TLDR: This review is spoiler free. The Kindred’s Curse Saga is the romantasy series I didn’t know I needed, and I devoured all three published books at a pace that should concern the people around me. Five stars, zero hesitation, and one very public complaint about the fact that Book 4 still doesn’t have a release date.
- Title: The Kindred’s Curse Saga
- Author: Penn Cole
- Format Consumed: Kindle ebook
- Length: Books 1-3 (series ongoing)
- Genre: Romantasy / Epic Fantasy Romance
- Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️
- Series Status: Ongoing — 3 of 4 books released (Book 4 TBD)
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have a complicated relationship with romantasy. I love the genre in theory and have been burned enough times by thin world-building and romance that does all the heavy lifting while the plot sits in the corner doing nothing. So when I picked up Spark of the Everflame, I was ready to be mildly entertained and moderately disappointed. Instead I finished all three available books in an embarrassingly short window and I’m now sitting in the same pit of despair as every other fan waiting for a Book 4 release date that apparently exists only as a rumor and a prayer.
The world Penn Cole builds is called Emarion, a mortal realm colonized by the gods and ruled by their offspring, the Descended — demigods with magic, status, and a long history of keeping mortals firmly beneath them. Our protagonist is Diem Bellator, a mortal healer from a poor village who gets thrust into the world of Descended royalty after her mother vanishes under circumstances that are very much not simple. The setup sounds familiar because the bones of it are familiar, but what Cole does inside that structure is sharper and more plot-dense than most of the genre manages.
The series follows a single POV through Diem’s eyes, which is the right call. Cole’s pacing depends on information being revealed at exactly the right moment, and a wider POV structure would have undercut that. The romance is a genuine slow burn, and I mean that literally. If you need your love interest to be fully declared by chapter ten, adjust your expectations significantly. The tension here is the kind that makes you listen to another three hours of audiobook at 11pm on a Tuesday when you had absolutely planned to stop. On spice: it’s there, it earns its place, and it’s not shy about it once the series gets going.
Trigger warnings before you dive in: on-page violence, on-page intimate content, themes of oppression and systemic injustice, and some dark content around child death and domestic violence in the earlier books. Nothing gratuitous, but worth knowing. This is not a cozy read. It is, however, an addictive one. If you’re new to romantasy this is a strong entry point. If you’re a veteran of the genre who’s tired of plot taking a back seat to romance, this is specifically for you.
Vibe Check: Is This an Easy Read?
On audio, this series is excellent. The narration is propulsive and the performance matches Cole’s writing style, which swings between tense political intrigue, genuine laugh-out-loud banter, and emotional gut-punches with impressive fluidity. I did most of my listening during runs and found myself slowing my pace so I could hear what happened next, which is either a compliment to the story or an indictment of my training discipline. Probably both.
Pacing-wise, Book 1 takes a chapter or two to find its footing, then locks in and doesn’t let go. The emotional intensity builds across the series in a way that makes each book feel higher-stakes than the last without losing the humor and banter that makes the characters worth caring about in the first place. If you’ve read From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout or A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, you’ll feel the same DNA here. Cole is playing in that space and, in my opinion, doing some things better.
Spark of the Everflame — Book 1
Book 1 is a setup book that doesn’t feel like a setup book. It’s doing a lot of work — building the world, establishing the class dynamics between mortals and Descended, introducing a cast of characters that grows substantially as the series goes on — and it does all of it without ever feeling like it’s forcing information into you. The mystery around Diem’s mother is what drives the plot forward, and Cole uses it well, parceling out answers at a pace that kept me suspicious of everyone for the entire book.
The love interest is introduced early and is immediately compelling for reasons I won’t get into, but the slow burn starts here and it is genuinely slow. Which I mean as a compliment. The tension is built carefully enough that when anything does happen, it hits harder than it would have with a faster burn. Cole earns every moment. Book 1 ends in a place that makes the next book feel completely non-optional.
Glow of the Everflame — Book 2
Book 2 is where the series starts revealing what it actually is underneath the romantasy surface, and what it is is a genuinely complex political story about power, complicity, and what happens when the line between good and evil turns out to be a lot blurrier than anyone wants to admit. Diem gets pushed harder here. The stakes for both the romance and the wider world escalate simultaneously, and Cole manages both without sacrificing either.
There are reveals in Book 2 that reframe things you thought you understood from Book 1 in ways that made me want to go back and re-listen to the early chapters immediately. Cole is apparently hiding things in plain sight from page one of the series, and Book 2 is where you start to see the edges of how deliberate the construction actually is. The foreshadowing is doing serious work and you won’t catch all of it the first time through.
Heat of the Everflame — Book 3
Book 3 is the longest and the darkest. War has arrived, allegiances are fracturing, and Cole is not interested in giving anyone an easy out. This is the book where the emotional weight of everything built across the first two books comes due, and the bill is steep. If you thought you had a handle on where this story was going, Book 3 will disabuse you of that notion.
Some readers have found Book 3 slower given its length, and that’s not an entirely unfair criticism. It’s a bridge book doing the heavy work of setting up what should be an enormous finale, and it carries that weight visibly in places. But the character moments are some of the best in the series and the ending left me genuinely furious in the way that only a book you’re completely invested in can. Which brings me to my only real complaint about this entire experience.
Book 4 does not have a release date. The publisher pushed it. Penn Cole herself has said the date is TBD and she won’t speculate further. The fandom is, to put it diplomatically, not taking this well. I am among them. Books 1, 2, and 3 all published in 2023. It is now 2026. I finished three books in what felt like a single extended listening session and then hit a wall that has no confirmed end. This is not a review note, this is a formal complaint filed in a public forum.
Final Thoughts
The Kindred’s Curse Saga is five stars and it’s not close. Cole builds a world worth caring about, a romance that earns every beat, and a protagonist who is genuinely interesting to spend time with across three very long books. If you’re a romantasy reader who wants plot and character and actual stakes alongside the romance, this series is exactly what you’re looking for.
Just know what you’re signing up for: you will devour three books and then be deposited unceremoniously into the waiting room with the rest of us, staring at Penn Cole’s Instagram for any sign of a release date. Worth it. Absolutely still worth it.