Every Tuesday, my boyfriend and I have date night. We chose a restaurant based on how we are feeling that evening, but mostly we go to this roadhouse near where we live. We have tried almost everything on the menu and their food is really great. However most of the time we just get our usual, which is a vanilla milkshake and margarita pizza, for me. Now to most people this seems like a very boring meal, it is the simplest pizza and simplest milkshake, but I love them. I have tried the other milkshake flavours and pizza toppings, but there is something comforting to me about my milkshake and pizza. I have anxiety and sometimes I will be brave and try something different, yet I always come back to them. Sometimes the simplest things done well bring an enormous amount of joy and comfort and that is exactly what K.W. Foster has done in ‘A Curse of Breath and Blood’. The tropes and themes are simple, but she does them so well that they bring me joy and comfort.
Following Aelia through this world while she battles her demons, both internal and external, was everything I love about a good book. A flawed main character who grows through the story. Aelia is relatable. I mean we don’t all have mind reading powers, drug addiction and a murderous husband, but we all have things in our past that have traumatised us, that we regret and wish we could change. She has a good heart and is sometimes weak and it makes you love her. This fantasy world is so immersive, some fantasy authors try and throw too much lore at you and it becomes so confusing. This world is the right mixed of things we know and new things. You don’t become confused by the overload of new creatures and political dynamic. You feel like this is familiar, while still learning all these new things about this world.
Now let’s talk about this love triangle. Usually a love triangle leaves a sore taste in my mouth because both seem perfect for our main character and you just feel like there is no right answer. Not here, not in this book. While both love interests are decent and love our FMC they represent two very different paths clinging to the past and who you used to be or acceptance of yourself and the future to come. I loved both of these love interests although I did have a personal favourite in Tharan.
The last thing that made this book great for me was the action. The story moves along at a steady pace and doesn’t linger too long at any given point. There is adventure, twists, and plenty of action where every character is involved with their own special skill set. You don’t have one character dominating like some invincible superhero, the whole gang brings something to the table.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I know it is not some high brow master piece and I am sure others more qualified than I will point out things that could be improved, but this book was the vanilla milkshake and margarita pizza I adore. It was comforting and I’m on board to read every single book in this series no matter how many K.W. Foster decides to write.
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