Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Ballad of Never After

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

98 reviews

klsreads's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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savvyrosereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Rating: 5/5 stars

The second book in the ONCE UPON A BROKEN HEART trilogy, continuing the story of Evangeline Fox and Jacks the Prince of Hearts.

I LOVED this book. I read the majority in a single day and had the best time. Jacks is EVERYTHING I want in a morally grey YA fantasy hero (villain?) and there were lines in here so good I literally stopped breathing for a second when I read them (“There is nothing of equal value to me.”)

I can’t say too much more without spoilers, but I cannot WAIT to read book three. Highly recommend this trilogy!

CW: Violence/blood/injury; mentions of torture

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manaledi's review

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Feeling very mixed here. I was impressed with large parts of the middle of the book in making us care even without fully remembering who everyone was from book one. The story curse is very clever but it also limited the possibilities of information. I didn't like the ending though which threw me off.

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booksandstardust's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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bunky_jones's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookish_hollyx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

3.0

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teabrewer's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Most of the book was mediocre and cliché (not like the previous book where tropes are used to inhence the story but in the lazy sense, like the fourth season of a tv show that should have ended already.) Some scenes were good and some dialogue lines get my attention but generally I just kept asking myself why Jacks personality was so inconsistent and

why every character just ignored that Evangeline was cheating on her husband.

From the middle to the end the writting started to improve but just at the very end that I actually felt like I wanted to read this book. But I did love the end.

I tend to not like stories where vampires are too predominant but in this book I understand their role and why they were nescessary. I loved the detail of the chapter numbers repeating after Jacks went back in time, the little moment where Evangeline explained normal communication to Jack and the revelation of what was in the other side of the arch. The very final scene was amazingly written, horrifyingly symbolic, I loved it.

To be transparent, I'm reading the next book mostly because the cover is beautiful and I did really like the first one.
Ps:

I didn't like what the author did with Luc in this book. He is absent of any motivation, personality or brain cells, and not like a classic himbo, but like the most offesive definition of a non-character.

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anni_swanilda's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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irb0red's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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rubyroses's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Holy mother of god. This is my first book of the year and I absolutely devoured it. I thought the first book in the trilogy was good but this topped it easily. I’m excited to see what the conclusion has in store for us.

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