The Ballad of Never After

Once Upon a Broken Heart #2

By Stephanie Garber

TheStory

After the betrayal from Jacks and feeling as though her happily ever after may be cursed after all, Evangeline is adamant about staying away from Jacks. But of course that can’t last. Evangeline is thrown another volley of just plain bad stuff. And now she has to work with Jacks or risk losing her HEA forever. 

TheReview

Continuing on our adventure from Once Upon a Broken Heart, Jacks is still so awful. But we love it. Evangeline is perhaps less trusting of people she shouldn’t be trusting but she, IMO, easily falls for Jacks again. After swearing to herself that she wouldn’t. But poor Jacks is just a wounded little puppy dog. Like we want to like him but as far as she is concerned, he just keeps screwing her over, which isn’t really wrong. 

The storyline is really good but there is still very little romance. I’m not looking for smut in a YA but give me some butterflies, please! I really don’t know how it’s gonna play out with Jacks and Evangeline because it sounds like she can’t be his ONE true love unless there is a way to get a new true love. Which… lol. But we’ll see in the final book, I guess. 

While I’m liking the storyline in these books, it is a bit rough. There is so much magic, so many curses, and it’s hard to track. But still decent. And this one would have been a 3 star but THE ENDING! That made the whole book 4 stars for me. Also the whole Hollow scene was fantastic. And APOLLO?!? But no spoilers… so the end. 

TheRating

Storyline: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

World Building: 2/5 

Writing: 4/5

Overall: 📘📘📘📘

Spice: 🫑

Once Upon a Broken Heart Series

Once Upon a Broken Heart

Once Upon a Broken Heart #1

The Ballad of Never After

Once Upon a Broken Heart #2

A Curse for True Love

Once Upon a Broken Heart #3