This is the paranormal, historical, set-in-Scotland, hate-sex-having romance novel you didn't know you needed. Curse-breaker Riley butts heads with academic archaeologist Clark Scotland over, well, EVERYTHING. Their first meeting at a pub is all chemistry and sweetness, but when Riley overhears Clark dissing her profession the next morning when she shows up on location to start her job, she discovers the hottie from last night is the one insulting her, and the dude the the historical association sent to do some due diligence excavation.

While I do occasionally branch out and read witchy/occult romance, curse-breaking is a new profession for me to see featured in romance (give a listen to the Somewhere In Between episode of Book Riot's When in Romance podcast for a great discussion of occupations they'd like to see in romance novels --oy vey, so many bakeries and bookshops!). Do Your Worst features amazing, researched, and believable details about curse-breaking, and I loved the concept of the curse having a life of it's own. Riley totally employs the scientific method in her work. In addition to the romance, family relationships are complicated and resolutions attempted, demonstrating true, realistic character growth.

Things to love about Rosie Danan's superb writing: feisty, unapologetic heroines; broadly-defined sex; pop culture references; boundary-setting; love for Philadelphia, PA; snarky humor and great banter; addressing vulnerabilities; all the gory details; a 10-page description of the MMC jerking off while thinking about the FMC...

I don't want to give too much away, so will leave you with this: if you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 2 Episode 19 "I Only Have Eyes for You" was in fact directly referenced) or Outlander (book or show) for their particular winning blend of occult, history, methodical and detailed science, and herbalism/magic, this is a great novel for you to pick up. It hard a bit of slow start for me, and I ended up devouring it over two days.

I received a free advance reader's review copy of #DoYourWorst from #NetGalley.
https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/2023/07/14/do-your-worst-by-rosie-danan/ ( )

Riley Rhodes has finally started using her talent for breaking curses as a business, charging clients for her services. Her next assignment involves a Scottish castle with a curse dating back hundreds of years. What she doesn't expect is to arrive and discover that she will have to work with Clark Edgeware, disgraced archeologist, who is trying to reestablish his reputation and doesn't believe in curses. He works hard to get rid of Riley, but before long he not only realizes that she may be an asset in his work, but she also triggers feelings he never knew he was capable of having.

Do Your Worst has an interesting premise, pairing a scientist with a purveyor of the occult, however, the story doesn't live up to its promise. While the mystery of the castle is fun, the characters are flat, making it difficult to relate to or care about them. Their relationship seems contrived and friendship unrealistic in a plot that already struggles to be believable. Although there is some banter and humor, a more heavy dose of each would have improved the story greatly. Overall, Do Your Worst develops a unique idea but doesn't provide enough substance to make it a true success. ( )

Riley is the perfect blend of snark and insecurity. She inherited her grandmother's ability and destiny to identify and break curses. While she takes pride in that ability, it doesn't pay the bills, forcing her to moonlight as a bartender. It's also a romance killer, leaving her lonely much of the time. When she's hired to break a 300 year old curse in a Scottish castle, it could be her big break. Unfortunately, she has competition in the form of Clark, an archaeologist still smarting from the scandal surrounding his last project. He's equally determined to prove himself by finding proof of ancient artifacts. They start hot and heavy when they meet at the inn where she's staying, but the next morning when she overhears him disparaging the 'sham' cursebreaker brought to the castle, it sours everything...but the spark refuses to be extinguished. How the two of them warily begin to realize they need to work together makes for a delightful and quite steamy tale. ( )

I absolutely loved Danan's first two books, The Roommate and The Intimacy Experiment. In addition to being fun and sexy, they were fresh and the characters were semi-relatable. This book was not fresh, often not particularly fun, and the characters were not remotely relatable. Also, the book was just badly crafted. The narrative arc was more like an EKG readout. Something happens, then something else happens, then another something else happens. I feel like she had an outline and did not realize that one needs to connect the events on the outline, not just throw them on the page.

A quick summary, which I think will explain why this did not work. Riley, the FMC, is a professional "curse-breaker" and South Philly bartender (as one is.) Grant, the MMC, is an Oxford-trained anthropologist. They meet up at a cursed Scottish castle after she is hired (I never understood by whom?) to break the curse and he to document the cursed site. The curse is one of lovers parted and to break the curse the rift between them must be ended. (The reader is told this is the case, I have no foundational knowledge in curse-breaking.) This is set up as an enemies-to-lovers romance, but the execution is way off. To start, the leads try to get one another to leave the project in the stupidest most illogical ways, which both center on emotional devastation. Intentionally eliciting a trauma response is not sexy, even if you feel bad about it, and I could not really get from there to a trusting and loving relationship. Things go awry in a number of ways that bring up family trauma. Riley and Grant have a lot of good dirty semi-violent (very clearly consensually so) sex, though it is hard to imagine why that happens, There is not adequate setup for the irresistible attraction. That issue is compounded by the roughness of the sex, which requires some trust to be hot, and here any shred of trust has been destroyed by the cruelty of their emotional nuclear war. To top it off, some of the sex is mission-driven, which is weird and creepy. Then a bunch of stuff just happens. Townspeople become fairy godmothers, parents, including one utterly narcissistic one, suddenly become supportive and lovely, cats attack, people are reunited, and there is an HEA that involves the attack cat. If some of the sex scenes had not been hot and to my particular tastes this would be a 2. Come back to me Rosie Danan!!! ( )

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.