I feel like Stephanie Garber is developing a habit in her finale/3rd books. She gets excited for the next story she wants to tell and starts planning and dropping breadcrumbs for the future, and in so doing, it is like she gets board with telling the end to the current story. *warning - spoilers for both the series Caraval and OUABH beyond this point* ****************************** In “Finale” (the 3rd Caraval Book), she so clearly was setting Jacks up for his own set of books and got super excited for his story, so by the end of the book, I was almost mad that Tella chose Legend because I had fallen in love with Jacks. This made me feel like the Caraval books only served as a stepping stone to her next series - “Once Upon a Broken Heart.” But I was ok with that, because I really wanted that story to be told. Now, in “A Curse for True Love,” she did the same thing. I feel like she lost interest in the Eva/Jacks story because she already knows what she wants to do next. As a result, this book feels hurried and unfinished with a plethora of loose ends and forgotten characters and the romance between Eva and Jacks that built for 2 books ends up feeling like a let down in book She spent so much time in Apollo’s POV, and I feel like the only satisfying part of the book was that he got what he deserved in the tree of souls. *BUT* in one of the 2 bonus afterward chapters (depending on where you got your book, the chapters are different), she heavily implies that he is going to get out of the tree and have his own shot at true love, so even the most satisfying/well-crafted plot point of the book is set up to be undone in the future! I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating that was to read. I had hoped that the bonus chapters might make me like the book better and deliver more of Jacks and Eva, but it only made me more frustrated!!! Garber needs to complete a story with a satisfying ending for the current set of characters before moving on to the next story. If she keeps this up, I don’t know if I will be able to keep reading her stuff, as much as I like the ride she gives us, the endings are consistently unsatisfying. I don’t know if this is something that editors and test readers are failing to tell her, but it needs to be said by someone. This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and I am so disappointed in how the series ended.

the story curse was answered. the valors put it on the magnificent north to keep from people finding out about castor or anything about vampires, but it apparently affected ALL the stories.

I'm honestly shocked that this book was such a let down because the first two were so well done! I'm so sad. **Spoilers** Like half the characters just disappeared, we never understood the dragon or saw the relationship with him and Lala, also was Castor her boy? HOW did she kiss Jack's? How was the curse broken? Why did he eat apples?!? I low-key kinda liked Apollo and he did such a sharp turn it was jarring. Ugh. I'm so sad 😢

I was also so disappointed. My boy Jacks became a side character in his own series.🥲

I have ranted about this book for two days since I finished it. There were SO MANY plot holes that were not resolved. Everyone is upset about the apples, but there were so many new plots opened up in this book that were just left hanging. Anyone wanna talk about how Chaos/Castor has gone on a KILLING SPREE and no one ever mentioned it at the end? And Apollo's "villian arc" was so so so contrived. There were so many better ways to wrap up this series and this was just not it. About the apples: Stephanie Garber even hinted to actally telling us on her instagram and then just DOESN'T TELL US. It really feels like she had a lot of little ideas about what would be interesting in a fantasy novel and just threw them in there with no idea how to properly integrate them and used them to pad out the story. There was so much miscellanous crap in this book and I'm so upset about it. Thank you for not being one of those readers who loves a series and then sticks themselves up the author's butt no matter how bad a finish product actually is. I appreciate your commentary.

I think he ate the apples to control his urge to kiss Evangeline because in the last few chapters after they found out that Evangeline wouldn't die from jacks kiss, Evangeline asks about it he said that he didn't need it anymore

I had all the same feelings. Just bummed. Now I wonder if they didn't send out ARCs bc they were worried about bad early reviews.

