It seems like Jacks' default volume is loud because every dialogue tag in his POV chapters is some variation of "screamed" or "shouted."


I could've read A Curse for True Love in less than 8 hours, but I felt really guilty for reading it that quickly and decided to go to bed instead. After the jaw-dropping ending of The Ballad of Never After, I had very high expectations for this book, but I also had heard that it was a bit disappointing, so I was prepared for the possibility of disliking it, too. I think my reaction kind of falls in the middle: I enjoyed the book, but I definitely wanted more from it, especially in terms of side character subplots and just more tension in general.

Evangeline remembers nothing about her time in the Magnificent North, but supposedly she has a princely husband and he's devoted to chasing down the man who cursed her memory: Jacks, the Prince of Hearts. This book is one that I feel like I can't describe correctly in terms of pacing because on one hand, I read this in basically two sittings, but also the beginning was slow, and the only reason I read so quickly was so I could get to the "good parts." The initial conflict that occupies over 50% of the book is just Evangeline's missing memories, meaning the rest of the plot can't really move forward from Evangeline's POVs. We get a few POV chapters from Apollo and Jacks to lighten the pacing a bit, but (as many other reviews have stated) Apollo's POVs are rather boring, and I felt that Jacks' didn't represent his character very well (which I'll get to later). The first half of the story is also dominated by Evangeline reverting back to her initial, overly naive personality, which means we have to redo her character arc, which works against the pacing as well. As much as I enjoyed the storyline, I also thought the ending was a bit underwhelming. Three books of build-up and all the major conflicts are resolved relatively easily? The ending felt rushed and a bit undeserved, and even though the stakes were technically high, they didn't feel that way. The epilogue leaves open the potential for future extensions of this series, which is the only reason I'm accepting the lack of closure on the majority of the side characters and their subplots. Lala's arc is unfulfilled, we don't hear much about what happens to Chaos, the Valors are just roaming free, and there are no consequences for freeing them from the Valory, etc. I think this book could've easily used an extra 100 pages or so just for some added tension in the second half and closure on subplots.

What I really loved about the first two books was the dynamics between Jacks and Evangeline, so when that dynamic was disrupted by Evangeline's loss of memories and their separation, it kind of lessened my enjoyment of the book. I'm all for angst, but this wasn't even that; it was just kind of annoying. I liked seeing Apollo become more manipulative, but he wasn't that powerful of an antagonist, and his motivations felt a bit underdeveloped and generic. The Valors could've been super interesting characters (I wanted to see their interactions with Castor and their reactions to the changes made in the centuries they spent in the Arch), so I'm hoping they get more page time in possible future installations since they didn't get any in this book. Lala, too, felt forgotten until the end, and even then, she acted more as a plot device than the actual character we know and love. The same goes for Chaos, who was basically sidelined except for one or two scenes. If these two were to get their own books, I would love it. As for Jacks, I did not enjoy his POVs as much as I expected. I know that the Jacks we see through Evangeline's chapters aren't necessarily a reflection of the real Jacks, but it almost felt like two different people between his POVs and hers. It's hard to describe, but to me, he almost felt more simp-y than anything, and his internal monologues felt way more emotional than anything we see from the outside. It's not a bad thing, I just struggled to reconcile the way Evangeline (and the reader, until this point) sees Jacks vs how Jacks actually is. As always, I liked Evangeline, but the erasure of her previous character arc and the fact that she had to relearn everything was a bit annoying. I like how much of an idealist she is, but I also wish she could stop trusting people she shouldn't.

Is A Curse for True Love worth reading? Absolutely, if only for closure for the series. Some readers may be disappointed, but it's either this or living with the ending of book two forever, so...

3.75/5