The Agapéd Bearer: Dreyma's Curse

Oh my goodness, this book killed me. It starts out great, with Gaius and Lisa’s father-daughter relationship growing, and Lisa and Cal doing more things together, and then things turn upside down. Curses, lies, and secrets tear Lisa apart, distrust creeping around every corner. Dreyma is the freakiest and most evil villain I have ever read about. Voldemort is just a warm up compared to her. Have a pillow to punch if needed. If you are wondering and got the physical copy, YES the BLACK pages at the end mean something. Be stocked up on the tissues. I was crying for so long, and had to bring a stuffy and tissues around with me for the whole next day. If you did not cry in this book, you are literally made of stone. This is an amazing TAB book, and I cannot wait for the next one. I am excited to see how Lisa’s story ends. Hannah Lindsey continues to write with excellence and pursues to create her best work, and is a Christian indie author, something that is not easy to find. Can’t wait for the next book!

I have been loving the series so far but this book has been amazing. If you love action, romance and suspense, this book is definitely for you!

With quiveringly-terrifying scenes and a horrifying villain, The Agapéd Bearer: Dreyma’s Curse’s storytelling is a mix of gothic literature and dark manga with the tone of ESV: Skyrim’s eerie quests and creatures. You'll find yourself on a pirate ship, in a cave, and running through Boolavogue's castle hallways craving sweets and pastries.Gaius & Lisa’s relationship is brought to the forefront and deepened through adventure, desserts, and heartfelt father-daughter conversations. They navigate not only their duties as Keeper and Hunter but the burden of a curse that weighs on our protagonist – as well as the pressure of senior year in high school. Lisa and Cal’s relationship continues to develop, with all the giddy, “falling-in-love” emotions spilling over, and we get to see our favorite couple explore their world together. We see them work through the nature of their relationship – through the weight of being the Agapéd Bearer and the King – and what their future together might look like. We walk alongside Lisa’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions and tangibly experience the depth of her sorrow, exhaustion, and joy. The way Lindsey writes makes palpable the weight of the Agapéd, the curse, and the decisions Lisa must make. She masterfully creates a sense of urgency that permeates the novel's entirety as Lisa traverses Earth and her life in Boolavogue while dealing with the curse infecting her mind. Alongside our protagonist, we have to grapple with the realities of the curse’s consequences on her, her found family, and the Kingdom that’s become her home.Lindsey magically accomplished what she aimed to do: show her readers multiple types of love and their consequences. We’re given a beautiful portrait of love between friends, family, and Lisa’s found family – with the presence of the curse lingering close behind every twist and turn. In the midst of the curse, Lindsey brings together Lisa’s celestial families – the Keepers, the Guardians, the Royal Court & Hunters, the Sonon’s, Odette – as they are all working toward a common goal: defeating the Darkness and protecting Lisa and the Agapéd. There are moments of relational redemption and heartbreak that readers will have to reckon with as the saga moves forward.She takes her readers on a rollercoaster of emotions; she’ll have you laughing, gasping in shock, weeping, smiling wide, and giggling like a teen girl. The fourth installment of The Agapéd Bearer saga will leave you breathless and grasping at your aching heart, desperate to follow our beloved hero into a bleak future with just a tiny sliver of hope.

I had the wonderful opportunity to read an ARC of this and I don’t think I have EVER sobbed like I did reading this book.The amazing world Hannah created is so lush and beautiful. Her characters grow to feel like your own best friends, fathers, mothers, and loves. Never have characters felt so real to me.I originally found the series through Hannah’s character art and fell in love before I even read book one. Now I’m four books in trusting her to give our girl the best story, ending, and character arc ever.Lisa has been through so much and book 4 just upped it. The roller coaster of events will leave you turning the pages faster than you ever thought possible. I highly recommend taking a box of tissues with you every where you go during and after reading this book (and really all the books in the series). I find myself randomly tearing up thinking about the story because it’s just that good.Hannah has done an amazing thing for the book world, fantasy lovers, kids who need a coming of age story, and us adults that want to remember what those firsts in your teen years felt like (with a touch of the coolest magic I have ever read about…. I mean the guy GROWS stars!)While I can’t wait for book 5… my heart needs time to recover… until then I’ll be screaming from the rooftops for everyone to meet Lisa, Gaius, Cal, and all the rest of the characters in this world.

I had the immense privilege of being an ARC reader for this book. I finished it a long time ago, but I still think about it sometimes because it was just TOO GOOD OKAYSeriously, the TAB series is one which simply gets better and better. Upon finishing a book in this series and picking up its sequel, I have always liked the subsequent one more than the previous. But Dreyma's Curse really exceeded my expectations--I didn't just like it more than book 3, I realized that it had made me absolutely OBSESSED with the characters and this world. All that is to say, I loved this book. Books 1-3 were fairly chill and had a lot of filler that was more for comfort reading than actual thrill. But book 4 jumps into the action almost immediately and stays hooking until the end, everything being wrapped up with one major event that marks a significant turning point in the series. Anyway, I was addicted the whole time while reading this thing. I think the characters in the series are my absolute favorite--ever.All that is to say, PLEASE read this book as soon as you can. It was amazing. But be prepared to get your heart trampled on at the end…I personally still have not recovered, and it has been months since I finished (sobs).