This development is one of the things I wished was resolved before the end of the series. I really didn’t like when Barron entered the equation, but I ended up feeling bad for him. I really liked them in White Cat and about half of Red Glove, but then their drama got a little annoying. The other big romance in the series is between Sam and Daneca. That said, by the end of Black Heart I was shipping them. I found it more interesting how Cassel viewed Lila and how she motivated him than their actual romantic relationship. I ended up being overall satisfied with how things between Lila and Cassel played out, but I can’t say I cared much about it in the first couple books. While Cassel’s love/obsession for Lila is a strong and recurring theme through the series, it doesn’t take a lot of actual time up within the pages – which I appreciate because I like a little romance in most books, but I don’t want to be overwhelmed by it (unless it’s an actual romance or a cute contemporary). They also have sooo many great banter-y moments. I loved that Cassel also had Sam’s back, too. He was a true friend, always looking out for Cassel and helping out whenever he was needed. Cassel was always trying to shield Sam, but Sam had no interest in being protected.

He doesn’t really let himself get close to anyone, but he does start to trust Sam. Cassel has tried really hard to act like a normal kid and not a member of a worker family with ties to the mob and a mother in prison.

I loved the friendship between Cassel and his roommate Sam. He’s clever and sarcastic and I absolutely loved watching him be cunning and conning. He does try really hard to do the right thing – though his definition of “right” is often pretty skewed. I LOVE Cassel! In White Cat I liked him, but didn’t love him, but in Red Glove I really became all about him. I liked that he could grow as a character without completely changing himself. It’s probably kind of wrong to say on a moral level, but I really liked that about him. While Cassel does have character growth, he doesn’t really become a “better” person and he has no plans to lead a life free of crime. I think sometimes authors try to hard to teach us some sort of big life lesson and it doesn’t always work for me. – This book was pretty different than most YA books and I really appreciated it. I was just going to give up, but I ended up really enjoying this series and want to give it some recognition, so I thought I’d just share some random thoughts about it. I tried really hard to do a nice series review of the Curse Workers by Holly Black, but for some reason it just didn’t turn out how I wanted it to. (Click on the pictures to go to the book’s Good Reads page)

Holly black white cat series