Life of Bry

July 9, 2025

All my thoughts: A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber

“I’ve made my decision, Jacks. It’s you. It will always be you, until the end of time. And I’ll fight fate or anyone else who tries to tear us apart- including you. You are my choice. You are my love. You are mine. And you are not going to be the end of me, Jacks.”

A Curse for True Love, Stephanie Garber

This one is gonna be hard to write. I was disappointed. Not spectacularly disappointed to the point I want to rant over it, just let down.

A Curse for True Love, the finale of Stephanie Garber’s Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy, didn’t give me the satisfaction I was hoping for. Instead, it gave me a lingering question, a very mid kiss and a hope for something better.

ACfTL picks up where The Ballad of Never After leaves off. Evangeline’s memories are gone but there’s a nagging feeling in her chest that she has something she must tell someone. As she struggles with her memory loss, Jacks is fighting between his need to keep Evangeline safe and his own feelings. Meanwhile, Apollo is dealing with the lingering effects of the Archer’s curse and a desperate want to leave a legacy.

Let’s start with my gripes.

I thought the payoff wasn’t worth the build up. Maybe this was just a personal opinion, but I was hoping for something grander and a little more emotional. I think because they were interrupted by Apollo, the moment of the kiss and declaration just whizzed by without landing properly. It felt too rushed. I wanted a little more time with the scene, but also more balance. Evangeline spills her guts, but we don’t get much from Jacks. That would’ve been such a great moment for him to open up.

Also, are we just going to let the biggest issue with immortal-mortal relationships skate by? Evangeline will get old and die, while Jacks will live on. This story ends in tragedy. But maybe that’s the point. Happily ever after isn’t a forever thing. It’s moments; periods of time. It’s not that big of a deal, but I wish it would’ve been a topic of discussion.

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And my final gripe is I didn’t like how much information was repeated. There were constant reminders of who people were or what they did — like this is LaLa, she sews to quench her urge for getting engaged; or Dane is LaLa’s love who is a dragon shifter. I just didn’t need or care for it. It was spoon feeding reminders. Somebody reading book three of a trilogy doesn’t need those tidbits. Or integrate it into the story better so it doesn’t feel so out of place.

What I really enjoyed was how Garber wrapped up her themes so nicely — particularly fate vs. free will. I had an epiphany at the end of the book that Apollo is an allegory for fate. He tries his hardest to keep Jack and Eva apart, interfering and taking away Eva’s free will. However, the moment Eva confesses her feelings for Jacks, she takes back her agency to prove her choice matters despite fate pulling strings against her.

Also, there’s a nice full-circle moment when Eva tells LaLa she is Jacks’ one true love because she believes it so, and that connects to the quote in book No. 1 about stories being full of both truth and lies but what matters is what we believe. That tied a bow on that theme beautifully.

Plus, I thought Eva’s character development follows through beautifully in this book. By making her lose her memories, Garber forces Eva to reconstruct her character without her previous lessons learned. I think it makes Eva a stronger character by showing how she makes choices on her own. She’s manipulated a lot in the first two books, but book No. 3 is her time to put everything together herself and make her own decisions with her own free will.

With that being said, I don’t think Jacks gets the same treatment. He fell a little flat. I love the concept of his character (I adore a moody, angst-ridden, sad man with a villainous streak), but we don’t get a lot of development from him in the finale. He sort of just flips — because we get his POV — to being obsessed with Eva. We don’t get the buildup, just the flop.

Overall, for how much I enjoyed the first two books, this finale didn’t live up to my expectations. I don’t think the plot was bad at all. I actually really liked the story. I just wanted a little more razzle dazzle with Eva and Jacks toward the end.

Here are all my thoughts while reading A Curse for True Love:

Apollo has taken away Eva’s free will. Instead of seeing if she’d fall in love with him anyway, he stole that choice from her.
- She does take it back somewhat by refusing to play along. She still has some agency.
I want Jacks back. Where’s my chaos demon?
Fairytales aren’t always what they seem.
I’d believe Eva fell into a well on her own tbh.
Oh no, Jacks is being an Edward Cullen lol watching people sleep is not cute; it’s creepy
Jacks got what he wanted in the end. Eva doesn’t remember him. … He thought it would be okay. That that’s what he wanted. But it’s not so easy to let go.
Apollo refuses to take responsibility for his own actions and choices. Insisting Eva is forcing his hand when in reality he is using his free will to take away hers.
Hope is such a strong theme, especially with Eva. Her hope is often inspiring but also worrisome. That’s why Jacks is such a good partner for her. He helps ground her reckless hope. Because hope can be dangerous.

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I like the play on villainy. Jacks is framed as the villain. He speaks like a villain, but his actions are often contrary to his words. Whereas Apollo should be the hero. He’s the prince, the victim of several curses; but he does such monstrous things.
- the juxtaposition between Jacks killing the assassin and Apollo murdering the boy is so good at contrasting their characters. Jacks kills because the assassin will murder Eva if he doesn’t; whereas, Apollo kills an innocent boy to fuel his own narrative.
pg. 225 / Is there such a thing as necessary evil or is that an excuse to absolve yourself of the poor or unfavorable choices we make in life? We all have our reasons, but it doesn’t change the fact we made that choice.
Pg. 282 / I don’t think the fact Jacks is immortal and Eva is not is ever discussed. Feels like a plot hole. Or maybe that’s left untouched because it’s playing on the idea HEA doesn’t really exist because life keeps happening.

pg. 283 / I love that we connect this story back to the first book and the quote early on (“What matters is the way that we believe in them.”) Eva is kind of manifesting her own destiny. If she believes it’s real, then it is.
I never liked Aurora. Shady bitch.
How did no one put 2 and 2 together that the Vales were actually the Valors? They put zero effort into an alias.
The themes are wrapping up very well. Fate vs. free will meets its peak at pg. 345 when Eva realizes her choices matter most. She still has agency against Fate.
Oh wait … was Apollo an allegory for fate? He takes away her ability to make choices for herself, decides for her. He even tries to kill her. Jacks may be a fate, but Apollo was playing fate.
I’m a little underwhelmed by the kiss and confession, ngl. It just didn’t hit for me after so much buildup.
Eva is so dumb. If she couldn’t figure out Jacks had the apples to satisfy the urge to kiss then she doesn’t deserve to know.