Review: Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan

 

Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan

Publication Date: November 14th 2023 by Berkley 

Pages: 317

Source: Publisher & library audio copy

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Riley, like her grandmother before, has a knack for breaking curses. She enjoys the work and wants to carry on the family tradition. She’s finally found a way to make a living at it, slowly building a reputation, which leads to a job in Scotland breaking a curse plaguing Arden Castle for the last 300 years. A development company bought the property to turn it into a vacation destination, revitalizing the small town of Torridon with the tourists it would bring, but the curse has been hampering their progress.

When she arrives in Scotland, Riley meets Clark, an English archaeologist, hitting it off with him immediately, their attraction quick and intense. Until Riley discovers that Clark is also working at Arden Castle and he accuses her of being a charlatan, recommending she be fired immediately. Not surprisingly, this does not go over well, and the fight is on between Clark and Riley.

The enemies-to-lovers trope can be a tricky one to balance. If the “enemy” portion is taken too far then it can be hard to make it believable that the couple would forgive and then fall in love. I didn’t feel Clark and Riley crossed the line here. I felt like they wanted to be able to keep up the hate, but just couldn’t as they recognized all the good qualities in each other. Plus, they were smoking hot together! This romance was spicy! I was also pleased that there wasn’t any third act breakup!

I really enjoyed Do Your Worst! I liked the unique story line of curse breaking and I liked how Riley went about it, investigating the origin and then narrowing down the remedy. It was a little mystery within the romance. The history of how her grandmother got into curse breaking was interesting, too.

4 Stars

Book Description:

Sparks fly when an occult expert and a disgraced archeologist become enemies-with-benefits in this steamy romance.

Riley Rhodes finally has the chance to turn her family’s knack for the supernatural into a legitimate business when she’s hired to break the curse on an infamous Scottish castle. Used to working alone in her alienating occupation, she's pleasantly surprised to meet a handsome stranger upon arrival—until he tries to get her fired.

Fresh off a professional scandal, Clark Edgeware can’t allow a self-proclaimed “curse breaker” to threaten his last chance for redemption. After he fails to get Riley kicked off his survey site, he vows to avoid her. Unfortunately for him, she vows to get even.

Riley expects the curse to do her dirty work by driving Clark away, but instead, they keep finding themselves in close proximity. Too close. Turns out, the only thing they do better than fight is fool around. If they’re not careful, by the end of all this, more than the castle will end up in ruins.