Amber and I are BACK this August for a fun new readalong! We're about to start our monthly discussion for our July YA book, Garden Of The Cursed by Katy Rose Pool!
As a reminder, from now on, our monthly discussions will be both here on the OwlCrate blog AND on The Nest! Go check out Amber's discussion that will be full of fun extras like bookish charades, shelf scavenger hunts and coloring pages!
On each day we'll read a section of Garden Of The Cursed, both on the blog and in The Nest's group, and then discuss in the comments our theories and predictions. This means there will be spoilers for each section! Beware!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for chapters 7-9 of Garden Of The Cursed, so make sure you read or are finished this section before continuing.
Alright fake dating trope, let's see what you got ;)
Chapter Seven:
Marlow enters the Bowery's shop to find Swift flicking through a gossip magazine. Remembering that Adrius's curse likely happened at a party, she asks Swift to find her the gossip rag from three weeks ago.
Their boss then sends them on an errand to Orsella's, a black market magic dealer. Marlow trades for information about the Black Orchid gang and receives a lead on Armant Montagne.
After leaving the shop, Marlow notices that she and Swift are being rescued. They run into the Marsh's trading hub and attempt to lose their pursuer among the boats and docks. Marlow uses a spell card that allows her to breathe underwater, but as she comes up on the other side of the shallow lake, the man who was following them is still right behind her.
The man warns Marlow to stay away from the Black Orchid and she attempts to hex him, but it bounces off and he disappears. Swift finds her and Marlow admits to him that she's pursuing leads on her missing mother.
Chapter Eight:
Later, Swift and Marlow are poring over gossip magazines for leads when Adrius shows up to take Marlow on a date. Marlow agrees to go if Adrius helps her to get inside the Falcrest library. She changes into the one nice dress she owns and Adrius whisks them away on a magic zeppelin for dinner.
Marlow questions Adrius about Gemma, a girl he was dating who Marlow believes may have been the one to curse him. Marlow and Adrius then spend the evening flirting and figuring out the limitations of his curse over an elaborate dinner. 
Chapter Nine:
Adrius takes Marlow to the Falconrest library. He gets them both in and charms an employee into finding the file for Armant Montagne. The employee finds it and share's it's information with Adrius privately, but they are interrupted by Adrius's father, Aurelius and his chevalier, Caito. Aurelius is demeaning in his words toward Adrius. They leave and Adrius tells Marlow that Armante Montagne was a spellwright at Falconrest who was fired for stealing a spellbook the day that Marlow's mother disappeared.
Marlow and Adrius then go to the archives where they research his Compulsion curse. Marlow learns about the Great Purge, when the Five Families burned thousands of "dangerous" spellbooks, including Ilario's Grimoire which is supposed to have contained the Compulsion curse and was destroyed by the Falconrest family.
Adrius remarks to Marlow about how she seems to like research and should consider becoming a spellwright, but she scoffs. Marlow continues to read and learns that Ilario's Compulsion curse becomes irreversible after a duration of two moons...
Ruh roh...
Questions:
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🌹☠Do you think Orsella is correct and the Black Orchid wants to dismantle the class system? -
🤯What do you think of Adrius' father? -
💫Do you think they will be able to break Adrius' curse?
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