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bri_reads_the_stars 's review for:
A Curse for True Love
by Stephanie Garber
Yet again I could tell that a huge amount of work went into writing this story and I continue to admire and respect Garber for that. I continued to find it entertaining for the wrong reasons which is why I'm rating it this way. Garber has, yet again, gotten a visceral reaction from me... even if it wasn't a positive one. Even after a week and multiple books later I'm still thinking about these books and the characters even though I wish I wasn't.
Half of the book is flashbacks as Evangeline is regaining her memories and those were often just PARAGRAPHS cut and pasted from TBONA or OUABH. As a result, I felt like there wasn't much of a plot and we're left with so many loose ends and questions.
Why did certain characters just disappear? Where is Luc? Where is Marisol? Are they alive? Are they dead? What happened with Robin and Lala? Did they break up because of Dane or Chaos? Byron and Petra? Where did that come from, I thought he was a widower? How did Honora cure Apollo, I thought you couldn't lift the Archer's curse? I should not have this many unanswered questions during the last book.
Now that we have the other POVs (Apollo and Jacks) in this book I maintain that Jacks is the only semi-logical character. Apollo is on a murder spree because his ego is hurt. He keeps ruining things with Evangeline himself which makes him the worst villain (if he weren't so busy focusing on Jacks he could have built a relationship with Evangeline and lived happily ever after). We get to see things from Jacks pov as well and he's different from how Evangeline perceived him (he went from being cruel, flirtatious, and charismatic to an almost more somber and kind character). I wish Jacks had a bigger role in this book (a little more angst and pining would have been appreciated). He was hardly present, mostly staying in the background protecting Evangeline. After all that build-up, though, I'm glad they finally kissed.
Aurora being the one to curse Jacks shouldn't have just been a passing line! We could have cut half of Evangeline's remembering scenes and Apollo being unhinged to go deeper into that storyline. Instead, it was rushed and glossed over. There was even a setup for how Jacks and Lala became fates (Garber could have made references to Caraval) but it was also glossed over.
TBONA or OUABH flowed so much better than this. This is clunky and feels like a shell of a story. It's just upsetting because Stephanie Garber had SO many options to make this the greatest love story of all time and it fell flat. The way this started with Evangeline, not having her memories, I feel like this could have been a series with 4, maybe even 5, books where we got to experience her memory loss, more of the Valors (especially how they punish Aurora, if they even do punish her), Jacks backstory, maybe even LaLa and Chaos. I truly do believe that this series has so much potential.
Half of the book is flashbacks as Evangeline is regaining her memories and those were often just PARAGRAPHS cut and pasted from TBONA or OUABH. As a result, I felt like there wasn't much of a plot and we're left with so many loose ends and questions.
Why did certain characters just disappear? Where is Luc? Where is Marisol? Are they alive? Are they dead? What happened with Robin and Lala? Did they break up because of Dane or Chaos? Byron and Petra? Where did that come from, I thought he was a widower? How did Honora cure Apollo, I thought you couldn't lift the Archer's curse? I should not have this many unanswered questions during the last book.
Now that we have the other POVs (Apollo and Jacks) in this book I maintain that Jacks is the only semi-logical character. Apollo is on a murder spree because his ego is hurt. He keeps ruining things with Evangeline himself which makes him the worst villain (if he weren't so busy focusing on Jacks he could have built a relationship with Evangeline and lived happily ever after). We get to see things from Jacks pov as well and he's different from how Evangeline perceived him (he went from being cruel, flirtatious, and charismatic to an almost more somber and kind character). I wish Jacks had a bigger role in this book (a little more angst and pining would have been appreciated). He was hardly present, mostly staying in the background protecting Evangeline. After all that build-up, though, I'm glad they finally kissed.
Aurora being the one to curse Jacks shouldn't have just been a passing line! We could have cut half of Evangeline's remembering scenes and Apollo being unhinged to go deeper into that storyline. Instead, it was rushed and glossed over. There was even a setup for how Jacks and Lala became fates (Garber could have made references to Caraval) but it was also glossed over.
TBONA or OUABH flowed so much better than this. This is clunky and feels like a shell of a story. It's just upsetting because Stephanie Garber had SO many options to make this the greatest love story of all time and it fell flat. The way this started with Evangeline, not having her memories, I feel like this could have been a series with 4, maybe even 5, books where we got to experience her memory loss, more of the Valors (especially how they punish Aurora, if they even do punish her), Jacks backstory, maybe even LaLa and Chaos. I truly do believe that this series has so much potential.