Review: I could not have dreamed up a better conclusion to this series than “A Curse for True Love”! 

 

Following the events of “The Ballad of Never After”, Evangeline is living a fairytale married to the handsome prince of the Magnificent North…or so she thinks. Her husband is determined to make sure she doesn’t learn the truth. To do so, he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts. But true love always prevails. 

 

For the first time in this series, Garber tries her hand at alternating between three points-of-view: Evangeline, Apollo, and Jacks. Admittedly, I enjoyed reading some more than others *cough sorry Apollo cough* but I strongly believes that the absence of even one would have left the story feeling incomplete. Each perspective is purposeful and necessary in understanding the choices each character makes in “A Curse for True Love.” Finally getting to inhabit the minds of two of Garber’s most notorious villains was everything. Discovering what they were willing to sacrifice for true love, their true feelings towards Evangeline, and their respective motivations really informed my understanding of their characters and the role they played in the previous books in the series. 

 

Part of why I loved “The Ballad of Never After” so much was because of Jacks and Evangeline’s romantic chemistry. Garber goes through the process developing their romantic tensions from scratch following Evangeline’s memory loss with that same addictive quality she infuses in her writing. Watching the two fall in love for a second time despite Apollo doing everything in his power to ensure Evangeline loathed Jacks truly solidifies the power of true love in Garber’s stories. As anticipated, I was an emotional mess by the end and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

 

The different endings for this book in each special edition are so uniquely Stephanie Garber—magical, romantic, and full of mischief. I loved every single alternate ending and hope this isn’t the last we will see of this world and the characters that have a hold on my heart.