They reconcile, and LaLa starts to warn Evangeline to stay away from Jacks, that she is not safe with him because he has the mirth stone and is clouding her judgment with it. That night, she dreams of a handsome stranger waiting for her at the end of a dock, someone who seems to know Jacks well. She was also the one to find the luck stone, the one currently in Chaos’s possession, and Petra warns Evangeline he will take the truth stone, too. She wants to open it, hoping she’ll find a cure for her poisoned husband in the old magic books that are said to be kept behind it.

This book started right where Once Upon a Broken Heart (which I will be referring to as ouabh from now on) left off. As she starts to question her safety, Evangeline feels Glendora’s stone on the chain around her neck come to life. and one of those scene was golden, jacks himself nursed her back to health🥹 the softness in jack was so sweet and everything help.She doesn’t know who he is, but he soothes her, holds her close, and assures her all is well, she is safe, he is here, and he will never let her go. they birthed me, raised me, breathed life into me, drove me to school, fed me, stuck my artwork on the fridge, read me bedtime stories, sent me to college, walked me down the aisle and transformed me into the person i am today.

It seemed really obvious that Jacks was the Archer to me I love a good book that just keeps bringing in the plot twists. 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. Jacks shouldn't touch her because she's married to Apollo - a man she has interacted with for two seconds. followed shortly thereafter by “I can’t believe I have to probably wait at least a year to find out what happens next.not only do you have no chemistry with him, thinking "hihi if i just tell him i love him everything will be fine" is dripping with naivety.

I loved the progression in the emotional buildup and was LIVING for the fun banter/tension between them and the steamy crumbs we did get were painfully delicious. Hoping Tiberius knows something about the four missing stones, Evangeline plans a secret visit to his prison tower.He finally tells her what the stones can do: they can allow a person to go back to a moment in their past. Evangeline panics, realizing this is the Valor Arch itself, even though it is supposed to be hidden and broken. Jacks once again saves her, and they realize the married couple was not only cursed with a mirror curse but with the Archer’s curse, too.

all that angst, sexual tension, JEALOUSY, hurting, THE PUSH AND PULL BETWEEN THEM, would kill anyone for her, the denial of their love for each other but it’s obvious that they’re each others one true love, JUST TO GIVE THEM THAT ENDING? With the story curse itself watching, Jacks screams in the sort of pain witnessed only once a century. Evangeline refuses but realizes all the great houses will be present at the party, wondering if any of them possesses one of the stones and if they might take it to the party. He pulls her into his bed instead, murmuring she won’t remember anyway, and melts away her resistance with words and his touch. Well, not the puppy kicking, I am thoroughly against that but the teasing in this book is off the charts.If Jacks hadn’t betrayed her, if he hadn’t set her up for murder, she might have been a little bewitched by him. I can’t fully explain the feeling of reading this series other that it’s painfully beautiful, extra pressure on the painfully part sometimes. It does precisely what middle books should do: pushes the story along while also leaving the reader craving more. If she tells him she loves him, he might be willing to try instead of going back to Donatella, and perhaps Honora will be able to reverse not only Apollo’s curse but Jacks’s, too. tbh she can tell me it was blond right to my face and i would hear “brown” because delusion is not a temporary state of mind, it is the way of life.