A Curse for True Love: Theories

Hello, everyone! I wanted to try to do something other than the usual book review, so I thought – why not try to do a theory post?

I know the book is coming out tomorrow and some people have early copies [however they got them], but I recently reread Once Upon a Broken Heart [“Once”] and The Ballad of Never After [” Ballad”], and took notes [for myself] as I went, so I have more or less the perfect “tools” to do a theory post and my hype for A Curse for True Love [“Curse”] needs an outlet, so why not?

[I just got a shipping notification, which means I won’t get it tomorrow, so I’m trying to distract myself, ok?]

This is my first time doing one of these, so hang in there with me!

The big question on everyone’s mind: who will Evangeline end up with?

Instead of diving directly into that, let’s approach it by talking about where we’ll start – and what we’ll go through – with each villain. We’ve ended on the cliffhanger of Apollo taking her memories – too many, probably – and a statue sprayed with Jacks’s blood. With that, we probably won’t see Jacks as early as we’ll see Apollo, so what do we think is in store for us in regards to Apollo?

What Apollo did at the end of Ballad has left us all [I imagine] with a bad taste in our mouths. I, for one, ended Ballad not feeling any inclination to root for him at all, which isn’t how I felt before that. I’ve been Team Jacks from the beginning, sure, but I did, at one point, feel like Apollo wouldn’t necessarily be a bad fit for Evangeline, and, even if they didn’t end up together in the end, I did want Apollo to find his own happiness with someone else [I even entertained the thoughts that Marisol “stealing” him could be her last “attack” on Evangeline!]. Not at the end of Ballad, though! Given how Stephanie Garber “handled” Jacks up until this point, I imagine Apollo will likely follow the same pattern. That is, she’ll pull a bit at our heartstrings and put Apollo’s thought processes and actions into a perspective that we’ll all understand better why he’s doing what he’s doing [like we saw with Jacks going too far with Tella]; maybe we’ll even feel bad for him and start rooting for him again. However, my guess is he’ll follow the same path Jacks did with Tella, in that he’ll try too hard and write off too many “bad actions”/”bad decisions” with, “the ends justify the means” sort of mentality, which will paint him in an even worse light to Evangeline in the end. Because we all know Evangeline is likely to get her memories back, but, even if she doesn’t, I’m guessing she’ll still interact with and be drawn to Jacks, and Jealous Apollo will go too far in trying to keep her to himself, which is likely to drive Apollo to cross lines he shouldn’t, ultimately pushing Evangeline away – and into Jacks’s arms. [Boohoo, I’m so sad about that.]

Now, onto our favorite Stephanie Garber villain – Jacks!

I know we saw Jacks really start to show his feelings for Evangeline, but Evangeline hasn’t, and we haven’t seen Jacks admit/come to terms with his feelings for Evangeline. Which means, we’re most likely going to start off with Jacks being gone/removing himself from Evangeline’s life, but the draw, at least for Evangeline, will be there, so I doubt he’ll find himself able to stay away for long. What excuse he’ll find himself using, I don’t know. Maybe “just checking in on her on occasion” or something somehow tied to her safety, since he did just watch her die in his arms, or maybe under the pretense of “cashing in” on her last promised kiss? The reason won’t matter so much as the impact does, which is more than likely going to push Apollo, in all his jealous tendencies, to cross lines and overreact in regards to Jacks. Because of the released “WANTED” posters for Jacks that the publisher already sent out, we know Apollo, at some point, goes that far to try to keep Evangeline to himself. This much supports my theories, though I don’t have any theories on what, exactly, Jacks does to “earn” that poster. But I think Evangeline’s draw [and maybe his own?] will likely push Jacks to do something extreme to try to put some sort of final stop to it, once and for all? In an interview about the book cover, she mentions the biggest surprise of the book – for her and for us fans – was represented by the tree on the cover, saying it was a cryptic message to not give any spoilers. So, “the tree” – but what tree? The only tree that has been mentioned so far is the Phoenix Tree, which I’ve always felt like has more lore behind it than once scene in the first book warrants, but she also shared a picture of the Curse book map, which includes a “Tree of Souls” – so maybe that tree introduces something that Jacks can use to end his and Evangeline’s feelings once and for all? I’m intrigued by how one of these trees is somehow the biggest surprise – for both us fans and her! – in this book!

