When a Love Story Feels Like a Waiting Game: My Thoughts on A Curse for True Love

A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber

Oh man, I just finished A Curse for True Love, and I have to be honest—I skipped through a lot of it just to get to the ending.

First and foremost, I do recognize that this is a beautifully written book. Stephanie Garber has an incredible ability to craft immersive worlds, and the Once Upon a Broken Heart series is undeniably enchanting. However, despite the strong storytelling, this book just didn’t work for me. The main reason? I knew exactly how it was going to end, and that knowledge made the entire journey feel frustrating rather than exciting.

The Problem with Predictability

The core of the book revolves around Evangeline losing her memories, which means that for the vast majority of the story (about 280 out of 300 pages), she is in love with the wrong person—someone who is actually hurting her. As a reader, that was an incredibly frustrating experience because we all know she’s destined to end up with Jacks. It’s written in the stars. So why spend almost the entire book watching her be manipulated and kept away from him?

I found myself feeling anxious rather than entertained. I don’t typically read books to experience this kind of stress, especially when the outcome is inevitable. I didn’t want to sit through hundreds of pages of memory loss and misplaced affection just to get to the last 80 pages where everything finally changes. The predictability of it all made me impatient—I just wanted her to regain her memory and get to the part where she and Jacks could finally be together.

Comparing It to Other Fantasy Romances

To put this into perspective, I really enjoyed Throne of Glass because it didn’t give me this kind of anxiety. Even A Court of Thorns and Roses worked better for me in this regard—yes, we know that Rhysand and Feyre will end up together, but they’re already together by the second book, so the tension comes from the challenges they face as a couple, rather than from being kept apart for the entire series.

In A Curse for True Love, however, Jacks and Evangeline don’t truly get their happy ending until the very last page—the epilogue, no less! That made the whole reading experience feel unnecessarily dragged out.

Final Thoughts

Again, this isn’t to say that I hated the book. I adored The Ballad of Never After, and I still think Stephanie Garber’s writing is fantastic. Her world-building is magical, and her characters are compelling. But A Curse for True Love just didn’t match the expectations I had after book two. Maybe I’ve been spending too much time in this world, or maybe it’s just that I don’t enjoy storylines where characters lose their memories for an extended period. Either way, it wasn’t for me.

In the end, I gave it three stars—not because it was a bad book, but because it simply didn’t give me the kind of reading experience I was hoping for. If you love slow-burn romances with a heavy dose of angst, you might love it. But if you’re like me and prefer a bit more balance, be prepared for some frustration along the way.