Book Review: The Curse that Binds by Laura Thalassa

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Really liked it! Highly recommend.

Read The Curse That Binds if you like fated mates, magical realism, and origin stories that make you fall in love with your favorite characters all over again.

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* This review contains no spoilers and is of the third book in the series. If you want to read my thoughts on the other books in this series, check out book 1 here and book 2 here.

📖 What’s Inside:

Single POV
💖 Fated mates
“Mine”
Only one horse 🐎
On-page intimacy 🔴
🐈‍⬛Animal companion
Explicit language
Magical realism
🌈 Inclusive

Book Boyfriend Meter: ❤️

Would date. (I can fix him)

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✨ Vibes:

Ancient Rome meets magic and fae.

Basically: ancient empires… but make him magically obsessed with his soulmate.

💭 My Thoughts:

I was in a reading slump.

You know the kind. Every book looks promising… And then somehow loses you 25% in. Nothing was sticking. So I wasn’t entirely convinced this one would either. Funny enough… I’d actually started this book months earlier during one of my bookish roulette games before setting it aside. This time? Completely different story. I picked it back up where I’d left off and was hooked.

THE ROMANCE:

This book completely changed the way I look at Roxilana and Memnon.

After everything we know from the rest of the series, getting to go back and watch their relationship begin was such a refreshing experience.

They’re… Ridiculously sweet. Seriously.

This officially cemented them as one of my favorite fantasy romance couples.

Watching them slowly become the people we’d already met in prior books made every moment feel more meaningful.

It honestly made me want to go back and reread the entire series with all of this new context.

THE STORY:

One thing I really loved was the setting.

This isn’t sprawling epic fantasy.

It’s fantasy woven into ancient Rome, giving everything a magical realism feel that almost makes you believe these events could’ve happened. It felt fresh compared to the fantasy worlds I usually read.

Even though readers already know where this story eventually ends, (if you’ve read the other books in this series) I still found myself completely invested.

Knowing the destination didn’t make the journey any less enjoyable.

CRITICISMS:

Around the 60% mark…

The pacing slowed down for me.

Whether it was the politics, the spice, or simply the length of the book… I found myself skimming a few sections because I was ready for the story to move forward. There were moments where I caught myself thinking: “Are we still on this?”

It’s the only reason this landed at four stars instead of five.

Despite that, Laura Thalassa has become one of those authors I’ll happily auto-read.

This book is romance first, fantasy second, and it absolutely succeeds at what it sets out to do.

If you already love the Bewitched series, this backstory adds so much emotional weight to everything that comes after.

And now?

I’m even more excited for Bedeviled which releases in August 2026 and have already pre-ordered my copy.

📚Read Alikes:

If you’re looking for romance-heavy fantasy with unforgettable couples try:

These Immortal Truths — magical realism and immortal love (read my review)
We Who Will Die — ancient Rome vibes with magical romance (read my review)
The Witch Collector — witches and sorcery (read my review)

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Should you add The Curse that Binds to your TBR?

Yes.

Technically, you could read this before the rest of the series…

But I wouldn’t.

This story hits so much harder once you’ve already fallen in love with Roxilana and Memnon.

Trust me.

Read books one and two first.

Then come back for this one.

🛒 Buy Now

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