Loving the Lines: The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

Hey there! Today, I have another Loving the Lines for you! Loving the Lines is dedicated to books with stand-out quotes that need to be shared. I’m often moved by passages and lines from the books I read, and I thought this would be a great way to show the love!! Many thanks to all the wonderful writers who inspire, empower, entertain, and make people think. Today, that author and book is:

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

I adored The Ballad of Never After! It’s a brilliant sequel to Once Upon a Broken Heart, and I am officially in love with Jacks! Stephianie Garber can do no wrong. The Caraval series and the Once Upon a Broken Heart series are both exceptionally layered and masterfully written, and I always find myself highlighting tons of quotes and passages when I read her work. Let’s check out some of my favorite lines from The Ballad of Never After.

About the Book:

Synopsis: Not every love is meant to be.

After Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, betrays her, Evangeline Fox swears she’ll never trust him again. Now that she’s discovered her own magic, Evangeline believes she can use it to restore the chance at happily ever after that Jacks stole away.

But when a new terrifying curse is revealed, Evangeline finds herself entering into a tenuous partnership with the Prince of Hearts again. Only this time, the rules have changed. Jacks isn’t the only force Evangeline needs to be wary of. In fact, he might be the only one she can trust, despite her desire to despise him.

Instead of a love spell wreaking havoc on Evangeline’s life, a murderous spell has been cast. To break it, Evangeline and Jacks will have to do battle with old friends, new foes, and a magic that plays with heads and hearts. Evangeline has always trusted her heart, but this time she’s not sure she can. . . .

LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review

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She believed that everyone’s life was like a story with an ending that was not yet written, and therefore everyone’s future held infinite possibilities.

Evangeline still believed that every story had the possibility for infinite endings, and she was going to find one of the good ones.

“There are heroes, and there are villains. She made her choice between the two, and she got the ending that came with it.”

Dreams were like fairytales, a little bit true and not entirely trustworthy.

She’d come to the Magnificent North in search of love. But maybe she just didn’t want to be alone, didn’t want to be untethered. She didn’t want to be a person who could disappear without anyone knowing she was gone. She wanted to be important to someone.

It struck her how intimate words could be, how they could be spoken only once, for only one person, and they would never be heard again, they would disappear like a moment, gone almost as soon as you realized they were there.

She supposed in a way it was a sort of ever after. The curses linked the two of them inextricably, promising their lives would forever be intertwined, but this wasn’t the way she wanted them

I saw the way you looked when you arrived here with your arm around her shoulders.”

“How did I look?”

“Like you would kill for her.”

“I would kill for a lot of things.”

“Just be sure you don’t kill her,” LaLa said. “I’ve also seen the way you two look at each other.

She tried not to move, hoping he wouldn’t be able to tell that he had changed the beat of her heart as they lay in that bed, chests pressed close and legs tangled together. Everything between them felt as fragile as a raindrop that would cease to exist when it touched the ground. But the Hollow also felt like the sort of place where raindrops never touched the ground.

Art by @__alex_oxy__ commissioned by @timelessprintsca

Evangeline wasn’t Jacks’s true love. But she found herself wishing that she were.

“It’s just one night,” he said softly. “In the morning, you can forget it. You can go back to pretending you don’t like me, and I can pretend that I don’t care. But for tonight, let me pretend you’re mine.”

Just one look set her blood on fire, and she liked the way it burned.

He casually slid into the seat beside her and turned to her with a wolfish grin. It was a smile like a fairytale, part villain, part hero, part impossible ever after.

When Jacks wanted something, it was with an intensity that could break worlds and build kingdoms. That was the energy pouring off him now, as if he wanted to destroy her and make her his queen all at once. And it was oh so tempting to let him.

Aren’t these fantastic? They make me eager to reread the book! Which quote is your favorite? Comment below!