There are a ton of paranormal aspects in this book. The backstory the author places throughout the story really takes it to another level. It’s so good! You’re going to get stories of paranormal happenings that have tainted Lakeview Falls for years. It’s creepy and just downright delicious. I loved it! You will too, because the author doesn’t just give you little “headlines” of what happened. No, you get the legends told and images of the horrors experienced painted out for you in detail. Now, there are some questions that still arise. I mean, who doesn’t want more of the gory details?? LOL! I know I do. But what we do get...it’s pretty awesome in my book.

One particular negative element for me concerning this book though is the dialogue. It just doesn’t flow naturally. The conversations tend to feel forced. They took me out of the story at times. I also feel that some of the adjectives are just a bit overdone. The author’s intent was to really punch up the story, but it ends up taking away. Some of the descriptive terms could have been swapped for simpler versions and the story would have been just that much better. Especially surrounding some of the conversations when it ends up feeling like the characters are being overly dramatic in simple situations.

Brace yourself for the ending of this book. It is going to leave you shocked and with your jaw on the floor. Trust me, you’re going to be eager for book two and to find out what happens next with these characters. I absolutely loved the twisted element of this book’s ending. You’re honestly not going to see it coming. I have to find out what happens next.

Deciding on a rating for this book is really complicated because while it has a lot of pros, the cons, for me, are pretty heavy, too. I enjoyed this book a lot though, and it wasn’t long before this book became a serious page-turner for me. For that reason, I’m choosing to rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. Not only will this book engage you but the author makes sure that you will never look at the cover the same again once you finish. LOL!

Thank you to the author, Christine M. German, and R&R Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Brother’s Curse (The Brother’s Curse Saga #1)

Publication Date: May 2021

Genre: Dark Fantasy/ Paranormal Romance/ Horror/ Shifters

A year after the brutal death of her parents, Crystal Francois moves back home to the eerie small town of Lakeview Falls. When one of her neighbors goes away abruptly leaving his home to be watched by a young man named Jason Warwick, Crystal finds herself falling for him instantly because of his charming ways and dashing good looks.

Two weeks before her 25th birthday, she receives a rare antique purple amethyst stone necklace that is left for her by her late mother; A necklace with a deadly past and horrible consequences when being worn. She finds out that wearing the necklace causes her and her friends to be the target for two sadistic tyrannical evil 18th-century old Shapeshifter brothers who will not stop till they find her and retrieve the chariot stone necklace that holds their father and 24 demonic Shapeshifters captive.

When young men from town go missing, and bodies showing up eaten or skinned alive. Lakeview Falls is on high alert. It doesn’t take long for Crystal to discover that the new guy in town isn’t who he claims to be or if he is even human.

Available on Amazon

Click the link below to enter for a chance to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card & Paperback Copy of The Stone: The Curse of Mastema (The Brother’s Curse #2)

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About the Author

Christine M. Germain is an Award-Winning American author of Horror Thriller & Paranormal Romance fiction. Born March 8, 1981, in Brooklyn, New York, she found her passion for writing in 1993 and wrote her first horror story at twelve. Watching horror movies and reading young adult horror fiction novels influenced her love for writing a story with a protagonist that looked like her. African American women weren’t portrayed as solid leads in horror films or books. Instead of waiting to see if that would happen, she created a story that she would love to read and watch on the big screen that catered to more diverse characters.

Admiring authors such as Stephen King and R.L. Stein, Christine pursued her writing journey majoring in literature, and graduated with a performing arts degree. Known for an imagination unlike any other, Christine is ready to take you to a thrilling shapeshifter world with Five book series, “The Brother’s Curse Saga.”

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