🌿BOOK REVIEW🌿

Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

“The Fates weren’t dangerous because they were evil; the Fates were dangerous because they couldn’t tell the difference between evil and good.”

Evangeline Fox was raised on the curious stories about the Fates, including the intriguing Prince of Hearts. Logic tells her that making a deal with a Fate rarely ends well, but heartbreak overwhelms Evangeline when she approaches the Prince of Hearts with a request.

Okay so can we take a moment to appreciate THE CHARACTERS!! Jacks is just THAT villain that you want to hate but you love! He is so full of whit, charm and hidden emotion. And then we have Evangeline who is a fantastic main character who undergoes such growth throughout the story from a naive young girl to a bold, brave woman!

It has been a while since I have read some YA fantasy and this book has made me want to pick up every book on my TBR from that genre immediately! Although Garber creates a whole new magical reality, the book is easy to follow and I didn’t feel myself getting confused. The description is detailed enough to create fascinating, flawed characters without becoming tedious and dull!

Incase you couldn’t already tell, I loved this book and I cannot wait for the next one!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

⚠️CW// blood, death, emotional abuse, violence

Rating: 3.5

First of all I want to thank NetGalley and for Hodder & Stoughton for this e-ARC.
Jacks was my fav character from Caraval so I was really excited to read this book. Unfortunately I think it didn't quite live up to my expectations.
This was a book full of fairytales and magic which I love. But please don't expect a strong girl boss main character because you definitely won't find one here, Evangeline is one of those pure, sweet characters who only see the good on people. The side characters felt a little flat and undeveloped for me, I actually only really cared for Jacks. I hated how the sister rivalry trope was used there, I'm tired of seeing this trope.
The plot was interesting at times but the pacing was sometimes a little weird. Some plot twists were really predictable or made no sense at all but others were completely unpredictable and those were the ones I liked the most. I don't usually enjoy when books end on a cliffhanger but this one was interesting enough to make me want to read the next book.
Overall, I enjoyed the storytelling and that final plot twist but I think I will only continue with this series because I want to see how Jacks will end up.

I’m going to preface this by saying that I’ve never read any of the Caraval books, so I went into OUABH completely blind. However, I’m certainly going to pick them up now.
I found the start of the book to be a little jumpy, with short periods of story which moved rapidly from one to the next - from speaking to other readers, I’m willing to cede that this may be partially because I haven’t read Caraval and am therefore missing additional context - however, once they travelled to the Magnificent North, I was enchanted. Stephanie Garber so deftly weaves together a complex cast of characters, each with their own distinct personalities and motivations - some of which are more obvious that others - and it’s intriguing to watch the story unfold through our main character, Evangeline’s, perspective.
At the beginning of the story, Evangeline feels very young and inexperienced, however as the story progresses we watch her grow from a grieving and downtrodden young woman, into a confident and charming one.
Not wanting to spoil anything for anyone else, I’ll keep this vague, but I thoroughly enjoyed the settings and characters we encounter along the way, including the infamous Jacks - who you’ll know if you’ve read Caraval, and I can’t wait for the sequel to find out where the story’s twists and turns will take Evangeline next.
Definitely one worth sticking with. A fantastic new story from an author I know many already love.

This is a difficult book for me to … well … review seems a strong word for what I do, since it mainly comprising burble forth some random opinions. In any case, I requested this on NG because it was shiny. The cover was beautiful, the title was intriguing, the blurb was engaging. But, embarrassingly, I knew nothing else about what I was getting into. Which says far more about me than the book, because the author is a massive phenomenon in YA. It’s just I don’t tend to read a lot of YA.

Anyway, it turns out that while this book broadly stands alone, it’s set in the same world as the author’s previous, wildly successful trilogy, and there’s some crossover of characters and events—to the extent that apparently some of the happenings in Once Upon A Broken Heart are spoilers for what goes down in Caraval. To give the author credit, I felt lost only occasionally, and only mildly, though a few references did go over my head and I got the general sense that probably this book would be a meaningful experience if you’d read the others. I absolutely don’t blame the book for this. It was entirely on me.