you could honestly tell she read six of crows and acotar before writing this book because there was a kaz eye threat verbatim and the whole apollo "i'm protecting her let me ruin her life" was v tamlin at multiple moments. and ms garber does this. i read remnant chronicles by mary e pearson before starting caraval (also so horrible with the unnecessary twists and missing plot; not to mention that legend dated the grandmother i don't know why people keep forgetting that) and the rebel country in this series was called Venda and i was reading the caraval and their country was Valenda and i was like wow what a coincidence and then read an interview where she said she loved the remnant chronicles also so. ACFTL was so disappointing i thought her bad writing days were over with ballad because it was such a good book but the last book was so??? the last ten chapters were wild. the first half was entirely evangaline being "i don't remember" and apollo saying "i will be the only one who won't harm you" and well he's not wrong. he never said he would also protect a recently and deeply traumatised fourteen year old boy. Lala was barely there, didn't show her break up with slaughterwood, Luc was god knows where. no one knows how you become fate, how do evajacks plan to be together when she's mortal? why were the valors so??? dull?? they came out after hundreds of years of sleeping in a dungeon there was so much scope for humour. all of apollo's backstory was clearly added to make him seem layered when he only seemed so obviously just bad. Aurora had so much potential of being a villain, like Layla from Miraculous Ladybug. the tidbit of castor and lala, petras lover byron. all these new objects and quests. we barely saw the angst of jacks and his interaction with aurora when he promised her his HEART. IMAGINE THAT POV. a well-written POV. Imagine that as a leigh bardugo or Sarah j maas written pov. MY GOD. also honestly why apples. why. how do you get them. where do you get them. who colours them. is it outfit coordinated? are they different flavours? is it like a breakfast smoothie?? HONESTLY IM SO CONFUSED. she got her memories back in like what?? a week??? two weeks?? cuz of a random gold powder who did god knows what?? where did jacks get it?? i thought aurora initially but she obvs didnt and why did jacks want her to remember when he was going to ditch her?? a random two day training with jacks with no context??? also why so many descriptions??? why so less of a plot??? what the hell is a second heart and why has this literally not been mentioned before when the entire love problem revolves around jacks' heart and it beating???? why was "NO NOT AGAIN" so FUNNY??? why that choice of words??? why was it so rushed at the end??? if you take out descriptions the book is 20 pages long. every scene archer entered, he entered growling. the "one bed" was nowhere used??? the whole point is forced proximity they already entered tied hands pretending to be married god knows why?? it was like stephanie had a checklist of tropes and she was ticking off every single one without actually writing anything. there are dialogues in this book that are so ??? illogical?? eg: “I saw your portrait in the scandal sheets-along with a story about everyone you murdered last night!” “I didn’t murder anyone last night.” “You killed someone in front of me!” “That wasn’t murder. He was trying to kill you.” I think she meant to write 'murder innocents' 'i didnt murder any innocent last night' 'the man from last night--" 'wasn't innocent he was trying to kill you' but i honestly couldn't tell you why she didn't. gurl honestly who was guild of heroes and this bird dude like why WHY and where is tiberius why was he never brought back by apollo hes not dead just in a dungeon right??? i have so many problems with this book, it honestly felt like the first book of the series. and the whole time will take something of equal value. so memories were taken by apollo so WHAT DID TIME TAKE?? oh and imagine the scene where jacks is watching apollo and eva kiss and he's thinking maybe i should leave her maybe theres no hope and then he HEARS HER SAY HIS NAME AND SEES APOLLO TURN GREEN WITH ENVY and smirks and says to himself "i knew i could trust you little fox. i'm coming for you. don't you worry." LIKE???????? imagine this novel starting with mainly jacks' pov. a couple, 3-4 chapters explaining his entire backstory. specially WHY THE E ENCYCLOPEDIA. and then it comes to the point where he wakes up after castor fed on him and starts finding evangaline to check on her cuz trauma from seeing her die and then finds out her memories are gone. cue revengeful lover boy jacks. he starts employing every royal common friend to keep an eye on eva and see how much she remembers and if he can trigger the memories. he calls in Lala and makes her stick around eva especially to piss off apollo. imagine at breakfast: eva: hi lala your food looks so good what are you having lala: oh some toast with jacksfruit eva: what did you say? lala: hmm? eva: ?? THEN he starts showing up in the most clever ways and has the edge because apollo is fighting valors for the crown (that was such obvious political intrigue) and then there's aurora in the background blackmailing apollo and pining after jacks and she does something flirty with him in front of eva and eva doesn't know why she hATES aurora so much and wants to see jacks' reaction only to find him already staring at her with a smirk and a twinkle in his eye. and then through something appropriately dramatic she gets her memories back and actually starts pretending to not know only to make apollo's life a LIVING HELL. like repeating the breakfast convo WITH APOLLO. apollo: hi eva your food looks so good what are you having eva: oh some toast with jacksfruit apollo: what did you say? eva: hmm? apollo: ?? then finally apollo is taken down and valors win the kingdom and gift evajacks the grandest wedding ever and tella and "crimson" (gag) come in with their respective boys and tella finds out how jacks has changed and forgives him and scarlett meets valors and strengthen the political relation and at the end jacks finally tells why the apples and its something absolutely stupid like "ah i was eating an apple when i got cursed and well now i can't have anything else and I've been using magic to make them taste like everything else" and they all go crazy and request weird flavor apples from him like pink glitter apple that tastes like a cupcake or. a white with unicorns on it that tastes like lala's fav pizza or a normal red apple that tastes like an apple just to throw jacks off and he's starts becoming sassy and eva shushes him and he complies to whatever weird request he's been asked for. and luc and marisol end up together with another curse on them curtsey of lala because she was pissed at both for making eva's life hell. and the curse is also something so funny like having to kiss for two minutes everytime their eyes meet or something and at the end they're both wearing sunglasses just to not have to be subjected to this curse. and the stepmother is begging eva for some favours and its just a good old cinderella full circle moment. and both knightlingers are covering the event and we finally see the brothers together and then they move into the inn and run it with all four stones in their keep as a gift for helping everyone come together. honestly the only time i laughed was when eva slapped apollo and the pretended to not have memories and his "I didn't know you could hit so hard my sweet" AHAHAH THAT WAS SO FUNNY OHHHH I WAS also hoping that the at the end when valors come back they take the story curse back and when eva finally reads the ballad of archer and the fox she sees like the fox reincarnated with pink hair or something?????????? or how the story was always a happy one

