Scan barcode
A review by inkandpages_
Legendary by Stephanie Garber
5.0
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Like the thoughts in my brain, this review is all over the place. I’d say it’s more of a summary with a my personal comments.
This series is exactly why I fell in love with reading. It has magic, mystery, and a little steamy romance. I am going to be so sad when I finish this series. This sequel was just as good as the first, if not even better. There was so much going on, and so many twists and turns, but in a good way. It was pretty predictable, but that honestly didn’t bother me.
In this sequel, we follow Tella through another game of Caraval, only this time, she’s playing for a totally different reason. Tella has been writing a total stranger who knows where her mother is. Bringing back the mystery of the mother drew me in, just because I totally forgot we never really knew what had happened to her.
When Tella meets her mystery pen pal, Jacks, we find out that he’s not only the heir to the empire, but he’s a fate, the Prince of Hearts. Of course there’s a steamy interaction, and they kiss, and his kiss is supposedly deadly, killing anyone he lays his lips on, except his true love. But Tella doesn’t die. She just has other symptoms, and she believes it’s because he needs her alive to continue to play the game, because he wants something of his own. He wants the identity of Legend.
Tella is now playing the game to find out who Legend is, otherwise, Jacks will kill her and her mother.
Tella keeps bumping into mysterious and sexy Dante, who always smells like ink (this is said so many times, it got kind of annoying. What does ink even smell like?) Tella can’t tell if Dante is playing her and playing the game, or if there is really something there. Until she overhears a conversation between Dante and Julian, her sister’s boy toy (we knew Julian from the first book, and Julian is supposedly Legend’s brother) where Dante calls Julian “brother.” Womp, there it is. But is he actually Legend? This kind of gave it away for me, because who else could it be?
Tella continues her shenanigans through the nights of Caraval, and gets herself into dangerous situations. She discovers that what she needs to find is her mothers Deck of Destiny. These cards hold the actual Fates, and the Prince of Hearts wants to release them and let them wreak havoc all over the world. So now Tella is stuck, does she hand over the cards and Legend to Jacks, allowing terror to reign, but she’ll get her mother? Or will she keep give the cards to Legend, destroying the Fates, but losing her mother.
Tella is constantly back and forth with what she wants to do. Dante keeps popping in (smelling like ink) and Tella remains wary of his intentions. Until she finds out her mother was awful and traded her life in order to hide the Deck of Destiny.
Tella and Dante FINALLY get their moment (I’ve been waiting for them to hook up for like 75% of the dang story) and then she’s even more conflicted, because if he’s really Legend, does she hand him over to Jacks?
Tella finds where her mother hid the Deck of Destiny, but the only way she has access to where it is hidden, is the ring on her finger that was given to her by her mother. The ring is cursed and the only way to break the curse is to pay the debt of her mother (which is Tella herself).
Dante of course figures out a way around this, and Tella is able to get the cards.
Once she has the cards, she “wins,” and the first face she is to see is Legend’s. Aaaaaaand it’s DANTE.
I had a feeling it was, and I’m not disappointed.
Tella is broken, she is stuck between turning over the one person she fell in love with, and saving her mom. She realizes there is a loophole and she can save her mom and save Legend/Dante. She trades places with her mother.
So Tella goes into the card, and her mother comes out. But then Tella comes back out after a hot second. She’s confused and of course Legend/Dante made another sacrifice, he broke the curse of the cards, releasing not only Tella, but all of the fates.
Legend/Dante leaves Tella with a lot of questions.
We then find out the Empress has died, and Jacks was supposed to be the heir to the throne, but suddenly on that last night, we find out the Empress’s missing child has suddenly returned and they are to take the throne. Hmm, I wonder who that is?
We find out it’s Legend (again, not surprised, but I like where this is going, because why? Why does he want the throne? How did he convince the Empress).
So the story ends with a lovely little note from Legend/Dante to Tella, stating that have “unfinished business” (drool
Like the thoughts in my brain, this review is all over the place. I’d say it’s more of a summary with a my personal comments.
This series is exactly why I fell in love with reading. It has magic, mystery, and a little steamy romance. I am going to be so sad when I finish this series. This sequel was just as good as the first, if not even better. There was so much going on, and so many twists and turns, but in a good way. It was pretty predictable, but that honestly didn’t bother me.
In this sequel, we follow Tella through another game of Caraval, only this time, she’s playing for a totally different reason. Tella has been writing a total stranger who knows where her mother is. Bringing back the mystery of the mother drew me in, just because I totally forgot we never really knew what had happened to her.
When Tella meets her mystery pen pal, Jacks, we find out that he’s not only the heir to the empire, but he’s a fate, the Prince of Hearts. Of course there’s a steamy interaction, and they kiss, and his kiss is supposedly deadly, killing anyone he lays his lips on, except his true love. But Tella doesn’t die. She just has other symptoms, and she believes it’s because he needs her alive to continue to play the game, because he wants something of his own. He wants the identity of Legend.
Tella is now playing the game to find out who Legend is, otherwise, Jacks will kill her and her mother.
Tella keeps bumping into mysterious and sexy Dante, who always smells like ink (this is said so many times, it got kind of annoying. What does ink even smell like?) Tella can’t tell if Dante is playing her and playing the game, or if there is really something there. Until she overhears a conversation between Dante and Julian, her sister’s boy toy (we knew Julian from the first book, and Julian is supposedly Legend’s brother) where Dante calls Julian “brother.” Womp, there it is. But is he actually Legend? This kind of gave it away for me, because who else could it be?
Tella continues her shenanigans through the nights of Caraval, and gets herself into dangerous situations. She discovers that what she needs to find is her mothers Deck of Destiny. These cards hold the actual Fates, and the Prince of Hearts wants to release them and let them wreak havoc all over the world. So now Tella is stuck, does she hand over the cards and Legend to Jacks, allowing terror to reign, but she’ll get her mother? Or will she keep give the cards to Legend, destroying the Fates, but losing her mother.
Tella is constantly back and forth with what she wants to do. Dante keeps popping in (smelling like ink) and Tella remains wary of his intentions. Until she finds out her mother was awful and traded her life in order to hide the Deck of Destiny.
Tella and Dante FINALLY get their moment (I’ve been waiting for them to hook up for like 75% of the dang story) and then she’s even more conflicted, because if he’s really Legend, does she hand him over to Jacks?
Tella finds where her mother hid the Deck of Destiny, but the only way she has access to where it is hidden, is the ring on her finger that was given to her by her mother. The ring is cursed and the only way to break the curse is to pay the debt of her mother (which is Tella herself).
Dante of course figures out a way around this, and Tella is able to get the cards.
Once she has the cards, she “wins,” and the first face she is to see is Legend’s. Aaaaaaand it’s DANTE.
I had a feeling it was, and I’m not disappointed.
Tella is broken, she is stuck between turning over the one person she fell in love with, and saving her mom. She realizes there is a loophole and she can save her mom and save Legend/Dante. She trades places with her mother.
So Tella goes into the card, and her mother comes out. But then Tella comes back out after a hot second. She’s confused and of course Legend/Dante made another sacrifice, he broke the curse of the cards, releasing not only Tella, but all of the fates.
Legend/Dante leaves Tella with a lot of questions.
We then find out the Empress has died, and Jacks was supposed to be the heir to the throne, but suddenly on that last night, we find out the Empress’s missing child has suddenly returned and they are to take the throne. Hmm, I wonder who that is?
We find out it’s Legend (again, not surprised, but I like where this is going, because why? Why does he want the throne? How did he convince the Empress).
So the story ends with a lovely little note from Legend/Dante to Tella, stating that have “unfinished business” (drool