A Cursed Son by Day Leitao
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Audience: New Adult — Genre: Epic Romtasy
Length: Audio: 14:48:00 | Print: 485 pages — Dates Read: 9.11.25 – 09.13.25
Spice Level: ★ ★ — Plot: ★ ★ ★



🕊️ ➞ Top 5 Tropes:

Touch Her, You Die — Man of Her Dreams — Political Intrigue
Morally Grey MMC — Found Family



🕊️ ➞ Synopsis:

In her dreams, he envelops her in love. In real life, he imprisons her in ice.

Assassin, liar, impersonator—dreamer.

As a royal decoy, trained to replace the Krastel princess even in a political marriage, Astra’s life is not her own. With a duty like that, how can she dream about love?

And yet she knows she has a kindred soul. She can feel his presence every night, holding her in his arms, surrounding her with his warmth.

But ice-cold reality crashes in when Astra’s carriage is attacked by the Crystal Court’s disgraced prince. Banished for heinous crimes and armed with powerful stolen relics, he’s a wielder of mighty magic and can even infiltrate minds.

It turns out that he is the man in her dreams.

And he’s about to turn her life into a nightmare.

Willing to protect his secrets at all costs, he traps Astra in a hate-filled marriage, and she finds herself entangled with a prince whose icy magic is matched only by the chill in his heart.

Except in her dreams. He hasn’t left them, and they’re only getting hotter and hotter.

And yes, things are getting very, very awkward.

But if Astra can find out his weaknesses and discover where he hides his stolen relics, it will all be worth it.

The issue is snatching any secret from that prickly, grumpy prince.

And then the issue might be betraying the man who loves her in her dreams.

A Cursed Son is a fun, sexy, enemies-to-lovers romantic fantasy for fans of fae, elemental magic, arranged marriage, forced proximity, mind connection, and snarky banter.



🕊️ ➞ My Thoughts:

***Possible Spoilers below

Day Leitao’s The Cursed Son was a romantasy that focused heavily on the romance part; this wasn’t an issue — the issue was how forced the banter and “tension” were at times. There was also a lot of confusion with the plot and lore, although I chalked that up to the novel being in first-person perspective, so we learn as the FMC does. That being said, that shit was vague. And MMC’s reason for leaving his first love was to spare? Spare her from what?!



Oh, and I don’t remember seeing anything about this “curse,” so who tf is The Cursed Son??!!!



Anyways, the romance was okay. I enjoyed the idea of the dreams, and there was so much potential, but it fell flat. I kept wondering if the dreams were visions of the past or premonitions of the future. It was also weird that he had no idea that it was kindred magic. He was raised as a fae, don’t they know about mates and stuff? I also wish it had taken some time for her to discover his reasoning for his behavior in the end. BUT, this is a different take, so I’m curious as to how it’ll play out.

Anyways, I plan to read the next one because, as I said, this is a first-person perspective, so there’s a chance we’ll learn more as the story progresses. Stay tuned for that review!

Have you read The Cursed Son? If so, what did you think of the dream plotline? How about the chemistry between the main characters? Did you also find it lacking, or did you feel it flowed naturally? Did you see the ending coming? How do you feel about Marlak’s behavior at the end? Do you feel it was justified, or he should’ve handled it better? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

– ♡ L.B.

View all my reviews

---