A Curse for True Love
STEPHANIE GARBER
(Book 3 in the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy)
Synopsis:
Two villains, one girl, and a deadly battle for happily ever after.
Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.
Blood will be shed, hearts will be stolen, and true love will be put to the test in A Curse for True Love, the breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy.
Content:
Language: A few uses of minor language
Violence: Descriptions of blood, murders (one involving a whole family), the aftermath of a vampire's drinking, attempted murder/assassinations, and a few similar subjects. There are also several instances of manipulation.
Sex: Kisses, allusions to sex, two characters undress and lay in bed together (then fall under the spell of a sleeping dust before anything happens).
LGBTQ: Not present
My Review:
Pros:
- I read this in one sitting. Something about Garber's writing just pulls you in and keeps you flipping pages.
- What we diid get of EvaJacks had me smiling so hard. Jacks is definitely one of my all-time favorite characters, and Eva has grown on me since the first book. I adore them together (especially in the alternate ending in the edition I got . . .)
Cons:
- Amnesia trope. The decision to create a cliff hanger around the trope resulted in the entire trilogy being ruined. I am also convinced Garber threw in the cliff hanger just to have one.
- For a book series about true love and this fatal attraction between Evangeline and Jacks, the EvaJacks in the final installment was completely underwhelming. I'm sorry, but a single "there's only one bed" scene does not make up for it.
- Character development for Evangeline. I feel like she really took a step back from the second book, going back to her original naïve and somewhat annoying persona from book one.
- Apollo. His character did a complete 180 (I'd even say 360) since the book two. And his chapters were insufferable. He was the worst. He wasn't even a villain, really, just a whiny boy with anger issues.
- I am also just so upset about the direction Garber went with this story. We had no answers to some questions raised throughout the series. and I'm convinced Garber just doesn't have any,
- I also believe Garber put too much energy in trying to set up for a possible next series instead of focusing on the one she had now. (Lala and Chaos is my guess.)
- It's painfully obvious that Garber had lost all passion for these characters and this story
- The plot also had absolutely nothing to do with the first two books, which was just so jarring. I get that it isn't my book, but I think it would have been so much better if the conflict was focused on a fight between Chaos and Jacks (anyone else so confused on why they were just completely fine after book 2s ending?)
- The actual official, published ending. What. Was. *That*? I wanted to scream
I could go on, but there are so many other reviews that explain exactly what I'm feeling way more clearly. Rant over (unless someone wants to talk about—then I will happily expand).