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A review by robotnik
A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This continues to be a year of disappointments for me. It isn't because this book is bad, really. It's not. But this was my most anticipated read of the year and I was just dying to get to it that I downloaded it on my kindle at 3:30am so I could start reading it. I just loved the first two books so much; the second is probably in my top ten favourite books of all time.
It lived up to pretty much zero of my expectations. And maybe that was just me. Maybe I was holding the books to such a high standard that I was expecting way too much of this book and it simply couldn't deliver on what I wanted. I guess that's okay. It's still a disappointment.
The best part of the book remains the chemistry and relationship between Evangeline and Jacks. Unfortunately, they do not interact in this book nearly enough. In the first half, their interactions are incredibly sparse. When that was the real selling point of the series, it kind of makes the early part of the book drag on.
The worst part of the book is Apollo.I get it, I get it. He's the villain. Blah blah blah. I didn't need his point of view. It just irritated me since each one was him just repeating the same things over and over to try and justify shit to himself. I don't think they really added too much to the story. Maybe it helped us see into his mind that about how he thought he was a good guy. I didn't really care. A lot of his thoughts were repetitive and didn't make or break the story. It would have been nicer to have more time with Evangeline and Jacks. And he got MORE POV chapters than Jacks? What the actual fuck.
At the ending of the second book, the memory loss got me and I was so ready for the angst and the agony and the drama, but boy did this book make me regret being so into the idea.Evangeline spends sooooo much time being a wishy-washy pain in the ass because of it. She loves Apollo, she doesn't trust Apollo, she wants to stay married, she wants to run away, who's Archer, she's into Archer, oh no Archer is evil. The cycle repeats it's for about 60% of the damn book that it got so exhausting to read about. I was over it so quickly that the moment she remembered her memories was such a relief.
I appreciate the supporting cast. Lala, Castor, even fucking Aurora. They were fun and added a little sparkle to the story that felt like it was missing a lot of the whimsical magic that the previous two books were so full of. I think that was one of the issues with the book: it did not feel magical the way that the other two books did.
I'm on the fence about how I feel about the ending. I kept waiting for something real and substantial to wrap it up with but it felt almost tacked on and rushed, as if there wasn't enough time to write a full and proper ending that wrapped up the plot threads the previous two books - hell, that this book - laid out. Unsatisfying, is the best word to describe it. It's not about whether or not it was a happy ending (which I'm glad they got one because if they didn't after all that, I'd be actually mad-mad ), it was about whether or not they got the happy ending that they deserved after all the shit that happened to them. And they didn't. They deserved better than what that ending was.
It honestly just feels like there was very much one thing fans of this book wanted (Evangeline x Jacks and lots of drama, angst and romance) and we got... not that. I just can't believe Jacks got shafted so hard in his trilogy's finale. He probably showed up way more in Finale than he did in this. He deserved sooo much better than this.
Honestly, if you enjoyed it, good for you. I'm glad you did. I, sadly, didn't but that's the way it goes.
It lived up to pretty much zero of my expectations. And maybe that was just me. Maybe I was holding the books to such a high standard that I was expecting way too much of this book and it simply couldn't deliver on what I wanted. I guess that's okay. It's still a disappointment.
The best part of the book remains the chemistry and relationship between Evangeline and Jacks. Unfortunately, they do not interact in this book nearly enough. In the first half, their interactions are incredibly sparse. When that was the real selling point of the series, it kind of makes the early part of the book drag on.
The worst part of the book is Apollo.
At the ending of the second book, the memory loss got me and I was so ready for the angst and the agony and the drama, but boy did this book make me regret being so into the idea.
I appreciate the supporting cast. Lala, Castor, even fucking Aurora. They were fun and added a little sparkle to the story that felt like it was missing a lot of the whimsical magic that the previous two books were so full of. I think that was one of the issues with the book: it did not feel magical the way that the other two books did.
I'm on the fence about how I feel about the ending. I kept waiting for something real and substantial to wrap it up with but it felt almost tacked on and rushed, as if there wasn't enough time to write a full and proper ending that wrapped up the plot threads the previous two books - hell, that this book - laid out. Unsatisfying, is the best word to describe it. It's not about whether or not it was a happy ending (
It honestly just feels like there was very much one thing fans of this book wanted (Evangeline x Jacks and lots of drama, angst and romance) and we got... not that. I just can't believe Jacks got shafted so hard in his trilogy's finale. He probably showed up way more in Finale than he did in this. He deserved sooo much better than this.
Honestly, if you enjoyed it, good for you. I'm glad you did. I, sadly, didn't but that's the way it goes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, and Murder