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A review by elianacox
A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber
3.5
I hate to say it, but I'm disappointed. Queue the dramatic sobbing. Seriously though, there was a lot of hype surrounding the release of this book. The popularity that Evangaline and Jacks have surmounted on social media is almost a feat to be admired for YA right now. There's a lot of pressure to follow up two really good books with an equally great third book that wraps up the series. It just did not deliver.
The plot was lackluster, and the motives behind the villains were very poor. The book almost strikes me as a first draft that should have been heavily reworked and rewritten. It's a shame that Apollo ended up being the primary focus of the novel. This book lacks what the first two do so well in the fact that this was painfully predictable. It's hard to see a series that encorperated deception so well be let down.
Arguably, is it fair to judge this book based on what came before? I say yes, but as a standalone it still has all the same issues (predictable, missing angst between Eva/Jacks, wtf is happening with these "villains" and their "I'm evil because I'm selfish" attitude). Give me a good motive mixed with strategic sabotage. We know Garber is capable of doing it, see LaLa's actions in book two.
I didn't hate the book, but it struck me as very similar to her writing with the Caraval series (which I also did not enjoy). It's definitely worth reading to wrap up the storylines, but keep your hopes low and know that the best has already come.
The plot was lackluster, and the motives behind the villains were very poor. The book almost strikes me as a first draft that should have been heavily reworked and rewritten. It's a shame that Apollo ended up being the primary focus of the novel. This book lacks what the first two do so well in the fact that this was painfully predictable. It's hard to see a series that encorperated deception so well be let down.
Arguably, is it fair to judge this book based on what came before? I say yes, but as a standalone it still has all the same issues (predictable, missing angst between Eva/Jacks, wtf is happening with these "villains" and their "I'm evil because I'm selfish" attitude). Give me a good motive mixed with strategic sabotage. We know Garber is capable of doing it, see LaLa's actions in book two.
I didn't hate the book, but it struck me as very similar to her writing with the Caraval series (which I also did not enjoy). It's definitely worth reading to wrap up the storylines, but keep your hopes low and know that the best has already come.