Oh my goodness, I love Christina Bauer and her unbelievably fun storytelling. No matter what's happening, she manages to drag you in to the story, sometimes kicking and screaming. This set has several books, each one better than the last. Necromancers, Casters, deities. Love it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for the ARC of this boxset. Unfortunately I was unable to really dig deep and get into this book series. There was a lot to understand at the beginning without a lot of explanation and I found myself lost and rereading to understand. Hopefully I will be able to give it another try in the future,

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

I was shocked by how dark this book is. While not outright, horror there is a disturbing quality that I couldn’t quite shake. The theme of eternal suffering is heavy and not for everyone.

There is a raw aspect to Cursed that speaks of less editing than needed, but despite that, I am extremely impressed by Bauer’s world building. If you compare this series to her other works this is even more evident. The tones of her books very drastically, speaking to a truly impressive creativity.

The characters feel like a first draft. They are starting to form, but are yet to be fleshed our complete-especially the side characters. I am hoping that the rest of the series provides stronger development and character arcs.

Overall I am anxious to read more from
Bauer. There is an underlying skill for storytelling here that I am excited to see more of as her career progresses.

Thank you Net Galley, and Christina Bauer for my advanced copy! My opinions are my own.

Plot - 3
Writing and Editing - 3
Character Development - 3
Personal Bias - 3
Final Score - 3

I am so happy that I discovered The Beholder Series by Christina Bauer. Phenomenal world-building, a strong and provocative heroine, and a unique magic system. This series has a little bit of everything - adventure, romance, fantasy. It didn't take long for me to find myself fully engrossed in the first book of the series, Cursed. The plot is action-packed and kept me thoroughly engaged and invested in the outcomes of her complex characters.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review these books. Overall, this series was an easy read - a lot of twists and turns to keep the reader focused as well as a romance. I appreciated the world building and details put in to explaining the different magical and supernatural beings. There were some grammatical/typo mistakes within this series, some very minor, some enough to really make me stop reading and only focus on that error, but for the most part, I can get past that.. Unfortunately this box set did not include Crowned, which I feel like took away from the enjoyment of the series a bit and that was really hard to get past. Ultimately I did enjoy this series as a whole.

*Edit 9/13/22: editing this review to update that the author, Christina Bauer, was very generous and kind to resend me the file that included Crowned as I downloaded the file prior to the update. I am eager to read it this weekend and I know it will seal up any missing details/thoughts from the storyline I had previously. I am also going to bump my rating from 3 stars to 4, as I deducted one star due to the missing book alone. Thank you so much, Christina, you are awesome!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This is the complete series of books, but the fourth book wasn't included. I read 1-3 then 5, as that was what was included in this box set. I felt that overall, I enjoyed the story and the characters. It was a good, easy read that kept me invested in the story. I did feel the 5th book was unnecessary. My biggest issue was all the grammatical and spelling errors in the books. Usually, I can overlook it because, hey, it happens, but there were quite a few obvious mistakes that pulled me out of the narrative and made me focus on the mistake instead.

This whole series was amazing, Elea is such a strong MFC and I love that about her, the slow burn romance between her and Rowan had me wanting more. The plot was written beautifully and I couldn’t put the books down once I started reading them. I seriously finished this series in 3days for all 5books it had me that hooked. I definitely recommend this series.

I really enjoyed reading the collection of five books of The Beholder seeries. Great world building, great mix of historical romance and magic. It was exciting, fast-paced, and suspenseful. The action kept me captivated and I really liked all the characters. 5+ stars.