How does this tree [either one] tie into the story and to what character does it tie the closest to? So many possibilities, so little given away! I have too many thoughts to even begin here, so, unfortunately, I’ll have to leave this one to when we read, post-release!

Back our main man, Jacks, though!

Theories on why Jacks can kiss Evangeline without killing her: 1) Jacks can have more than one “One True Love”, aka there’s more than one girl immune to his kisses; 2) As Jacks discusses in Once, true love can break his curse, so no rules need to be followed; 3) The story curse is twisting the rules, which means the whole “One True Love” thing isn’t 100% accurate. If it’s #3, I don’t know if the “twist” will tie-in #1 or if it’ll be a completely different twist altogether.

Of the list of people vaguely referenced in Ballad, here are my notes: the apprentice to the villain who was still alive: Luc [“apprentice” to Chaos] or Apollo/Tiberius [though who would either be “apprentice” to?] but those theories are weak; the evil stepsister who’d been forgiven but was still out there somewhere waiting to attack once more: Marisol; the wish that had come true but wasn’t quite paid for: Evangeline’s wish to stop the marriage between Marisol and Luc; the seed that had been planted but had yet to grow: Jacks and Evangeline’s love. “The wish” and “the seed” could be a reference to Tella and Legend’s baby/daughter, but that doesn’t seem relevant to this story, so I’m not sure why Stephanie Garber would bring it up, unless it somehow ties to a future book she plans to do? Or maybe one of the epilogues?

Speaking of Marisol, though – I’m not sure how much of a role she’ll play in this final book. Marisol was, generally, swept aside in my head in a big way, but the last I can remember she was mentioned was Jacks scaring her away for Evangeline before Marisol gets killed by Luc, her fake ex-lover she never really cared for. But if she’s mentioned earlier in Ballad as, “the evil stepsister who’d been forgiven but was still out there somewhere waiting to attack once more”, that implies that she’s going to attack again, right? I don’t think she actively attacks Evangeline in any way in Ballad, so she must attack her again in Curse, right? I’m just not sure how. I can’t see what role Marisol would play in Apollo’s or Jacks’s plans/theories mentioned above, so I’m at a loss with her. Another possible epilogue?

That all said, brings up the next question: what are all the epilogues about?

There’s a chance they’re all just twists on Evangeline and Jacks’s [and Apollo’s] already-present ending [whoever Evangeline ends up choosing dies, so she settles for the other, etc.], but I don’t know that I buy that. I think the different epilogues focus on different characters’ endings, but which characters?

There’s the obvious choice of Evangeline + whoever she ends up with [I think I’ve made it pretty clear by now that I think Evangeline and Jacks are the OTP and end up together, so Evangeline and Jacks here], but I don’t see three different endings for them. Sooooooo . . . who else? A top guess for me is Marisol, especially if she doesn’t “attack” again in Curse. What form that attack might take, I don’t know. I also think there’s too much lore and foundation work for the Valors for one epilogue not to involve them. Maybe we see Chaos start to control himself [not sure what would motivate him when hundreds of years didn’t seem to help]; Aurora is an obvious choice as well, since she’s clearly tied up with the events that lead to the Valors locking themselves up in the Valory Arch; but there’s also the fact that some Valors got a lot of lore/attentioned [Wolfric and Honora, Castor, Aurora] and others didn’t [Dane, Lysander] so maybe something further about them? Maybe Lala and Dane, seeing them happily reunited? But there’s also Tiberius, who we never really get anything final with, either. My guess is Marisol, something about the Valors, and either Evangeline’s Happily Ever After, something to do with Tiberius, or maybe another Valors focused ending, like Lala and Dane?

What are your thoughts about Curse on this eve-of-release? Please feel free to comment or message me your thoughts!

As always, I hope you enjoyed the review, and be kind, stay safe, and read on!