The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: Once Upon a Broken Heart

Series: Once Upon a Broken Heart #1

Author: Stephanie Garber

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings her whole life. That is until she learns the love of her life is marrying another. To stop the wedding Evangeline makes a deal with the Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, she must give three kisses to people of his choice at the time and place of his choosing. But after the first kiss, she learns that making deals with immortals is a dangerous game. Because the Prince of Hearts has more planned for her than she thought.

I have to admit, I’m a little behind in reviewing, so I’m already on book three! No spoilers but I love this series so much.

This book had a little bit of a slow start, and it thrust us back to events that happened in Finale. Scarlett and Tella were in the book for a very small portion of the book. Shockingly enough I didn’t miss the characters as much as I thought I would. Usually, I get a little hung up on characters from the main series when I read the sequel series, but I didn’t.

This story has a very different feel to it than Caraval. Caraval was magical, but the Magnificent North is fairytale come to life. It sounds like such an intriguing place to live!

Stephanie Garber is really good at coming up with magic systems. The story curse is so interesting.

I was hesitant to read this book. As mentioned above I get a little attached to characters and this leads me to hesitate before reading sequel series. I was also not a big fan of Jacks in Caraval, which I note in those reviews. I will say I was pleasantly surprised. Evangeline is a wonderful protagonist, who is determined, hopeful, and romantic. The way that I saw her portrayed online was a perfect character, but I was glad to learn she was flawed.

I grew to really enjoy Jacks in this book. He had more of a presence in this book than in the Caraval series. I got to know him, and I loved his interactions with Evangeline. He is sarcastic and a little ruthless, but I still thoroughly enjoyed him.

I have been a Twilight fan since I was in sixth grade. So, when we got to the vampire part of this book I was thrilled! Also, that scene was amazing for so many different reasons.

Apollo. I don’t really have thoughts on him and he wasn’t in the book that much. He was intense, but you learn why pretty quickly into the book. I hope we get to know him more later in the series, but from what I saw he was just a pretty boy.

I will say there wasn’t really an antagonist in the book. It could be Jacks, but that doesn’t really ring true. That is one big way this differs from Caraval: there isn’t an antagonist. Of course, they are trying to accomplish things but there isn’t a bad guy. Though, Jacks does cause a lot of trouble!

I don’t really have any complaints for this book. I struggle getting into series, so this being the first book and introducing everything has me getting immersed in the world.

Also, that ending. Evangeline was starting to trust Jacks more, but that twist at the end has me wondering how their relationship is going to progress in the next book.

Overall, Once Upon a Broken Heart is a wonderful book. It has fairytale vibes, a magical setting, vampires, wonderful characters, and an interesting story. I didn’t miss characters from Caraval like I thought I would, and I was thoroughly immersed in the story. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a romantic, fairytale romance, with a morally gray love interest.