Stephanie Garber

A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE is the final novel in Stephanie Garber's Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy. As with the previous two books, it lives up to its name for romance and tragedy. It is the fairy tale you never knew you wanted.

In A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE, there are no real surprises. The story follows along the lines you would expect from a fairy tale. Evangeline has to fight a little harder for her happy ending, though. She does this through some actual character growth by developing a backbone and eliminating her penchant for being a victim. Since the lack of spine and a tendency to listen to the last person who spoke to her were my two biggest issues regarding Evangeline's character, these were two developments I was glad to see.

Because A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE is not all kisses and hugs, I have issues with the portrayal of curses in the story and the liberties Ms. Garber takes to make each curse fit her story. You see, in A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE, Jacks' curse is for eternity. Yet, curses like Evangeline's memory loss or Apollo's hunter's curse are not quite as strong. It doesn't make much sense because fairy tales taught us that curses are not easy to break. Yet, in Evangeline's world, some are easier to break than others. To me, this has all the trappings of convenience.

Still, I'm willing to overlook that convenience to say that A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE is a true fairy tale. A princess must overcome evil to obtain everything her heart desires, and she does just that. For me, it was an excellent palate cleanser after the excitement and tension of previous books. The story asks nothing of its reader other than to sit back and enjoy the prettiness of it, and sometimes that's the best thing of all.… (altro)

I can’t tell which leaked intelligence faster, this book or its heroine. Because legend has it… Scarlett is the literal worst.

There was a story somewhere in there, or at least the idea of one. But Caraval is so poorly written that it never got to grow into something decent. The “twists” continued to undo any progress previously made. And did I mention that Scarlett may be missing usable brain cells?

That’s 0 & 2 for the Stephanie Garber reads for me. I think I can move on and accept I don’t need to try any more.… (altro)