Third time's the charm...or a curse? 
 2.5 stars Apparently, I've encountered a string of interesting stories with ridiculous characters in them. What gives? 
 Adrienne turned to him, unwilling to be trapped in the attic with a zombie and a black magic wielding gang leader. 
 I had to sit and think about how to rate/review Cursed because my feelings were mixed. I honestly liked the story itself. The mystery, danger, and intrigue surrounding Jax, Therese, Jayden, Adrienne, and the Red Man was very good. There were moments which surprised me and moments which gave me the creeps, which was honestly more than I'd been expecting. When the story was on, it was ON, and I was reminded of how much the movie The Skeleton Key was spooky and entertaining. Sometimes, the story was even funny. 
 She landed with a grunt beneath the weight of the woman on top of her, soon aware of something else : the flash of a pair of poultry shears heading towards her head. 
 "White zombie!" Jayden's grandmother hissed at her. "You will not take him!" 
 The second half of the book, especially, had me glued to the pages because I was completely engrossed with Adrienne's search to find out the truth about her sister. I finished the last page and wished right away that I had my copy of book 2 to read. 
 Jax closed the door to his bedroom approached the bed, raising his knife. 
 I am not a killer. 
 Unfortunately, the characters themselves didn't match up to the strength of the story or setting. Here's why : 
 1. Adrienne - she was allowing herself to be pushed around by bullies one moment, then was diving into danger headfirst the next. I never got a feel for who she was as a person. When she wasn't out playing girl detective, she was ping-ponging her feelings for two boys, one of whom was obviously never going to get a chance (which is too bad, because I preferred Rene to Jayden). Do we really need another female who has her klutzy moments and is second-guessing herself every step of the way? 
 Was it possible to be attracted to two guys? Sweet, dreamy Jayden and Rene, her reluctant thug of a guardian? 
 (anyone else feel awkard while reading that, or is it just me?) 
 2. Jayden - while I appreciated there being a chance for a multi-cultural relationship between him and Adrienne, and I liked the portrayal of his male lead as nice, smart and athletic, this character came across as very cardboard and one-dimensional. I wouldn't have wanted him to go the stereotypical route of super-cocky male lead, but found myself wishing on more than one occasion that he'd grow a pair because he didn't do enough to stand up for himself and Adrienne. And when he barely knew Adrienne and started calling her his angel, it was sort of ridiculous. 
 3. The character voices - several of the characters would mix their speech, going from heavy slang to polite speech and back again. It was sort of confusing. Rene was a character who probably appealed to me the most, but I felt like I was reading two different characters at times when it came to him. 
 4. The culture clashes didn't always make sense to me - I found it odd that there was such a huge emphasis put on Adrienne not having money. I attended a private school when I was younger which was full of rich kids. My family was on the lower end of the economic scale, so I got teased a little for not having nice clothes, but it never flat-out prevented me from making friends. Maybe things are different in Adrienne's part of the country though and I just didnt understand it. I won't comment on any sort of race/class lines or gang territories in the story because I don't know enough about New Orleans to know what is/isn't accurate. The message of attraction crossing boundaries is a good thing, but there was a random "sounds like we're gay" comment (after being asked what someone thought of two football teammates being a dynamic duo) that seemed out of place in that message. As well, I don't appreciate someone using a sentence such as "I just got raped by a gang" as a way to see if their brother is paying attention. I don't think there was any intent of malice in either of those statements, but both of them made me uncomfortable. 
 However... 
 The creepy atmosphere (I love when a city becomes a big part of what gives a story life) and character entanglements were enough to make me want to read on. Between Jax's shocking actions and a mysterious red cloaked figure who kept hanging around, I had to know what was going to happen. 
 The characters might still need some tweaking, but I was entertained, and I am definitely curious to see what's up next. 
 This book provided from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 
 You can also find my review on Booklikes