Down the Rabbit Hole

Once Upon a Broken Heart #3

Two villains, one girl, and a deadly battle for happily ever after.

Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.

Blood will be shed, hearts will be stolen, and true love will be put to the test in A Curse for True Love, the breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy.

And finally we have it, the finale (see what I did there) of the Once Upon a Broken Heart series, the cousin of the Caraval series, coming to an end. As you can probably already tell by my rating, I was just a little bit disappointed how it all came to an end. I wish there was more explained, and in general the last book was a lot shorter than I thought it would be, for a book that would end a trilogy.

A Curse for True Love is the final part of the trilogy revolving around essentially what is the love story of Evangeline Fox, as she is torn between a real-life fairytale prince, or the feelings she gets whenever she sees Jacks, even though she remembers nothing about him. If she has always wanted her fairytale ending, why does her happily ever after seem like it’s not quite enough? And in that case, what is it that she’s forgotten but perhaps actually wants?

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discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Book Covers

March 15, 2024 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

March 15: Book Covers (Davida Chazan)

Prompts: Do you ever get a book with a beautiful cover that is way better than the book itself? Or book covers that really just don’t fit the books? Some books have lots of different covers, for different countries and special editions. Are there any books with some great covers and some terrible ones?

Welcome back to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! Today’s book is all about beautiful book covers, which I think resonates with most of us here in the community. Who doesn’t like a nice cover to go with a good story?

There are many times where a book with a beautiful cover is frankly just better than the story itself. That being said, I can see the use of having beautiful books with okay stories on your shelf just to serve as either a decoration piece or even a coffee table book. That’s for sure the danger of buying books solely based on a cover and a synopsis. However, even if I’m not the most impressed by the story, it’s usually not a regret to have purchased the book. I think there’s some intrinsic joy of just owning and looking at a pretty book, and I’ll stand by that.

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2 star

Review: What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman

March 12, 2024 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Desperate Housewives meets The Couple Next Door in a chilling story of murder and intrigue set in a well-to-do DC suburb.

Sometimes the darkest acts occur in the most beautiful houses…

When Alexis and her husband Sam buy a neglected Cape Cod house in an exclusive DC suburb, they are ecstatic. Sam is on the cusp of making partner at his law firm, Alexis is pregnant with their second child, and their glamorous neighbors welcome the couple with open arms. Things are looking up, and Alexis believes she can finally leave her troubled past behind.

But the neighborhood’s picture-perfect image is shattered when their neighbor Teddy – a handsome, successful father of three – is found dead on the steep banks of the Potomac River. The community is shaken, and as the police struggle to identify and apprehend the killer, tension in the neighborhood mounts and long-buried secrets start to emerge.

In the midst of the turmoil, Alexis takes comfort in her budding friendship with Teddy’s beautiful and charismatic widow, Blair. But as the women grow closer, the neighborhood only becomes more divided. And when the unthinkable truth behind Teddy’s murder is finally uncovered, both Blair and Alexis must reexamine their friendship and decide how far they are willing to go to preserve the lives they have so carefully constructed.

Desperate Housewives does meet The Couple Next Door in this novel, but mostly just Desperate Housewives, in my opinion. Everything about the premise gave me the sense of your average thriller, but unfortunately, it was anything but. Read on to find out why.

What the Neighbors Saw is an apt title, as it does revolve mostly around what the residents of a secluded but very grand and affluent neighbourhood all see out their windows. One of the main protagonists, Alexis, has just barely made ends meet to reach and live in a nice new neighbourhood, which has long been her goal. Blair, the other POV we get to see, is already a resident, and is Alexis’s neighbour. Shortly after Alexis arrives though, a man is found dead, and more suspicious things start happening. Was Alexis wrong to choose this seemingly lovely neighbourhood to move into?

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