A Curse for True Love Recap

Book facts

Apollo blames Jacks for the memories he erased

Evangeline cannot remember the past year. Apollo tells her they are married, that Jacks poisoned him and stole her memories, and that Apollo has returned from death. He orders Jacks hunted.

Apollo's viewpoint confirms that he knows he was never dead and that he took Evangeline's memories after she chose Jacks. He uses reporters and royal authority to spread his version of events.

Evangeline notices inconsistencies, including a broken-heart scar on her wrist. She wants her memories restored, but Apollo discourages her and prevents her from leaving the castle. A hunter takes her blood without consent to use her connection to Jacks to track him.

Jacks rescues her from an attack Apollo arranged

A note lures Evangeline to a wishing well, where someone pushes her into the water. Jacks pulls her out. Being held by him triggers a brief memory, though she does not recognize him.

Jacks later introduces himself as Archer and teaches her to defend herself. He gives her his dagger. Their closeness brings further fragments of memory.

Apollo's chapters reveal that he engineered the well attack to make Evangeline feel dependent on his protection. At a royal banquet, she learns that her guards were executed for failing to prevent it. His toast threatens anyone who stands between them.

She also meets Aurora Valor and the rest of the restored family, now presenting themselves as House Vale. Their return is being concealed behind a new public identity.

Castor's killings become evidence in Apollo's campaign against Jacks

An assassin enters Evangeline's bedroom. Jacks kills him and saves her again, then leaves before she can understand their history.

Elsewhere, a great house has been massacred. Apollo questions a surviving boy, makes him identify Jacks in a drawing, and kills the child. He uses the drawing to support a false public accusation.

Jacks knows the massacre was Castor's work. His viewpoint reveals that the Valors created the story curse to hide what happened after they resurrected Castor and made him a vampire. Jacks became a Fate so his friend would not face immortality alone, and helped pass Castor off as the Fate Chaos.

When Evangeline sees Jacks's picture in the reports, she recognizes him as Archer. She goes to find Apollo at the Hunt, intending to tell him Jacks has been entering the castle.

The Hunt sends Evangeline into the Cursed Forest

A noble offers to lead her to Apollo but instead kills her guard and attacks her over Petra's death. Evangeline has no memory of Petra. She wounds the attacker with Jacks's dagger and runs into the forest.

The forest creates scenes from her past, including her parents' shop, but will not let her reach what she is seeking. Castor appears and explains the trap. Jacks arrives and stabs him before taking Evangeline away.

The forest shifts into an image of the Hollow. Jacks begs Evangeline to remember, but she cannot. They leave for a nearby inn, where he has reserved a room.

A letter from her past self restores her memories

At the inn, Jacks tries to use a magical powder, which Evangeline knocks away. They spend the night close together. She finds a note in his doublet that she wrote at the start of the previous book.

The note warns her that Jacks used her to pursue the Valory Arch and tells her to trust Apollo. Reading it restores the memories that let her recognize how the situation has changed. She remembers Jacks's betrayals, her love for him, and Apollo forcibly taking her past away.

In the morning, Jacks is gone and a glass cuff is fastened around her wrist. Downstairs, the inn's occupants have been slaughtered. Apollo finds her and blames Jacks. Evangeline conceals the return of her memories because she fears Apollo will erase them again.

Aurora supplied Apollo's memory magic

Apollo takes Evangeline to a rebuilding festival at Merrywood. His memories reveal how Honora cured his curses after the arch opened. Aurora then offered him the magic to remove Evangeline's memories.

Aurora used that secret to secure the Valors' place among the great houses. Apollo is afraid she will expose him. When he tries to hold Evangeline against her wishes, her cuff causes him severe pain.

He recognizes the Slaughterwood Cuff of Protection, which harms anyone about to hurt its wearer. Apollo asks Aurora for more memory magic, but she instead offers a route toward immortality.

LaLa enters Evangeline's tent disguised as a guard. Evangeline tells her she remembers everything, and they plan an escape so she can find Jacks.

Jacks traded away his loving heart for the protection cuff

After escaping, Evangeline encounters Jacks in the forest. He behaves differently, calls her pet, and tries to kiss her. The cuff hurts him. Castor takes her to safety.

Castor explains the bargain: Jacks gave Aurora his second heart, the heart that allows him to love, in exchange for the cuff protecting Evangeline. Without it, he no longer has the same restraint or concern for her life.

Meanwhile, Aurora takes Apollo to the Tree of Souls. Its blood can grant immortality, but Wolfric warns that drinking it costs the life of the person the drinker loves most. Apollo is willing to pay that price with Evangeline's life.

Aurora's old curse and Jacks's new plan are revealed

Evangeline and LaLa search Aurora's hidden rooms for Jacks's heart. They find evidence that Aurora placed the original Archer curse on him because she wanted him and resented his love for the Fox.

They also suspect Aurora's involvement in his lethal kiss. Aurora claims only a girl who can never love Jacks will survive it. Her account differs from the familiar story about a destined true love being immune.

Jacks has already reclaimed his heart from Aurora. He intends to destroy it in the fire of the royal Phoenix Tree so he will never regain the feelings he thinks will lead him to kill Evangeline.

Evangeline decides to reach him first. She has recovered the truth about both men and continues choosing Jacks.

Evangeline kisses Jacks at the Phoenix Tree and survives

Jacks arrives at the tree carrying his heart in a jar. He tells Evangeline that she died when Chaos bit her and that he turned back time to save her. He refuses to risk losing her again through his own kiss.

Evangeline tells him she loves him and kisses him. He drops the jar, which breaks and returns his heart to him. She becomes faint and briefly fails to breathe, but recovers. The kiss does not kill her.

Jacks can love her again, and they acknowledge their feelings. Their reunion is interrupted by Apollo, who plucks a leaf from the Phoenix Tree and sets it ablaze.

Apollo abducts Evangeline and takes her to the Tree of Souls

In the fire and confusion, Apollo seizes Evangeline. He binds her and takes her through an arch toward the Tree of Souls, enduring the protection cuff's pain.

Jacks searches through the smoke and is delayed by Aurora imitating Evangeline's voice. He confronts Aurora, who finally tells him where Apollo has taken her.

At the Tree of Souls, Apollo prepares to gain immortality. Jacks arrives and attacks him, but the Valor brothers restrain Jacks. Wolfric refuses to stop Apollo.

The tree takes Apollo because he loves himself most

Apollo cuts the tree and drinks its blood, expecting Evangeline to be the sacrifice. Instead, the tree draws him into its trunk. His face joins the other faces trapped there.

The cost has been applied exactly as stated: Apollo is the person he loves most. His attempt to gain immortality consumes him, and Evangeline survives.

Jacks fights the Valors until Evangeline frees herself and stops the confrontation. The family leaves to find Aurora and reclaim its castle.

Evangeline gives up the royal future attached to Apollo and leaves with Jacks. They are alive and together.

The standard epilogue ends with Evangeline and Jacks together

The story curse watches them leave the Tree of Souls. Evangeline asks why Jacks always carries apples. He says it no longer matters and moves to kiss her.

The curse turns its attention away, ending the main trilogy with the couple together. The epilogue does not provide a separate resolved ending for every Valor or for LaLa.

Where the main characters end up

After the main trilogy

Previous: The Ballad of Never After recap. The Mirror of Infinite Endings is a later illustrated companion, read after this novel.

Series guide · Reading order · All book recaps

Plot references: SuperSummary's overview and guides to 1–10, 11–20, 21–30, 31–40, and 41–epilogue; URSummary; Dead Good Reviews; What Happened. Published October 27, 2026.