Book Review for "Once Upon A Broken Heart" by Stephanie Garber

SYNOPSIS:

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…

GENRE: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

RATING: 4/5 stars

“I didn’t think you cared.”

“I don’t. But you still owe me one more kiss, and until I collect it, you’re mine, and I do not like to share.”

"Once Upon a Broken Heart" is a tale of a girl with rose gold hair who finds out the love of her life is engaged and planning on marrying her step-sister. Convinced that her lover must have been bewitched or placed under some spell, she strikes a deal with Jacks, also known as the Prince of Hearts, to stop the wedding. In exchange for Jacks stopping the wedding, Jacks asks for three kisses. What follows after is Evangeline traveling to the magical North to attend a ball hosted by the North prince, Apollo, in the hopes of being one of the lucky ones to get chosen and ultimately engaged to the Prince Apollo. What follows when Evangeline travels to the North is an adventure filled with engagements and marriages, magic, love potions, and even vampires.

When I picked up this book, I had no idea this was meant to be a sort of spinoff of the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber, with some of the characters making an appearance (such as the Prince of Hearts), and it taking place in the same world as the Caraval series. The Caraval series was one I have had on my bookshelf for a long while now, but haven't had the time to pick up, but this book was certainly interesting. While it did take place in the same world as Caraval, it has different characters with some having been mentioned in that series and other being brand new. I certainly felt like while reading this book, the world felt almost like it was being reintroduced to me, rather than being introduced, but it makes sense now (after finding out this book is meant to be a spinoff), why the author was writing the setting and the lore about the fates as if it was one that was already familiar to the reader.

I really enjoyed this book, and felt like it had all the fantastical elements that I feel like has been missing in most fantasy series that I pick up nowadays. The one word I would use to desribe this book would be magical. I felt like I was transported into another world and realm and I thought the writing and the setting was absolutely beautiful. I love how magic-focused the plot seemed to be and loved hearing about the fates, magical arches, and magical bells that seemed to belay warnings. I also greatly enjoyed the characters in this novel. I found the female main lead, Evangeline, to be quite naive, but I understood that that was done pruposely by the author to serve as her character flaw. The entire book is based on her naivety and hopelessness about love, and a lot of the decisions she makes are done because of her naive beliefs. Normally, I would be annoyed by a character that is depicted to be intrisically naive, however Evangeline in a way felt relatable. There was no sense that the author also wanted her to be this strong, brave and badass character, she was just naive and extremely loyal, which made her character feel more authentic.

I also really liked Jacks, also known as the Prince of Hearts. I definitely feel like I missed a lot of integral aspects of his character by not reading Caraval first, since a lot happened to his character in that series. However, I still loved him and found him to be a great main lead.

While I loved the grandiosity, and magical realism of the setting, one thing that I definitely felt was a let down about this book was how fast and short it seemed to be. It almost felt like everything happened within a two days (I'm pretty sure Evangelline got engaged and married within 2 days). I finished this book in two sittings, and felt like it ended prematurely. I understand that it is going to be a series, however, I wished the author had continued on a bit longer and built the tension even higher, so that readers would be motivated to pick up the next book. However, Once Upon a Broken Heart ended right when things seemed like it was about to start picking up, and I don't know if the tension was built up enough for me to be motivated into picking up the next one in the series.

Overall, I really loved this book. The characters (especially Jacks), the setting, and the writing were all positives about this book. However, it did have some faults such as it being too short and things happening way too fast. It still earned 4 stars from me, just for being interesting enough that I finished it in one day. Would definitely recommend.

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