I’ve just finished it. It was so disappointing. Not enough Jacks.

The amnesia plot-line was so underwhelming. More than half the book was Evangeline meeting and trying to remember things that had happened to her in the previous books, which we as reader are already aware of. It made the story boring in my opinion. And why was this more of an Apollo-Evangeline story. The Apollo arc did not even play a part in bringing Jacks and Eva together. Jacks who was supposed to be the MMC appears like a side character. There are some loose ends that never get tied up. Didn’t like the lukewarm ending. I mean the whole thing about Jacks being cursed to never find true love, ended with Eva’s self-conviction…I mean…what? 😅😅😅

Lo necesito en español 😭 Pero eso de que es mas sobre Apolo no me agrada. Osea! yo quiero es saber mas sobre Jack❤ me enemore de ese personaje, tanto que en mis historias de "escritoria aficionada" cree un personaje inspirado en él 😂

I haven’t read it yet but now I’m so nervous lol

wait wait hold up when did they explain who cursed Jacks? I must have totally missed that LOL can someone tell me? Now I'm dying to know😅

Pretty disappointed. There were so many triple statements Ding ding ding…. Blah. Blah. Blah. There were also a lot of dually stated things two sentences in a row essentially stating the same thing but in a different way. So much fluff. For a short book, we don’t need 3/4 of it to be scene setting. Descriptive scene setting is great if you’re going to write a large book. Don’t leave out what we want from the story to make room for descriptive scene setting.

I disliked it as well, one word is enough to describe everthing :BORING...I will never read an other book of the author