The other piece of context I was lacking that seemed important was connected to the male lead. He’s a Fate, which, as far as I could tell, are kind of … not quite gods, not quite faery, magical beings who once the ruled world before being sealed in a deck of cards. Anyway, the relevant Fate here is Jacks, also known as The Prince of Hearts. And I think it’s pretty telling that reviews from people who read the previous trilogy are all “OMG IT’S JACKS’ BOOK” and I’m like “who is this psychotic dickhead, I hope I’m not supposed to feel sorry for him, oh Jesus Christ, I think he’s the romantic lead.”

So I am not Jacks’ biggest fan. I’m sure he’s deeply tragic and blah blah but I’m nearly forty. I cannot be doing with YA romantic leads. Seriously, the last YA I read, the hero was literally a mass murderer. WHAT IS WITH THIS? I mean, I know dark romance is a thing that exists for adults and, in all honesty, I’m not mad keen on it. But I really do think the average YA romantic lead could knock all those BDSM mafia dudes into a cocked hat with an arch of their exquisite serial killer eyebrows.

I should also note that I’m absolute not ragging on the genre, or YA writers, or teenage girls for this. Being a teenager is scary enough, I imagine being a teenage girl sucks beyond all reason: I can absolutely see why, in that context, stories about terrible men with extraordinary powers who can, in fact, ultimately be controlled, morally and emotionally, by a YA protagonist are needed, meaningful and valuable.

But Jacks. Holy balls, what a shithead. And, to be fair to the book, I got the sense that it also felt Jacks was a shithead. It’s just I also felt the book thought he was a secretly romantic shithead. And I thought he was a common or garden shithead shithead. He treats the heroine, like super badly. Super super badly. And, again, to be fair, she recognises it and does not, in fact, find it appropriate or attractive. It’s just Jacks himself is terribly terribly attractive (to her), and one of the main characteristics of heroine is hope: always hoping for the love, for happiness, for people to be governed by their better natures, rather than their worst. It makes her very endearing. I liked her.

BUT GET AWAY FROM JACKS, GIRL. FAR FAR AWAY.

Massive side-eye at Jacks aside, I enjoyed the almighty fuck out of this book. It is A RIDE. This slightly mind-boggling juxtaposition of whimsy and darkness, coupled with a willingness To Go There TM, that left me genuinely uncertain where it was going or what was about to happen next. I mean, in a good way. In an exciting, dangerous-feeling way that is actually pretty hard to find. Not in a “oh, genre books are so predictable, man” way, just that there’s something legitimately fresh-feeling about Garber’s take on fairytales, history, and myth. The book starts off with a bargain, transitions through a Cinderella riff, detours into a murder mystery and ends up at a prophecy. Like I said, A RIDE. Plus, it was a nice change to spend time with a genuinely idealistic and romantic heroine. I will say, it means she makes a lot of mistakes, trusting when she definitely shouldn’t trust, taking chances she definitely shouldn’t take, but it always felt like a choice—a choice to hope—rather than blind stupidity or plot necessity.

I will say, the pacing was occasionally a little uneven, and that the heroine, Evangeline Fox, and Jacks are by far the most vividly painted characters in the book. Everyone else fulfilled their roles, but felt a little one-note compared to Evangeline and Jacks. Especially since at three of the other men are literally under love curses for most of the page count, so it’s hard to get a sense of who they are. This is especially true of Luc, Evangeline’s first love, the one who broke her heart and led her to make her disastrous bargain with The Prince of Hearts in the first place. On the one hand, I appreciated that A Man What Did Her Wrong wasn’t allowed to de-centre Evangeline in her own story, but it did mean that the intense emotions that drove her to Jacks (the ones that motivate the entire action of the novel) always felt a little abstract and distant.

Also there’s no getting away from the fact that Once Upon A Broken Heart has a serious case of first-book-in-a-series. It ends on a ginormous emotional twist plus cliff hanger and ARGH. And while I think there’s a lot of interesting themes feeding into the story—I think it might be, and I bloody well hope it is, building up to a deconstruction of the whole concept of “one twu wuv” which I am oh so very here for—they still feel very much like seedlings at the point the book ends, and I’m still not entirely surely if they were definitely there or I was just imagining (and wanting) them.

