This was a charming fantasy about a girl who makes a deal with a fate following a broken heart. For me, the highlight of this story really came in the world itself. Roughly split between Magic and non magic, there’s tons of interesting lore and eccentricities that really made me want to soak this world up. The mystery of the fates, prophecy, and stories without endings also definitely kept me turning pages. But though I liked Jax and Evangeline well enough, I didn’t totally fall for them, and I was definitely wishing the connection between them was a little stronger. Really, Evangeline’s goals in general didn’t feel super compelling, and the ending felt a little forced. The narration was great though, and I’d still totally recommend this to YA fantasy readers. Although this doesn’t work well as a stand-alone in any way, I’d definitely give the sequel a look to see what happens next!

⭐⭐⭐⭐½

(Update: Tried to listen to the sequel, The Ballad of Never After, and got a third of the way through before I had to DNF. Evangeline’s poor decisions were killing me, but lots of people love that series, so it could just be me!)

This is why I never trust sequels!

Thanks for reading!