Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber

23 reviews

boba_n_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Spice Rating: 🫑 / 5 🌶️

Stephanie Garber's writing is some of the best I've encountered in a long time. Written in the same vein as Rebecca Ross, Garber's trilogies will be ones I will return to time and time again.

Evangeline seems to have the perfect happily ever after. She's married to the prince of the Magnificent North and lives in a legendary castle. But something about this ending doesn't feel right to her. Evangeline searches to figure out what exactly it is that she's missing, even though her husband is determined to keep Evangeline's past a secret. The only way for him to secure his happily ever after is to kill Jacks, and he will do anything to go down in history.

As I reflected on this book, I realized that I came away from it with a lot of unanswered questions. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and it kept me on my toes, quickly flipping page after page. Some of the characters disappeared without a trace, and others whom you thought would play a larger role didn't get much time on the page. I think this book could've been 200, or even just 100, pages longer, and that would've solved for some of the things I was wondering about.

However, I completely enjoyed this trilogy. It and the Caraval trilogy are definitely some of the best series I've read in a while, and I'm so glad I gave them a chance. I can't wait to see what else Stephanie Garber has in store for our friends in the Magnificent North. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Animal death

Minor: Death of parent, Cursing, Torture, and Sexual content

roseleebooks's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

I'll try to make this a spoiler free review!

What I liked: the multiple POV moves the story along really well. I enjoyed the direction the plot went in and thought that the wrap-up made sense. I read this in one day because I could not put it down!

What I didn't like: the events felt a bit rushed to me at the end, however I wonder if that was partly because it seemed like less happened overall in this book.

I do think if I were to reread the whole series all at once this book as a finale would be closer to perfect for me. All that to say I really liked this series and am glad to have read this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Blood, Violence, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

klsreads's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Death, Murder, Blood, Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Animal death, and Child death

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual content

kirstenf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Death, and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

kari_f's review

dark

1.5

I was going to give this book 2 stars, because it was overly frilly, and I only liked one character, and felt like it had no plot. But then the nonsensical epilogue happened. 

Tell me how a curse can have eyes and ears, enough sentience to understand human language and ability to follow and watch characters, but it doesn’t have lungs to be able to take a breath. Because THAT is where we need to suspend belief, here. Just… what?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Murder, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Gaslighting, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Physical abuse, Bullying, Abandonment, Violence, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

taylorjayne's review

0.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Child death, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Confinement

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Stalking, Body horror, Child death, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kal517's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent and Torture

juliesleseecke's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I am sad. This felt rushed and messy. There are so many plot holes and lose ends. Please rewrite it, my babies deserve better 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Animal death, Cursing, and Murder

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not a bad conclusion to the trilogy, I think! Though I barely remember what happened in the previous book, besides the fact that it had a pretty big cliffhanger ending. Also, basically listened to this entire thing in a day while I was cleaning/organizing things from Christmas, so there's that! Squeaking one more book in at the last minute.

I still haven't read the Caraval trilogy, but I can pretty safely say you can read this trilogy without reading that. I enjoyed the romance, and the sort of overall fairytale quality of the book. If you like that Happily Ever After fairy tale feel, you'll most likely enjoy this book!

Garber definitely leaves room at the end for a potential to return to this world, and with how popular it is, I think she probably will! Most likely following a different set of characteres, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Torture, and Cursing

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Gaslighting, and Sexual content