Not only did my resolve to stick to my 2023 book list fall apart pretty quickly when a friend lent me a book in September, I completely failed at ignoring my library holds. In fact, in the week leading up to the release of Stephanie Garber's newest book, I was checking my library account online every single day just in case they got it early. And when October 24th rolled around, and it still wasn't ready, I had a real internal struggle over what the line was between waiting patiently like a normal human being or pestering the librarians about why the book wasn't available yet. (Don't even get me started on the Britney Spears memoir; we'll talk about that Friday.)
But finally, I was able to get my hands on the conclusion to Stephanie Garber's Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy. And you know what? Yay for that because it broke me out of a major reading slump I fell into during October. Even though I would still place this book—along with all her others—squarely into the "Trash But I Liked It" category, I was glad to finally get the end of the story.
What are you even talking about, Hannah? If you're brand new, then you may want to head back to this post from earlier in the year where I detailed my experience of reading Stephanie Garber's Caraval trilogy and the first two books in her Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy. My book club chose Caraval, and I went way down the rabbit hole reading all the books Stephanie Garber has had published to date. In this much-anticipated end to her Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy, we get shifting perspectives between Evangeline Fox, her husband Prince Apollo, and Jacks the fated Prince of Hearts. A Curse for True Love picks up literally right where The Ballad of Never After left us, with Evangeline in Apollo's arms right after he erases all her memories. As Evangeline struggles to regain her lost memories, Apollo is determined to end Jacks, but all Jacks cares about is protecting Evangeline from everyone who wants to kill her. And let me tell you: EVERYONE wants to kill her. For vague reasons I can only assume Garber created as an excuse to let Jacks keep coming to her rescue because it was very unclear why she was such a target. Can Evangeline figure out who is good and who is bad? And can she do it before irreparable damage is done?
Of course she can, and you can see where the story is headed from miles away. Unfortunately, Garber's writing has not really improved. But I thought she did some clever things in A Curse for True Love, particularly with Apollo and the Tree of Souls. As expected, Evangeline gets her tidy, Happily Ever After, and Garber teases more stories to come in a ridiculously schmaltzy epilogue.
Despite the fact that I will never recommend these books to anyone, and I will probably never read them again myself, I enjoyed them for what they were, and A Curse for True Love was an entertaining end to the series.
Do you have any books that fall into the "Trash But You Like It" category? And are there any librarians out there who can explain to me why it took so long for supposedly preordered books to be available?
"Jacks" is the kind of spelling-of-a-name that drives me crazy when I read. Sure, it's fun to say out loud, but to look at it is difficult--it looks wrong and pulls me out of the story. Who spells their name like that? No one, no one does. Just type "Jax" and call it a day.
ReplyDelete🤣 His name and entire character are an allusion to the jacks in a deck of cards. But specifically to the jack of hearts so why pluralize it at all? To make him edgy and cool? Puh-lease.
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