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Evangeline Fox has lost her mother and her father, and now she’s about to lose her love — out of nowhere, he’s marrying her stepsister. Having grown up hearing the legends of the immortal Fates, in desperation, she visits the church of the Prince of Hearts, where she promises him to kiss three people of his choice in exchange for him stopping the wedding. Even though she knows it’s dangerous to bargain with a Fate, and particularly to get involved in any way with the Prince of Hearts, Evangeline hopes she can get back the man she loves.
Naturally, things don’t go the way she anticipates, and her life gets pretty complicated. Jacks, as the Fate is often called, has plans for her. Evangeline is sent by the empress of the Meridian Empire, Scarlett of Garber’s book Caraval, along with her sister, Tella, the heroine of the other books in that series (Legendary and Finale), to the Magnificent North, where the crown prince of that country is holding a ball to choose a bride. And there Jacks appears again and asks her to start bestowing her kisses — which are just part of a plan he has in mind to reach a goal Evangeline only gets hints of. She has no choice but to go along with what he asks, for all kinds of reasons. Even more dangerous than being involved in his plan is the potential for being involved with him. He’s cruel and heartless and has no human feeling, and to top it off, his kiss kills every woman he bestows it upon, unless she happens to be his one true love.
I enjoyed this book, but not nearly as much as the Caraval series. This new series (I thought this would just be a companion book in the Caraval world, but it’s starting a whole new series) is missing what I loved in the Caraval books: the contest itself and the characters. I didn’t find Jacks a wonderful addition to Finale, and in this book he’s still just HIM, as a main character, whereas I’m sure there’s going to be some interesting changes in his character further along, but I’m just missing Caraval.
Rated: Moderate. There’s hardly any profanity, just one use of mild language and one use of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content is fairly minimal; there are several kissing scenes, and a couple of brief and mild references to the general idea of a bit more potentially happening or being felt. There is some violence and a number of scary and cruel characters. A section includes a lair of vampires, with humans being held in cages or being shackled, and blood being sucked, as well as humans being turned into vampires. More than a few scenes include characters cutting themselves with knives to use their blood to do something magical.
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