The Cursebreaker Series is a trilogy of Fantasy Young Adult novels by Brigid Kemmerer, published in the early 2020s.
The trilogy consists of:
- A Curse So Dark And Lonely
- A Heart So Fierce And Broken
- A Vow So Bold And Deadly
18 year-old Harper from Washington, D.C., who suffers from cerebral palsy, doesn't have an easy life. To pay for the treatment of their sick mother, she helps her older brother Jake collect money and shake down people for a local gangster boss at night. One of those nights, an odd-looking young man shows up in the street in front of her and kidnaps her to his homeland of Emberfall, which happens to be a magical country in Another Dimension. The young man's name is Grey, and Harper is needed in Emberfall to help break a curse that has befallen the man Grey is sworn to, Prince Rhen. Rhen has been enchanted by an Evil Sorceress, Lilith, to repeat the autumn of his 18th year over and over again, turning into an unstoppable beast at the end of each "season" that tears apart friends and foes alike. Along with him, his castle of Ironrose has been enchanted while the lands around it go on in normal time. In the dozens of times that the cursed season at the castle has already repeated itself with no end to the curse in sight, the beast has decimated much of Rhen's own kingdom. So on what condition will the curse break? You guessed it. Rhen must make a girl fall in love with him over the course of those three months. He and Grey have already tried many, many times, with many, many girls, and there is nothing to indicate that this time with Harper will be any different ...
In Book One, Harper and Rhen tell us the story from their own point of view. Book Two adds Grey's viewpoint and that of a new character, Princess Lia Mara of Syhl Shallow, a country out to start a war with Emberfall.
The Cursebreaker Series provides examples of:
- The Big Guy: Jake is "built like a linebacker" and doesn't shy away from any fight either in DC or in Emberfall.
- Bright Castle: Ironrose is large, luxurious and beautiful.
- Character Focus: In Book Two, Grey is the focus of the narration, while Harper and especially Rhen are Out of Focus.
- Emergency Impersonation: Harper is forced to assume the role of "Princess Harper of Disi". Later, her brother also gets roped into it as "Prince Jakob".
- Everyman: The reason Harper is chosen by Grey? She's a girl and she's alone so he can easily kidnap her. That's it. She doesn't have any superpowers (and doesn't gain any in Emberfall either). She isn't skilled or overly brave. Or smarter than the average 18 year-old. As it turns out, what she does have is heart. And hope.
- Fights Like a Normal: Grey, because until the end of Book One he doesn't know he has magic.
- Friendless Background: Implied for Harper, due to being poor, disabled, and shy.
- Genius Bruiser: Grey is the best fighter among the main characters and smart enough to trick Lilith herself.
- Nice Guy: Harper is genuinely nice to everyone she meets, be it princes or simple village folk.
- Outside-Context Problem: As is true for most versions of the Tale As Old As Time. Harper is a nobody trying to make ends meet in today's United States — and then she's swepped away to Another Dimension to break a curse, fall in love with a prince, and save a magical country (not necessarily in that order).
- Parental Abandonment: Harper and Jake's father abandoned the family, leaving a mountain of debt with a bunch of gangsters who now come after his children.
- Rebellious Princess: Lia Mara, who is a White Sheep within her royal family.
- Sibling Team:
- Harper and Jake, for most of their lives, only had each other. In their backstory, Jake had to work for a gangster and Harper supported him in that.
- Later on, it turns out that Rhen and Grey are, in fact, half-siblings, which technically makes them this as well. Not that they knew.
- There Are No Therapists: Rhen could really use a therapist, but Emberfall doesn't even provide them to princes.
- Warrior Princess: Lia Mara's younger sister, Nolla Verin. This is a requirement for the heir to the crown in Syhl Shallow. Note she's the younger sister, and still it was her who was chosen as heir.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Rhen and Grey behave older than the 18 and 19 years old they respectively are. Some of it is because they are crown prince and guardsman in a world where people generally have to grow up much faster than on 21st century Earth, but most of it comes from being trapped in a terrible curse for many, many years, a curse that regularly includes Humiliation Conga, Body Horror, and Cold-Blooded Torture.
