Brainfullofbooks

A Curse for True Love is by far my favorite book of the series.  More than the other two, it feels like a fairytale.  Perhaps that’s because it is as dark as all other fairytales and begins with a curse.  Evangeline Fox had lost her mind.  She wakes in a graveyard with no memories and no idea how she got there, only to be swept up by a handsome prince moments later.  She especially feels like it when he tells her they’re married and she’s a princess.  Apollo takes her back to a picturesque palace, but as perfect as it all seems, something is wrong.  Evangeline knows it deep down: even though her mind has forgotten, her heart hasn’t.  It whispers that there’s something – someone important she’s forgotten.  Can she remember before it’s too late or will she be stuck in this happily ever after forever?

While Garber continues setting up love as the driving force of all her characters–even the new ones–she really hammers home the motif of heartbreak.  Even more than ever Evangeline suffers from a broken heart.  And it is her broken heart that alerts her to the fact that something is wrong.  It doesn’t let her rest, fully fall in to the “happily ever after” or truly forget.  The sore wound in her heart pushes her to dig deeper and uncover the flimsy facade of Apollo’s lies.  It’s because of that pain she eventually regains her memories; so, one could say it is her broken heart that saves the day.  It sees them through to a happier ever after, and without it they never would have found one.  Jacks even suffers his own kind of heartbreak, though it is nothing compared to Evangeline’s.  Still, I applaud Garber’s choice to use love as a motivator for all her characters and I appreciate how she not only continued that but rounded off the theme of heartbreak.  It brings this trilogy to a beautiful and powerful conclusion.

I was also enchanted with the way she played the line between hero and villain.  It would have been an easy and straightforward choice to have Apollo be the hero and Jack’s the villain, play up the stereotypes.  After all it is the most logical choice, of course the handsome prince is the hero and the gorgeous if dangerous fate is the villain. Garber refuses to go the easy route.  From the first book, Once Upon a Broken Heart, it hasn’t been so simple.  The villains don’t entirely seem like it because they’re motivated by love which makes them sympathetic.  But in this book Garber takes it further than ever before; and in a world where good and bad alike are driven by love, anyone could be a hero or a villain.

I absolutely loved how Garber plays by her own rules about fairytale endings.  I believe it was back in the first book, Once Upon a Broken Heart, that she established it.  She recounted how Evangeline’s mother would point out all loose ends after every story – describe everyone and everything that might threaten the happily ever after.  Garber certainly weaves many potential loose ends.  Apollo may be defeated but there are still many other dangers.  There’s Luc and Chaos and even the other Valors.  We don’t even know why Jacks was always seen with an apple.  What were they, why did he have them, and why did they just disappear?  That alone could open a door to draw them back into another story.  Then there is Aurora Valor still lurking about, and Evangeline’s own wicked stepsister somewhere out there.  All these things and more threaten Evangeline and Jacks’ happily ever after; but personally, I don’t mind.  In fact, I love it.  Not only is she playing by her own rules (and the real rule of fairytale) but they serve as back doors, left open for her in case she wants to return to them and draw Jacks and Evangeline into a story once more.  To be honest I hope that’s exactly what she does. Though, I wouldn’t complain if she wanted to revisit the magnificent north in a new fairytale. with new characters.  Still, I understand her wanting to take a break and look forward to her next book, Spectacular, which comes out this October.