Rate:đź’–đź’– 1/2
Spice: đź’‹( no spice)
“Melody of a Curse” was supposed to be a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but by all accounts, it missed the mark. I went in expecting something like Barbie’s 12 Dancing Princesses but gender-bent and darker—more along the lines of the Grimm Brothers’ version. Instead, the only real connections were dancing, a soldier sent to uncover a mystery, and an invisibility cloak.
For most of the book, I was thoroughly disappointed. The story drags as Jonas and Sophie bicker like children, despite supposedly being adults. Meanwhile, Sophie’s father—who hired Jonas to figure out where Sophie goes at night—acts as if he’s on another continent when he’s actually just up the road, while Sophie lives in some sort of guesthouse… with Jonas.
Our protagonist, Jonas, is an ex-soldier struggling with PTSD and holding down a job. He gets hired by Sophie’s father to investigate her nightly disappearances—because apparently, no one else can figure out where this grown woman and her friends are sneaking off to. Conveniently, Jonas meets Sophie the day before taking the job, outside the DeModie—the John Cena of nightclubs (now you see it, now you don’t). It turns out this is where she spends her nights, because heaven forbid a woman go clubbing with her friends.
From their first meeting, Jonas is immediately infatuated with Sophie. Once they start living together, he’s hyper-focused on looking out for her, while Sophie just wants to party with her so-called Prince, Luca. But after using the Harry Potter-esque invisibility cloak to spy on the club, Jonas starts getting suspicious of Luca.
Turns out, Jonas was right to be suspicious. Sophie is nearly trapped forever by the curse of the DeModie after dancing for a year and a day with Luca. They barely escape, and—just like that—they live happily ever after.
The last 30 minutes of the book were packed with action and genuinely enjoyable. But the rest? Not so much. The romance felt forced by Jonas, the retelling aspect was paper-thin, and the characters often made frustrating choices. If the book had leaned harder into the curse and fantasy elements instead of focusing on a predictable romance, it could have been much stronger.