We've all done terrible things for love.
The Ballad of Never After
by Stephanie Garber
Genre: YA Fantasy
About: Evangeline Fox has learned her lesson: she will never again trust the Prince of Hearts. But when her husband falls under another curse, she's forced to admit she'll need Jacks' help, or she won't live long enough for her happily ever after.
The Good
The magic in this world is truly like slipping into a fairytale. I love the curses, the quests, and all that haunting heartbreak. Jacks takes centre stage in this one. Through some magic stones, enchanted books and Evangeline's persistence, we find out more about his past and what happened all those centuries ago... The back and forth between him and Evangeline (aka Little Fox) is delicious - both spicy and sweet.
And the reveals, just like Once Upon a Broken Heart, were so great. The way Stephanie Garber reveals information is exactly as if her story is cursed - we can only get pieces at a time and they'll shift and change and rewrite themselves before our very eyes.
The Bad
There's still a lot of internal monologue of Evangeline thinking the same thing: she loves Jacks, she can't trust Jacks, does he care about her at all? I was invested in these two characters so I did care about this, I just wish the story wasn't as heavily focused on it as it is. There are so many great characters and interesting magic that is side-lined so we can have yet another scene of Jacks carrying Evangeline to safety. I would have loved for Luc to have actually been important in the story (his revenge plan of Marisol is completely forgotten), or for LaLa to have been more involved instead of all her major decisions happening behind the scenes.
The Somewhat Iffy
I dislike Donatella's role in both Once Upon a Broken Heart and The Ballad of Never After. It's basically non-existent while at the same time being the single most important thing to Jacks motivation. I wish we knew this character so her significance could be felt more in the story.
Overall
A fast-paced, curse upon curse tale with no happy ending in sight. I enjoyed the first book more, but I still desperately need the third one as this world and the characters are too magical to let go of.
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