Reviews with content warning for Murder - La Maldición del Amor Verdadero

Great series overall! I really enjoyed reading/listening to all three books but for this last one there are a few things I didn't like as much.
There are so many loose ends and unanswered questions at the end of the book that it surprised me how fast the story ended.
I also found the many Apollo POVs a bit annoying especially when there were only about 3 Jacks POVs... Some of them didn't add much to the story and could have easily been told from Evangelines POV. It felt like Jacks wasn't really part of the story anymore...
The first two books felt like we were building up to something big and I was anticipating how Garber would resolve the problem about Jacks kiss being lethal.

I really loved the idea of Aurora cursing him to only be able to kiss someone that would never love him and that this kind of person would be the only one being able to survive his kiss. That gave the whole Donatella/Jacks situation a great twist!

But with how it was resolved in the end just felt like Garber didn't have any great ideas of how the curse might be broken and just went with that whole "true love of my life" conviction on Evangelines part because anything else would have been too complicated to come up with.
Moreover, it was a bit disappointing how it seemed like the valors were nothing special (?). There was so much build up to how miraculous this family was and in this book they just seemed like your average people that just wanted to love a normal life ? I would have loved to see more of them and their powers!
Also why did it seem like Chaos was a tame pet rather that a murderous vampire? I was almost scared of him im the last book so why did he seem so harmless in this one?

(Except for the one instance where he murdered this whole family in their home... but we were just told it was him and only read about the aftermath so it didnt really seem like a threat or that it had any consequences other than Apollo wanting to frame Jacks with it...)

Overall I loved the series and this third book was a fast and easy read. I was really immersed in the story and I loved the little details like the dragons, the trees, the concept of the hunt and the forest, the story curse giving everything a twist (although it seemed to have a stronger impact in the earlier books) and the idea of having two kinds of hearts.

(Was it ever resolved if Jacks put his heart back in place? Didn't he just drop it after the kiss or when the tree caught fire and it was never mentioned what happened to it afterwards? Or did I miss that detail?

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annamay1021's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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tourmaline1703's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Despite my confusion at the start, I did enjoy this book. It was a good ending to a great series and I cannot wait for Spectacular later this year!

In this book, we get to see more of the Magnificent North and get to delve deeper into its history. It felt like we really built off what we learnt in the other books and added to its magic. I'm still a bit confused on how the curses work and why some were lifted and some weren't but, I loved the way the magic system was added to in this novel.

As always, Stephanie Garber's writing is wonderful. It's so easy to get into and the descriptions are beautiful. I love the way she brings the characters' emotions to life, especially their anger, and I think the multi-POV really showed this contrast off.

I did find the plot a bit awkwardly paced and hard to follow at times. I don't know if I was just being a bit vague at times but it felt like I had no clue what was going on at all for the first half of the book. However, as the novel progressed, things started clearing up and the twists towards the end were brilliant. Despite not quite understanding what was going on, I still enjoyed it.

It's very safe to say I misjudged one of our protagonists massively and it led to a lot of confusion at the start. I was very confused by their actions but turns out, I just overestimated them. I loved the multi-POV and I think it really added to the characters, and helped understand their motives much better. This book has made me actually like Jacks now, I still don't fully trust him but I do really like him as a character now.

Therefore, despite all my confusion, I really enjoyed this book and it was a great end to the series!

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teabrewer's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-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

3.0

The beggining seemed very good. I got my hopes up that it would be closer to the first one until about 2/3 of the book. After that it lost itself a bit. There were multiple dialogues in which I could hear the author's voice instead of the character's. Especially forced exposition, mostly trying to change lore last minute to fix plot holes.

I didn't like what the author did with the Valors, with the exception of Castor.

In general, the end was ok. Barely above average.

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