Review: Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

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Goodreads Blurb

“How far would you go for happily ever after?

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings . . . until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy. . . .”

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My Review

Thanks to Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole for buddy reading this with me. Please check out her excellent review here !! I’m so sad it took so long to get to this one. Although, I’m glad because I got to buddy-read it with Andge and it’s closer to the second book!

This is a spin-off series from the Caraval series, which I loved. It can be read without reading the previous series first, which is great for so many. Although, there are some cameo characters from the previous series! These stories are so enchanting and I love that it feels like a fairy tale. The magic and curses in these make for such intriguing reads. Garber has a great way of writing these worlds that just suck you right in.

This story follows Evangeline, who I enjoyed as a character. I did think she was a bit naïve at times but I loved rooting for her. Her journey is quite a struggle and I loved how she grew so much by the end of the book. Jacks is the Prince of Hearts and there’s a lot of mystery around him. I’m not sure if I was supposed to love him but I did. He’s your typical “bad magical guy” but I just found him so interesting. I don’t know what that says about me, haha.

“I don’t know if I can fix your broken heart, but you can take mine because it’s already yours.”

The pacing of this book is so fast that I devoured half the book in one sitting. The hardest part was having to stop but I couldn’t wait to dive back in! the world she creates is so vivid but I wish she would have expanded a little more. I would love to know more about the Fates and delve into that a little more. She’s got a lot of mystery going and we don’t really have many answers by the end of the book. I’m not even sure what the overall mystery with Jacks is yet and that was a bit frustrating. The overall writing is quite simple but I liked it. I also got some Cinderella vibes going on in the beginning.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and I cannot wait to get my hands on book two. There’s so much intrigue and Garber had some beautiful prose throughout. There are some things that I found lacking but that’s okay. I’m hoping to get more answers in the next one. I loved Jacks and can’t wait to see more of him and know what his end goal is. If you want a fast-paced and magical read then pick this one up!

“Heroes don’t get happy endings. They give them to other people.”