Scan barcode
A review by readwkit
A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber
2.0
//if you don't like negative reviews of your favourite book, please scroll away!
I almost never write negative reviews, mainly because I understand that someone's efforts have gone into publishing a book. That being said, since i can't rant on Twitter about this right now, Goodreads will have to take the brunt of my criticism. Apologies to stans in advance.
I almost considered DNFing this one. It was significantly worse than OUABH, which I have also rated 2 stars. It's the way my tl on Twitter is filled with awe and overpouring love for evajacks and here i am, rolling my eyes at both of them.
let's start with the positives:
if this series ever becomes a show, I'll watch it. It's got the aesthetics and the setting for a perfect fantasy fairytalelike commercial show.
negatives: (prepare thyself)
1. the writing was just as bad as OUABH. TBONA somewhat improved the series by introducing angst, but everything that TBONA had built completely shattered with ACFTL's writing. Every aspect, every plot, every thought, every logic is explained painfully in words to the reader instead of showing it. It's as though I read a summary of the book instead of the book itself.
2. Evangeline Fox is possibly an empath, or it's just bad storytelling. The way she seems to deduce every person's thoughts, feelings and unspoken history behind a single glance or a twitch in their face seems to be commendable, only if it made sense. She seems to know when there is guilt, anger, shock, fear, love, hopelessness etc even in the most subtle eye movements. And if this was actually her power (Callum Nova from Atlas Six would've been proud), I would've applauded. Unfortunately, it's just the lack of good writing. I genuinely don't like criticising a book this much, but because there's little to no criticism for it, I will have to be the bearer of bad news.
3. So many unaddressed plotlines? If Tella's kiss with Jacks is explained (Aurora Vale kindly did so), how does that make Eva immune to his kiss? Did I miss something? Where did Marisol go? Luc? Tiberius? How can evajacks speak telepathically? Why can't Jacks use his powers on Eva? What happens now, with the Valors back in power? What happened to Castor/Chaos towards the end? Eva still owes Jacks one more kiss, so is that ever going to be addressed? and wtf is up with Jacks' apples?????? true love is the answer to all of these questions, I guess.
4. let me say this once, and for the last time. Having cartoonish villains with zero complexity is the perfect spell for disaster. I would've rated this book slightly better if Garber had not given Apollo the personality of a doormat. He seemed to have a singular motive in mind, and it wasn't even done well. If the remnants of his curse seemed to have influenced his feelings, it should've been shown. Evangeline seemed to be unnecessarily reckless in this one and somehow missed all the glaring, bright and shining red flags.
Jacks POVs ruined his character mystique. Maybe a couple chapters in his POV would've sufficed.
this isn't the end of my criticism, but I'll probably get skinned alive for review anyway so i'll call it quits here.
I almost never write negative reviews, mainly because I understand that someone's efforts have gone into publishing a book. That being said, since i can't rant on Twitter about this right now, Goodreads will have to take the brunt of my criticism. Apologies to stans in advance.
I almost considered DNFing this one. It was significantly worse than OUABH, which I have also rated 2 stars. It's the way my tl on Twitter is filled with awe and overpouring love for evajacks and here i am, rolling my eyes at both of them.
let's start with the positives:
if this series ever becomes a show, I'll watch it. It's got the aesthetics and the setting for a perfect fantasy fairytalelike commercial show.
negatives: (prepare thyself)
1. the writing was just as bad as OUABH. TBONA somewhat improved the series by introducing angst, but everything that TBONA had built completely shattered with ACFTL's writing. Every aspect, every plot, every thought, every logic is explained painfully in words to the reader instead of showing it. It's as though I read a summary of the book instead of the book itself.
2. Evangeline Fox is possibly an empath, or it's just bad storytelling. The way she seems to deduce every person's thoughts, feelings and unspoken history behind a single glance or a twitch in their face seems to be commendable, only if it made sense. She seems to know when there is guilt, anger, shock, fear, love, hopelessness etc even in the most subtle eye movements. And if this was actually her power (Callum Nova from Atlas Six would've been proud), I would've applauded. Unfortunately, it's just the lack of good writing. I genuinely don't like criticising a book this much, but because there's little to no criticism for it, I will have to be the bearer of bad news.
3. So many unaddressed plotlines? If Tella's kiss with Jacks is explained (Aurora Vale kindly did so), how does that make Eva immune to his kiss? Did I miss something? Where did Marisol go? Luc? Tiberius? How can evajacks speak telepathically? Why can't Jacks use his powers on Eva? What happens now, with the Valors back in power? What happened to Castor/Chaos towards the end? Eva still owes Jacks one more kiss, so is that ever going to be addressed? and wtf is up with Jacks' apples?????? true love is the answer to all of these questions, I guess.
4. let me say this once, and for the last time. Having cartoonish villains with zero complexity is the perfect spell for disaster. I would've rated this book slightly better if Garber had not given Apollo the personality of a doormat. He seemed to have a singular motive in mind, and it wasn't even done well. If the remnants of his curse seemed to have influenced his feelings, it should've been shown. Evangeline seemed to be unnecessarily reckless in this one and somehow missed all the glaring, bright and shining red flags.
Jacks POVs ruined his character mystique. Maybe a couple chapters in his POV would've sufficed.
this isn't the end of my criticism, but I'll probably get skinned alive for review anyway so i'll call it quits here.