No matter how many I read, I’m always a sucker for a good love story. And when I saw the cover for Our Cursed Love by Julie Abe, I was instantly drawn in: the colours, the imagery and the tagline… sold. Throw in a couple of YA characters and some magic realism, and I was ready to be transported into an alternate Japan where magic thrives and a couple of teenagers risk it all to be together. Oh, and I did I mention it happens over Christmastime? No pressure.

Six days to remember.
Love or lose him forever.

Remy Kobata has always wished she was destined to be with her best friend, Cam Yasuda. All the way from being neighbours from birth to mixing up magical prank potions together to their “just friends” homecoming date during their senior year in high school, nothing’s a secret between Remy and Cam―except for how much she is in love with him.

Remy is trying to work up the courage to confess her feelings during their winter break trip to Japan, when she gets selected for a mystical tea leaves reading, and it reveals that they’re not meant to be together. After they stumble upon a secret magical apothecary in the back alleys of Tokyo, Remy and Cam are offered an ancient soulmate elixir, created before all love potions were banned by the magical government. They each have their reasons for wanting to take it, but what could go wrong with finding your soulmate a little earlier?

Except, after they drink up, their senior year trip flips into the worst vacation. Cam has forgotten who Remy is. If she can’t help Cam remember her by midnight on New Year’s Eve, they’ll both be cursed to forget each other. To unravel their past and rewrite the future, Remy and Cam must travel through Tokyo to rediscover Cam’s memories and make new ones―and maybe even fall in love all over again.

Continuing the trend of me reading YA and not loving it…I’m getting a little nervous. Though the story is cute, and I liked aspects of the book (like the magic school, especially), many things just didn’t work for me. However, I will say that the cover image is absolutely breathtaking. I don’t want to go too far into spoiler territory, but if you don’t want to be spoiled at all, I wouldn’t read this review.

What didn’t work for me

The obvious plot: In every interaction between Remy and Cam, it is painfully obvious that they’re in love with each other. And because it’s a dual point of view (so we hear from both of them), it makes it even more obvious…so much so that I just kept rolling my eyes at the whole thing. They’re young; I get that, but there is no world in which they wouldn’t have told each other how they felt, so the book felt pointless. I think we would have benefitted from Remy’s point of view only. It would have left more plot details up in the air.

The writing: I very rarely comment on the writing, but there were many times through my read that I wondered whether this was actually translated from Japanese because the wording was awkward and stilted. (I did check; it was not.) The dialogue especially was clunky.

The ending: I was so disappointed by how it ended. There were basically two ways it could have gone and the way that *wasn’t* chosen would have made for a great story (or twist) that could have still made everything make sense. #TeamTaka

What I liked

Tokyo Magic School: I loved the magic part of this book (minus the silly love potion). I wanted there to be so much more of this world explored, but what we did get is what kept me going, for sure.

2.5 STARS

“You don’t have to have yourself figured out to be perfect for someone, so long as that person is ready to figure things out with you.” —Julie Abe, Our Cursed Love

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for an advanced book copy in exchange for my honest review.