The Ballad of Never After: the stunning sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller Once Upon A Broken Heart

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Evangeline tries to get Chaos to change Jacks’s mind, but he, too, thinks it’s best for Jacks to let her go.

This sequel to Once Upon a Broken Heart surpassed all my expectations and I ended up reading it in one sitting.

The story itself was nothing too complicated, I loved the story of the archer and the fox and how it ties in. their moments <33 the bantering, the soft moments, AND SO MANY TROPES I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED BTWN THEM THAT I GOT SKHGSK LITERALLY WAS SCREAMING.

To break it, Evangeline and Jacks will have to do battle with old friends, new foes, and a magic that plays with heads and hearts. She feels at once it is not the mirth stone but the truth stone, and as its power grows, it forces the truth out of Petra: her hair is pink, she is another key, she has found the youth stone, and she is here to kill Evangeline. Although it hurts to give up the peace and happiness she feels here with Jacks, she realizes it’s not real and shoves the stone into an iron box, cutting off its influence on them. The entry also mentions how much mirth and flowers Glendora brought to the Slaughterwoods, and this leads Evangeline to believe Glendora may have been in possession of the mirth stone and may have been buried with it.She explores the inn again, now looking for whatever information on Jacks, the combined power of the stones and his desires, she can find. Jacks didn’t do this, he claims, and they both rush from the room, only to find that Apollo’s successor, Lucien, has arrived early and has held his crowning ceremony without Evangeline. It seemed really obvious that Jacks was the Archer to me I love a good book that just keeps bringing in the plot twists. Over food, she interrogates him on the inn, how it stops the curses from working here, and his past. and instead of fighting for evangeline, instead of taking a chance on what could be a happy ending, he chooses to settle for someone he doesn’t love.

I know some of you love the writing in it, and I won't deny it was better than the first book but it still came across as ordinary. but you all know how consuming this world is, it’s so magical that it is nearly impossible to stop to read. I want to erase every moment you and I have spent together, every word you’ve said to me, and every time I’ve touched you, because if I don’t, I’ll kill you, just like I killed the Fox. Time will demand something back of equal value, the queen further cautions him, but Jacks assures her nothing is worth as much to him as Evangeline is.Evangeline realizes Jacks was behind the ruse with Luc, too, and resists the bite, but she isn’t strong enough. Just as she turns around to find him, Honora breaks the helm on Chaos’s head, and Evangeline sees his face, that of the Handsome Stranger. It’s very ranty but I must go drown my sorrows in a bottle now and make an Evajacks playlist on Spotify that hopefully I can link on here later. This narrative style also brings with it an inherent sense of mystery and suspense, for with our knowledge limited to that of Evangeline, we are as in the dark as she is with regard to what will happen next.