Love Is The Curse Not Magic

I recently finished reading Revelle by Lyssa Mia Smith. This is OwlCrate's February 2023 book. *POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT* Rating: 3.25/5 stars "A lush, dangerous tale of forbidden love. Pitched as magical YA Moulin Rouge in the Prohibition Era: a young trapeze star must magically seduce a dangerous bootlegger whose family is set on destroying hers, but when she mistakenly charms a handsome tourist instead, she must bury the forbidden sparks between them before her family loses everything." It's inspired by Moulin Rouge and set in the early 1900s. Based on an island (Charmant) near New York, there are 5 magical families. One can time travel, the other can read minds, one can transfer injuries from one person to the next, one is excellent at making potions and has horns, and the main character's family can make fantasies when given a jewel. I thought this was such a creative and unique view.

The first part of the book felt a bit repetitive and I started to really enjoy it halfway through. Things became more interesting, plot twists were happening and there was some angst. That kept me engaged.

I had a bit of difficulty with some aspects, for example, instant love. I like the concept of star-crossed lovers, but this was very obvious from the start. It felt like there really wasn't any getting-to-know-each-other between Luxe and Jamison and I found that unfortunate.

The theme of the value of family and of sharing everything was huge in this book, but the actions of the Revelle family made it ring hollow. If they really care about each other so much, why are some of the children sent off to an orphanage- couldn't the family take care of them? And beyond that, why are the members of the family so insistent about pressuring each other into working in the Fun House, a place that had the potential to be exploitative and traumatizing for these young people? The worst part was when Luxe talked about how her young cousin wanted to volunteer to take on the injuries of her older cousin to allow this cousin to continue to perform. What loving family lets a child put herself through that?

This brings me to another frustration- the choices made by the characters, while they seemed noble on the surface, was in reality very problematic. From the very start of the book, Luxe was focused on magically manipulating others, specifically Dewey. The book makes clear that she was 'only' doing so to help her family, but this doesn't negate the very significant moral issue with this type of behavior. As Jamison himself says later on in the story, "There's always a choice," and throughout the book, Luxe continues to make the wrong choice. If these issues had been addressed more significantly at some point I wouldn't have minded so much, but instead, the book just sends mixed messages. So, overall, this book was thematically disappointing.

The other thing that bothered me was the ending. Some things weren't really made clear. What happened to his sister? It just sort of cut that part off. That could have been explained more.

Check out Revelle, and understand that magic always has a price. Happy Reading :)