Denise Grover Swank

For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She’s had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone’s toilet’s overflowed, but she’s never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn't enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.

Rose realizes she’s wasted twenty-four show more years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She’s well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won’t help with number fifteen-- do more with a man. Joe’s new to town, but it doesn’t take a vision for Rose to realize he’s got plenty secrets of his own.

Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they’ll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn’t her biggest worry after all.

Also have as a Kindle eBook. show less

This is a brilliant romantic comedy - not continuously funny but a mix of romance drama and romance comedy - that follows a fun storyline. At times it felt too wacky but overall I was in awe of the author's finesse with humorous touches. Sure, parts annoyed me but for a few magic moments where I burst out laughing it gets this high score from me.

Megan and Josh anchor the story, as they engage in the subterfuge that they will wed. Often I'm happy to have a romance dominated by the leads, but show more without the characters that surround them - Megan's parents and grandmother, Megan's two best friends, the brothers and so on - it's hard to believe it would have sparkled as brightly as it does. show less

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!! I have to say that it is quite rare for me to read something and not expect who had really done it in the end, so this was sort of a pleasant surprise for me. And while the final reveal did not really make me gasp in surprise, the rest of the book more than made up for it.

Okay, so I must explain. When I read a book, if at some point I do not laugh out loud or groan loudly in frustration or just feel a pit in my stomach because of an evil character it must not show more be a good book. Or at least it should be categorized as a tame one. But this book was certainly not tame to me. I think I pretty well gave myself a headache by groaning so much. Haha. I was suspecting almost everyone and thinking through all the possible endings and just trying so hard to figure it out. I loved every moment of it. I mean there is just this adrenaline rush that comes with reacting so strongly to a book. Well at least for me there is. But on top of my frustration was laughter. I loved that the main character was finally being able to have the courage to live her life. She was experiencing some things that most of us take advantage in being able to do, but she was also doing some things that some of us only dream of doing. And it's not like she really had anything to lose, being the main suspect in a murder and all with no hope of being proven innocent. And even if there was hope, it was a small hope that seemed to have no merit.

All the other books in this series are now on my Wish List, and I am going to read them whether time allows or not, because they are definitely worth it. I cannot wait to see what other situations the author can put her characters in. show less

A) Roanoke Island, my guilty historical love. So that had me hooked.
B) Curses! Always fun!
C) Ancient angry gods! Even more fun.

So in cpnclusion, fun was had.



I stand by the above--I had a lot of fun reading THE CURSE KEEPERS and seeing a different spin on one of history's great mysteries. I thought it was clever of Swank to weave real life happenings and coincidences into the plot to add a layer of 'hey it could be!' (though as her author's note at the end suggests, she believes a wholly show more more realistic idea of what happened to those colonists).

I had a bit more problem with Ellie and Collin however. I liked Ellie--I liked that she didn't accept Collin on face value, listened to her friends' advice (even if it irritated her) and wanted to do right by her father (even as she didn't believe him).

I didn't trust Collin at all. And that distrust just kept building the further the book went along. Especially after he has smexy times with Ellie. He would say things, red flag things like 'I want you to remember this' and 'no matter what else happens know I loved you' and Ellie would think 'huh, well that's a bit weird...' without following up.

To be fair he did tell her he couldn't be trusted. He was very open about his thieving ways, his womanizing, his callous disregard for how his actions hurt others. His duplicity lay in that he kept urging Ellie to give more and more of herself for her destiny without telling her everything she needed to know. Her (justifiable) reluctance to be part of the Curse Keepers world was brushed aside because there were bigger things to consider.

That rubbed me the wrong way. Even after he apologized I wanted to shank him (which is odd for me to want to do to an attractive rogue--I love them). Every time he told Ellie he wanted to put her above everything else I wanted to kick him. Every time he told Ellie she would be protected I wanted to punch him.

And in the end when everything is laid out on the table (or almost everything, his motivations still remain mostly murky) I felt nothing but crushing dread for Ellie. She didn't deserve any of the crap. She wanted to live in her town, take care of her father, work hard and make others smile.

As this is part of a series the ending is not really an ending, but a bridge to the next book. There's resolution to only a handful of the plotlines and opens up a can of worms that promise to make Ellie's life harder.

So I say this to the author--Bring it on. I'll just have to think of new ways to make Collin suffer if he didn't learn his lesson yet. show less