Once Upon a Broken Heart

You got me, Stephanie. There were some seriously new and interesting ideas/concepts in this story. If they've been done before, she wrote them in a way that made it seemed completely new. I was actually surprised at how magically she wrote. Even at moments that you may consider "boring", it wasn't because her lines genuinely made you keep reading. It was the micro, not just the macro. Does that make sense? I didn't just want to read to see what happened next, I wanted to read to see what sentence I would read next! Sort of like surprising poetry or philosophy in the middle of a story. Makes you go..... huh... well look at that. and pause to think. I read the first two pages and thought damn... here we go. Cons: She was SO original, so why am I still reading about the hottest guy in the room with "dimples", "cupping her cheek", and "worrying/biting her lip"? Please for the love of the greek muses can someone write a story without those three things? JUST ONCE? The worrying of the lip wasn't excessive in this book like other ones, but can we just have a no dimpled guy once and a female lead who doesn't gnaw on her lip like it's a pastry. Is this like a requirement? Is it on the job application when heroines apply? This is really a low-level complaint. Just asking for a friend.... Some loopholes and things that weren't explained or made zero sense that I don't really care about because it was so original. Every story has something you can rip apart. Every. One. This was good enough for me to say what the hell who cares. Which is the key to making a story a great one. Because the story can't story if everything makes perfect sense. Semi-con but not a con at all: Ok, I can see how people might not like the main female character. However, she is literally seventeen-ish and pretty friggin' sheltered. She believes in true love at first sight, fairytales, she only ever had feelings for one boy (no relationships), has only lived in one place, only one job working for her daddy-o, etc. She does not have the internet or bad influence/good influence friends that give her life experiences, etc. She's not going to do what you think she should do. I normally hate reading about characters this young and mentally make them older, and that's hard with her because she is young and naive. Appropriately for her environment. But you know what... it works for her... and I like her for her. she's doing the best with what she has. So, I let her be her. She'll learn. (And if you read the book, you'll see she's learning the hard way.). 5 stars and no complaints. Only contemplations that I don't really care about because I'll read the series.

This book definitely surprised me. It was nothing that I thought it would be . It was a great twist on “once upon a time” and fantasy . Very whimsical and this author did a great job of incorporating fae characters without going all over the place . She took her time to let us discover each peace of the story. I recommend this book to people who are just getting into fantasy or to people who don’t like extensive world building but still want a piece of it . Great flow, no filler words , and no crazy repetition . This was written in 3rd person . I’m excited for the next read . I docked the point because I never really give 5 stars and I think the beginning of the book was a bit confusing but after the first few chapters I was locked in ❤️

This was fantastical and fun, and also a little bit creepy at times. It’s been a couple years since I actually brought the book, so I went in pretty blind, not remembering much of the premise. So everything felt new and interesting, and each twist came as a genuine surprise to me. In the middle things got a little convoluted, and I thought I might need to jump ship, but I’m really glad that I didn’t. The story ultimately was compelling enough that I was pulled through to the end… Needing to know what was going to happen. And that’s still the vibe with the rest of the series.

I thought the first book Caraval was great but this tops it. I loved every moment in this book. It was full of twists and turns. I love the characters as well

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ Evangeline Fox is a hopeless romantic who bargains with the notorious Prince of Hearts, Jacks, to stop her true love’s wedding. ★ World-building The world building was my favourite part of this story. The setting is incredible. Stephanie Garber makes worlds that feel like magic. The descriptions, the creativity—I was absolutely obsessed with the language she honed in order to make a fairytale real. ★ Characters In an interview, Garber stated “Humans and characters, we’re defined by what we believe.” Jacks and Evangeline are both hard-to-forget characters. You are truly able to see human vulnerability in the dreams and nightmares behind both characters. Evangeline is a hopeless romantic searching for love. In a way, Jacks is too. ★ Stakes Since Evangeline deeply craves a love made for fairytales, it makes sense to see her willing to sacrifice everything on the chance of finding true love. She ‘sells her soul to the devil’ for what she deeply desires, and each page pulled me in deeper. I wanted Evangeline to win! ★ The extra polish Stephanie knows how to add that ✨ extra magic ✨ to her books. It is laced into the language, infused into the characters darkest desires. This is why she is a bestseller. ☆ Plot The plot of this first book felt a bit slow in the beginning and picked up in the middle. I understand it was necessary to start with background context and the consequences of Evangeline’s choices, but some parts of the plot felt slow. From the middle onwards, the pace picked up and then I could not put it down! I highly recommend the read! One of my favourite books because of the setting and, of course, Jacks.

There's secret symbols on the front cover underneath the sleeves that are unique to each book. So fun. Good quality and good story.

Completamente apaixonante e viciante. O Jacks se mostra um bom mala enquanto a Evangeline se mostra uma excelente protagonista. O universo é bem detalhado e você pode ser enganado a cada vírgula. Por mais que o nome soe clichê eu te asseguro, é o contrário kkk. O coração partido vai ser o seu daqui a pouco. Ansiosa para a continuação

Ma fille la choisit en version anglaise pour travailler la langue en même temps. Il s agit d un format broché de très belle qualité.

The story: The writing is very easy to read which is what I enjoyed most about this book but the storyline is all over the place and nothing really makes any sense...there is no world builing and you are kind of just thrown into a story with 0 context, it took me awhile to figure it out...not worth the hype IMO. I'm not going to bother reading the remaining books in this series. Cosmetics: the font used in this book is very small which is unappealing. The cover is only really relevant to a small few lines in the book again, not enough world building to justify this cover. The book arrived damaged which was disappointing.

Got it in great condition!