What Happened in Legendary by Stephanie Garber - Recaptains

The basics

Title: Legendary

Author: Stephanie Garber

Series: Caraval #2

- Caraval (2017)
- Legendary (2018)
- Finale (2019)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister, Scarlett, from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.

The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister's. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice, but now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever...

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in Legendary, the second book in the widely loved Caraval series. We have recaps of the whole series so far if you need a refresher on what happened.

what happened in Legendary?

• The morning after the Caraval celebration, Tella wakes up in the forest. Dante is also there. Tella sneaks off.
• Tella comes across Julian and Scarlett. Julian asks the sisters to go with him to Elantine’s new edition of the game. Tella declines.
• Tella plans to continue her search for Legend’s real name, in order to pay a friend back. This friend got Scarlett into Caraval in the first place, in exchange for Legend’s name.
• Tella plans on asking this friend for help finding her mother, who’s still alive.
• Scarlett wants to go with Tella.
• Dante has hold of a coin that Tella received from her secret friend. He gives it back to Tella. Dante tells Tella that the Fates can use the coin to track its owner.
• Tella asks Julian to tell her Legend’s real name. He won’t, but he tells Tella to speak to a fortune teller called Nigel.
• Nigel tells Tella that she can win Legend’s name in the next round of Caraval. In exchange for this information, Nigel takes four days of rest from Tella.
• Tella sleeps in Dante’s room, but she wakes up in Scarlett’s. Tella confides in Scarlett about Dante being a bad kisser. Lol.
• Tella tells Scarlett that she’s going to play in Caraval. She initially wants Scarlett to take part with her, but she changes her mind.
• Tella arrives in Valenda ready for the game, but she is told she’s not on the guest list. Dante tells the lady that Tella is the heir’s fiancé.
• Tella receives a dress from the heir.
• Dante and Tella argue at the opening ball. Dante tells Tella off for saying he’s a bad kisser, and says she means nothing to him.
• Jovan tells Dante and Tella that the Fates have been released for this game.
• Tella meets Jacks, the mysterious heir. He dances with Tella, and asks her for Legend’s real name. It’s presumed that he’s the secret friend who has been doing Tella favours.
• Jacks asks Tella to convince everyone that she’s his fiancée. All of Jacks’ previous fiancées haven’t survived the engagement.
• Jacks says he knows where Tella’s mother is.
• Tella realises that Jacks is the Jack of Hearts, one of the Fates. He kills girls with kisses. Presumably Dante is a better kisser than Jacks is, in this case.
• Jacks says he wants Tella to win Caraval and bring Legend to him.
• Jacks shows Tella a tarot card which her mother is trapped inside. The Fates were trapped in the same way.
• Jacks sends Tella another dress and asks her to meet him. Tella arrives early, and comes across Dante.
• Dante and Tella argue again.
• Dante leaves and Tella chooses a mask to wear to the masquerade ball. She picks out a crown with a veil.
• Scarlett and Tella talk about Jacks and Julian. Scarlett is upset that Julian lied to her about the Count.
• Dante takes Tella to Legend’s church because she thinks that is what the first clue is leading to.
• The goal for this round of Caraval is to find an object that will destroy the Fates.
• In the church, Armando tells Tella where to find the next clue.
• Tella hears Scarlett and Julian talking. She learns that Julian is Legend’s brother.
• Scarlett is confused about just who Julian is. She tells Tella that the next clue is to find the woman of parchment and ink.
• Tella finds Aiko, a historian. Aiko says she’ll answer one of Tella’s questions. Tella asks something silly, and then sees a poster of her mother. The poster says her mother’s name is Paradise.
• Aiko asks for Tella’s last memory of her mother in exchange for information.
• The memory Aiko takes is Tella’s mother talking about how the cards are dangerous, and that the Fates trap humans in the cards.
• Aiko says Paradise wanted adventure. She stole a deck of cursed cards which contained the Fates. Paradise left to protect her daughters from the deck. She wanted to destroy the deck.
• Tella realises that the poster of her mother is made of parchment… and ink. The third clue is on the back.
• Tella goes looking for Scarlett, but is told that she went to Jacks’ castle, Idyllwild.
• Tella runs into three Fates on her way to the castle. They tell Tella to bring the cursed deck to them.
• Tella runs away from the Fates and is pulled out of the water by Dante. Tella tells Dante she was trying to make him jealous. No shit.
• Tella overhears Dante and Julian talking, and Dante calls Julian his brother.
• Tella wakes up and Scarlett is there with Jacks. Jacks says Tella fell from a carriage, and that’s why she is injured. Scarlett appears to believe the lie, but when Jacks leaves Scarlett tells Tella that she doesn’t trust him.
• Tella isn’t sure whether she can trust Scarlett. Scarlett gets upset.
• Tella says she believes Julian and Dante are brothers.
• Empress Elantine hosts a dinner party and Tella goes along as Jacks’ date, keeping up with the whole fiancée thing. Elantine tells Tella that her ring (which once belonged to Tella’s mother) is the key to the Temple of the Stars.
• Some actors put on a play about Jacks trapping humans in a deck of cards.
• Jacks tells Tella he plans on drinking Legend’s blood to gain power. Tella assumes this is so that he can free the Fates.
• Tella tells Elantine that she’s engaged to Jacks in order to rescue her mother.
• Tella goes to the Temple of the Stars the next day. Dante is there.
• A man called Theron agrees to answer Tella’s questions in exchange for a drop of her blood.
• Theron has a similar ring to Tella’s. He says that Paradise owes him a debt, and Tella will have to pay it before she can use the key.
• Tella sees a vision of her mother agreeing to give up her second born child in exchange for hiding the deck in the vaults.
• Dante gets Tella out of there.
• Jacks tells Tella she has to win the game and get the deck,otherwise everyone who is trapped in the cards will die.
• Elantine sends a letter to Tella, saying that she thinks Paradise the Lost could be Tella’s mother. She offers to help Tella.
• A maid tells Tella that Elantine’s child has reappeared. Tella goes to Elantine, who looks ill. Elantine tells Tella that she has been taking tonics from Legend to make her seem younger.
• Tella’s ring changes, indicated that Dante has made a sacrifice to break the curse. Tella goes to the vault.
• Tella wins Caraval by finding the deck.
• Dante and Tella kiss. He won’t tell her what sacrifice he made to break the curse. Tella realises that he is Legend.

How did Legendary end?

• Tella traps herself in the card in order to save both Dante and Paradise.
• She isn’t trapped for long though because Dante breaks the curse incredibly quickly. He frees everyone.
• Dante starts to act strange again. He says he has to leave her.
• Jacks takes Tella to Scarlett and Julian. He tells Tella that he doesn’t love her.
• Julian talks to Tella about Legend. He says that Legend always walks away in the end.
• The sisters’ mother is still in a coma, although she has been released from the card.
• Scarlett says she is going to give both Julian and d’Arcy a chance. Good, more love triangles!
• The empress dies. Legend steps onto the balcony, and Tella realises that he is the heir and has been playing several games. He always wanted to claim Elantine’s throne.
• Tella receives a rose from Legend. The accompanying note says that Legend believes that he owes Tella a prize.

That’s what happened in Legendary! Check out our recap of Caraval as well for a full refresher on what happened in the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber.

Other recaps for this series:

• Caraval (Caraval #1)