52 pages • 1 hour read
Stephanie GarberA Curse for True Love
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 31-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary: “Evangeline”
Instead of returning to the castle, Apollo brings Evangeline to Merrywood for the rebuilding festival the Valors are hosting. There, they encounter Aurora, who insists Evangeline must attend, but she says she would rather help build. When Apollo laughs, Aurora scolds him for belittling his wife. Evangeline wants to jump to Aurora’s defense because she knows how dark Apollo can be, but Evangeline is shocked when Apollo looks frightened.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Apollo”
The first time Apollo saw Aurora, he thought she was a beautiful angel. She gave him the magic that allowed him to remove Evangeline’s memories. Initially, Apollo swore not to use it, but when Evangeline chose Jacks jealousy got the better of him. Later, Aurora convinced him to let the Valors live as a great house, implying that if he didn’t, she’d reveal what he’d done. Apollo hurried to give them what they wanted. Aurora was pleased, and when she winked at him, “Apollo knew he’d made a deal with a devil, not an angel” (268).
Apollo and Evangeline will share a tent while they’re at Merrywood. Inside, Apollo wraps his arms around her. She tenses, and he tightens his hold. Pain rips through him. As he pulls back, he sees the cuff on her arm and recognizes it as the Slaughterwood Cuff of Protection, which causes pain when someone is about to hurt the wearer. Apollo leaves to meet Aurora and asks her for more potion to remove Evangeline’s memories. Aurora scoffs because such potions are rare and difficult to make. Instead, she asks Apollo if he wants to ask ridiculous questions or “become the sort of man your wife will never dare to think about leaving?” (273).
Chapter 33 Summary: “Evangeline”
Although Evangeline doesn’t know it, her friend LaLa, another Fate, is at the festival and sneaks into the tent. The two make plans to find Jacks and stop him from leaving Evangeline. LaLa knew Jacks before they became Fates, and she knows he hasn’t been the same since. Evangeline recalls that one of the rules about Fates was to never fall in love with them. She had always believed this was because it was dangerous, but now she wonders if Fates aren’t made to love like humans do. Still, she refuses to give up on Jacks because she truly believes she’s his one true love, even if they are doomed to fail.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Evangeline”
Evangeline dresses as a guard to sneak out of her tent. When she reaches the forest, Jacks appears, calling her “pet” instead of “Little Fox.” She realizes something is wrong with him but can’t bring herself to back away. When he tries to kiss her, the cuff shoots pain through him. Chaos arrives and grabs her, pulling her away, saying, “[W]e need to leave before Jacks tries to kill you again” (291).
Chapter 35 Summary: “Apollo”
Aurora offers to bring Apollo to the Tree of Souls in exchange for the absolution of Jacks of all crimes. Apollo doesn’t know why she wants Jacks protected but agrees. The tree is enormous and appears to have human faces for a trunk. Before Apollo can drink from the tree and gain immortality, Aurora’s father arrives. He warns Apollo that the price of drinking from the tree is the death of the person you love most.
Chapter 36 Summary: “Evangeline”
It is revealed that Jacks tried to kill Evangeline because he traded his loving heart to Aurora in exchange for the cuff. Castor thinks Jacks’s heart is hidden in the Hollow, and though he doesn’t know what Aurora intends to do with it, he thinks that Aurora intends to make Jack hers.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Apollo”
Apollo returns to his tent, which is in shambles. He realizes Evangeline made it look like a struggle and that she got her memories back. He orders his guards to find her and bring her back, no matter what it takes.
Chapter 38 Summary: “Evangeline”
Evangeline and LaLa raid Aurora’s secret lair, where they find her diary. Years ago, Aurora cast the Archer’s curse on Jack so that he’d kill the girl he loved, wanting him for herself. Evangeline wonders if Aurora also cast the curse that made Jacks’s kiss fatal to all but his true love, and LaLa believes it’s likely.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Evangeline”
Evangeline and LaLa follow a trail of flower petals into the forest, hoping it will lead to where Aurora keeps Jack’s heart. Instead, they find a dead fox and a note from Jacks warning Evangeline not to look for him. Evangeline declares she still won’t give up, and Aurora emerges from a hiding place to tell Evangeline that Jacks’s heart is already gone.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Evangeline”
Aurora no longer has Jacks’s heart because he knocked her out and stole it back, intending to destroy it. The only way to destroy a loving heart is with the fire of a Phoenix Tree like the one Apollo has in his court. Evangeline vows to get there and kiss Jacks to save him, but Aurora just laughs. She claims Jacks’s kiss will kill any girl who isn’t immune to his love.
Chapters 31-40 Analysis
In this section, the remaining secrets about the Valors and pertinent curses are revealed. Aurora claims to love Jacks, though she really wants him because she believes, as a princess, she should have whatever she wants, paralleling Apollo’s feelings about Evangeline, both of which highlight the theme of The Foundations of Power. Aurora’s plans in both the past and present have revolved around winning Jacks. She helped Apollo claim Evangeline because she believed Jacks would come to her if Evangeline wasn’t an option. This perspective shows that Aurora doesn’t understand love and is too selfish to see that others will put their own desires before hers.
Jacks, on the other hand, is willing to sacrifice for love: By trading his heart for the Slaughterwood Cuff, he shows both that he loves Evangeline and that he believes he can only ever hurt her. Both Apollo and Jacks claim they are willing to protect Evangeline, but only Jacks is willing to protect her from himself. Apollo wants to protect Evangeline from everything else by controlling her, not realizing that he is her greatest threat. Apollo’s type of protection also involves taking away Evangeline’s free will. Jacks’s makes choices that don’t include Evangeline, but she is still free to make choices that don’t align with his, showing that Jacks truly cares for her, whereas Apollo only cares about how she can help him. The juxtaposition of Apollo’s and Jack’s beliefs and their concurrent actions highlights The Difference Between Right and Good: Both men act according to what they think is right, but while Jacks’s actions are good, Apollo’s are not.
These chapters introduce a character from the previous novels: Evangeline’s friend LaLa. Like Jack, LaLa is a Fate and as such, she understands his nature in a way Evangeline doesn’t. However, Evangeline’s relationship with LaLa also makes Evangeline realize that she will brave the divide between humans and Fates to bring Jacks back to her. LaLa and Jacks also illustrate The Effect of Past Experience on Character. Both gave up a part of their humanity to become Fates, and this has led them to make choices that will serve themselves over others because they know they will have to live with the consequences of those choices forever. These characters also highlight what Apollo could become if gifted with immortality. Coupled with Apollo’s nature, the story suggests an immortal Apollo would be a dangerous monster and suggests that immortality comes with prices that Apollo is not willing to pay.
These chapters also highlight The Difference Between Right and Good through Jacks’s experiences. Jacks giving up his loving heart is the ultimate sacrifice, as well as the culmination of everything he’s become through his past and his Fate nature. The revelation of the curses Aurora placed on Jacks both reveal Aurora’s selfishness and explain Jacks’s past. His actions towards Evangeline are the direct result of his past experience, illustrating the theme of the effect of past experience on character. Being forced to kill the girl he loved changed Jacks and made him fearful of love. As a result, he pushes Evangeline away throughout the series, even though he loves her and would do anything for her. Jacks would rather lose the ability to love than hurt Evangeline, and the idea of harming her is so painful that he gives up his heart without a second thought. Through Jacks’s interactions with Aurora, the differences between him and Apollo are again highlighted: Unlike Apollo, Jacks is not willing to trade his freedom or morals for power. Jacks would rather keep what control he can than give it all up to others and be beholden to them to find the power he seeks.
Related Titles
By Stephanie Garber
