Memory and Curses

The Economy of Blessings Trilogy #3

by Charlotte Kersten

Six months have passed since Iraluri fled her marriage, and she has carved out a tenuous life for herself with her sister and her friend - more than friend? - Ser. That fragile stability is soon disrupted by the past that chases her, and the three women find themselves fleeing to the plane of Carkuto, newly liberated by the Efrusi. Liberation is far from the end of difficulty, and there are yet more layers of inexplicable magic to unravel as the Efrusi forge onwards into independence. Still grappling with the pain of her past, Iraluri will embark on a journey to find answers for her allies. This journey will bring Iraluri face-to-face with the mystery at the heart of Dreonia’s planar conquest, and what she will find may change the fate of the planes forever.

254 pages, ebook

First published January 23, 2022

About the author

You can read things by me if you want!!!!!!!!!!!!

My profile picture is Lumpy from the Star Wars Holiday Special and I'm never changing it again

Reviews

[Charlotte Kersten]

Hello, just a note that Memory and Curses and the other books in the trilogy are currently delisted. I have learned and grown a lot as a writer since publishing the trilogy, and there are many things I would do differently looking back now. As a self-published author, I have the ability to take my books down and I ultimately decided that it would bring me some peace of mind to do so. I may try to go back and rework major elements to put the books back up at a later date, or I may not; I am still deciding. For those of you who read/reviewed them already, thank you so much. I hope you can understand the decision I made, even if it is an unconventional one, and I hope you may still be interested in reading some of my other works.

[Melcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memory and Curses is the final book of the Economy of Blessings trilogy, and by all accounts a great conclusion.

Endings are everything to me. The way a book is finished impacts how the memory of the experience will stay with you afterwards. I was then anticipating many emotions for the ending of this trilogy and was not left disappointed.

Overall, this third book is really the strongest and the one I enjoyed reading the most. I almost finished it in one seating because I was really invested in the story and the protagonists. I found the character arcs compelling and the resolution of a few storylines particularly satisfying.

The first two book felt a bit too long, especially comparing to the pace of the third. With a little a bit of editing, Sweetness and Blessings and Sorrow and Ghosts could have been edited into one, making Iraluri’s story a duology. Either way, the third book makes the first two parts worthwhile, and with each chapter the reading experience get easier.

Overall I enjoyed this story, and the quality and precision of Memory and Curses’s ending made me want to read the whole trilogy again. I received ARCs for each of the book but also decided to buy all of them anyway. Congratulations to Charlotte Kersten for a great character study, I’ll be sure to check out everything she writes in the future.

[richa ⋆.˚★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an end! 😭 We really went on a journey and I'm quite satisfied with the ending. So proud of Iraluri 💕

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: B

It flickers from blueish-blackish not-quite-elephant form to a form of pure gold and white (is the god blue and black or gold and white meme)

Really kinda rushed through this one - I feel like I didn't really absorb that much...and I have questions! The saga is over - and it ended pretty quickly for me. This was an ARC from the author. I never finished my beta read of it as I just let time get ahead of me.

Iraluri may finally be free of Harlan, who really has honestly no way of finding her with her new abilities. Instead, she's on the path to reviving Miz'rifaezar and allowing Solaufein to achieve his goals. The Tremellar are uniting across the planes to help other societies, too. One day in the Efrusi forest, Iraluri witnesses a girl carrying a bundle into a planar portal and hears a voice in her head. She races off to tell the others about it and Ser and herself are tasked with finding the truth of the matter.

If I'm honest, I did feel like this book had a sort of deus ex machina in Honor. She kind of absolutely came out of nowhere and went off into another plane, which felt hamfisted and random compared to the quality of the storytelling of the previous two books. We also see a lot more magic in this book, which was incredibly interesting and so unique compared to other fantasy series I had read. I especially love the names and the attention to detail given to the naming conventions - like you can read someone's name and know they come from the same culture.

There are also many more scenes with Immy and Ser. Spoilers entirely ahead in this paragraph - I liked to know more about the emotions between Immy and Iraluri but I definitely felt like the back and forth and revision of the characters was much more frustrating than seeing Luri go back and forth in her emotions towards Harlan. Her relationship with her sister is infinitely more positive than with Harlan, but the tense scene where she criticised her sister's feelings for Tam felt really forced and rushed in - I felt like the development behind her trauma and her behaviour was much more justified than immediately telling her sister to not trust men - and her sister's reaction. I understand that her sister is (at least) 6 years younger than her - with a developing mind but she never once brings up Luri's lies to her even in the heat of the moment where they fought. Luri had been deceptive about her history the entire time, lying about her life story even to the point where she didn't have excuses to cover it, yet her sister was unable to puzzle that out? (Or could I just not tell?) It's only addressed in one scene at the end where she admits she thought something was up - though perhaps its unfathomable that abuse could be happening in their society to someone that has grown up with only that culture.

Unfortunately, I felt like the development of Immy really took away from the character study we had of Iraluri in the first and second books. The constant back and forth with Ser and her hesitancy was a bit tiring - though I really liked the gradual touches and the tension. I was confused who was talkimg in the dialogue between the two of them in chapter 9. I felt like I couldn't tell their voices apart.

I was unable to process Iraluri being a special person VS the overall story pacing - in what fely like a really short time, she manages to successfully planewalk and continually does so between multiple planes - then when they finally go to Lesolas, there is no tension or danger from the stationed Dreonian troops (when that was specifically mentioned in the previous book - that she would have to planewalk to another location within the area so as to not be discovered - was that an allusion to the khemoth?) I also noticed that the story didn't feel close to being resolved and I was on chapter 7.

The entire time I was reading this, I did wonder if we would have closure between Harlan and Luri and whether a few other plot points would be resolved, and I felt like this was handled really well, though somewhat unexpected - who knew Iraluri would learn how to curse someone. I really enjoyed the italicised chapter breaks and loved the progression of them especially in the third book - we learn more about some of the side characters' reactions to Harlan after Luri has planewalked away. I also liked seeing that there were/may have been other races across the planes.

Overall, I am glad I read this trilogy but felt quite lost in this third book.

The thoughts do not go away, but you do not think them alone.

[Ann Ebner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final book in the trilogy is an exciting and satisfying conclusion to Iraluri's story! It features planewalking, dreamwalking and a battle for the future of Miz'rifaezar as well as a particularly appropriate solution to a problem like Harlan! I appreciate so much the care that Charlotte Kersten has put into telling a fantasy story and at the same time providing hope and resources for real people searching for a way out of an abusive relationship.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very satisfying conclusion!

I liked Iraluri from the start and seeing her journey progress in this book made me so happy for her. I especially liked what happened at the very end, did not expect that. I would love to see what she and the others get up to in the future, but this is a nice place to leave them.
However, while the other books only had hints of the plot and worldbuilding, this installment had all of that. I wish the whole series was a bit more evenly paced, I felt like some developments weren't given enough time and attention which made me feel like I missed out on things occasionally.
We got to see a lot more of the world and the magic, which was really imaginative and captivating. I just wish there was a bit more of that!
The relationship between Ser and Iraluri also developed more and I was really happy with how they started communicating better.

I really enjoyed the series as a whole!

[Gad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This trilogy had a substantial impact on me in more ways than I was expecting. I'm glad to have read it even if parts of it were challenging. So proud and happy to see Iraluri's evolution as a character. Also Aurore is a queen and everyone needs a friend like her in their corner. Ah! I'm so very very pleased.