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kenzloux 's review for:

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
4.25
adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I gave this book 4.25 stars as it was a lot better than the first book which did bore me. I do love Jacks but I definitely prefer the MMC's from the 'Caraval' trilogy more and I do prefer that trilogy more than this one. This series is overrated but its still good. I would recommend the Caraval trilogy over this series any day.

Quotes:
- “In the morning, you can forget it. You can go back to pretending you don't like me, and I can pretend that I don't care. But for tonight, let me pretend you're mine.”
- “Where were you?” she asked. “I was killing innocent maidens and kicking puppies.” “Jacks, that’s not funny.”
- “I wish our story could have had another ending.”
- “Happy endings can be caught, but they are difficult to hold on to. They are dreams that want to escape the night. They are treasure with wings. They are wild, feral, reckless things that need to be constantly chased, or they will certainly run away.”
- “I do not want you dead, and I’ll kill anyone who tries.”
- “Jacks no longer felt like her enemy, he felt like her home.”
- “Dark was for stars and dreams and the magic that took place in between days.”
- “Sorry to break your fairytale, Little Fox, but ballads don't end happily, and neither do the two of us.”
- “Nothing has been safe since the moment I laid eyes on you. And yet I don't want to look away.”
- “I swear this is what I really want.” He spoke each word like a vow. “I want to erase every moment you and I have spent together, every word you’ve said to me, and every time I’ve touched you, because if I don’t, I’ll kill you, just like I killed the Fox.”
- “The truth is never what you want it to be, Little Fox.”
- “Are you jealous of Luc?' 'I thought we'd already covered that yesterday. I'm always jealous. And so are you.”
“She tried to take comfort in the books. Stories had always felt as if they were her friends. But all these stories felt like distant relations to the tales she knew.”

Tropes:
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
- One Bed
- Forbidden Romance