The Ballad of Never After is the second book in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series, which is set in the world of the Caraval trilogy, Garber’s New York Times best-selling fairy-tale fantasy series. Jacks and Evangeline made brief appearances in Finale (2019), the third in the Caraval trilogy, in which Evangeline was turned to stone before being sent on the mission to the Magnificent North that she undertakes in Once Upon a Broken Heart. As a representative from the south, Evangeline was to attend Nocte Neverending, the northern event at which the prince would choose a bride, and her attendance, combined with a spell cast by Jacks, got her selected by Apollo. Evangeline spends the bulk of Once Upon a Broken Heart evading curses and working with Jacks, only to end the book believing that Jacks betrayed her.

During the events of Finale, Jacks and the other Fates were released from the deck of cards in which they’d been imprisoned, and Jacks worked alongside Princess Donatella to save the southern kingdom. As the Prince of Hearts Fate, Jacks’s kiss is supposed to be fatal to any girl but his one true love.