Strongly recommended for people who like this kind of YA (which apparently I do). I am already absolutely desperate for the second, and will be reading the first trilogy stat. It’s always bit ridiculous to come massively late to something that is already the biggest ever hit, being like “well, this is all right, innit?”. Except it really is all right. Very very exceptionally all right and I loved it.

But sweet goddamn Evangeline needs a better love interest.

Also, one of the advantages of using GR over NG is that I can duck having to give a star rating on GR. I’m dithering a bit over this one because, for me, it felt like a four-star read. HOWEVER, I think that was because I lacked the context and depth that would have come from familiarity with the original trilogy, and it feels wrong to penalise a book (or an author) because I was a daft kipper and didn’t do enough research. Therefore, I’m going with five because, well, err on the side of generosity.

.
From the beginning, just reading the blurb, this book had my attention. A deal with a mysterious powerful figure and a not so promised happy ever after? What more could you want??
I went into this book without having read Caraval (which I now HAVE to read) and tbh it was completely fine!! I understood everything and the settings omg!!!!
Totally made me fall in love 😍
As for the two main characters, Evangeline and Jacks, I honestly want to keep reading their story forever. Evangeline’s determination to do the right thing and her optimism for a happy end were so absolute that it made me root for her no matter what, and her curiosity just made me relate to her on a super deep level 😂. Also Jacks savage charm was everything!!! I don’t want to give him away because he is something that needs ti be discovered but tbh I would definitely make a deal with him, knowing full well it would be the worst decision of my life.
Although i have to mention a few revelations were sudden and felt slightly out of place, they always ended up clicking in perfectly!!! This whole book kept me on the edge of my seat, always knowing there was more to come and it DELIVERED.
So yeah. Read it. A true fairytale with a hint of darkness from the Grimms’ filled with emotion and decadence all the way. That ending showed me how this story truly has the potential for infinite endings and I’m glad it did.

This review also appears on my Instagram page!

I have read the first book of the series Caraval. But then did not have enough time.to read the rest two books. It does not mind, after all, the book can be read without the previous books.
This book was incredible, I loved everything. The story was fast, surprising, full of twists and turns and there was also romantic. Stephanie has a big imagination and this book is proof.
The last thing I want to mention is... Jacks (Prince of Hearts). He is an incredible character and I need to read more about his story and him. I am excited to know what will be in a second book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
5/5

➳ Oh my! The Caraval trilogy is one of my favourite , and Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, is without a doubt my favourite character in the entire series, so when Stephanie Garber announced her new series, I knew I'd love it!
•
➳ Stephanie is the "Queen of Magic." Her worlds and lore are incredibly rich! Reading this felt like I'd been doped up on rainbows and unicorn. She created another whimsical fairytale, but she's outdone herself this time by making it even more vivid and magical.
•
➳ The plot revolves around Evangeline Fox,bold and brave and reckless with rose-gold hair,you can’t help but love her but also shout at her! Oh lord things people do for love! She appears to be plucked straight out of a fairytale. Her fiery personality and spunk made her the ideal counterpoint to Jacks' sharper edges, and I loved his morally grey character in Caraval, this is where I fell head over heels for him. Ugh, I'll never get enough of him! and their banter gave me so much life that I'm probably immortal now. I feel as if I've just stepped out of a fairy tale or a bizarre but wonderful dream.
•
➳ I can assure you that you are in for a real treat with this one! I can't wait for everyone to read this book so we can all obsess over Jack together!

I struggled with this book at times, it didn't seem like the pacing of the book was quite right but I really enjoyed the world building and the characters within the story. It was interesting to see characters that were so flawed but still trying their best, Jacks was sly and smooth and vicious which was a welcome change from those love interests that appear cold on the outside but soft on the inside. I loved the reasons behind the gates and the feel of a fairytale that is never quite right, I liked that many of the twists were unexpected and that the author didn't try to make any of the characters completely good or completely evil, it made them more relatable and enjoyable to read about.

If the pacing to the book was better and some of the scenes changed slightly to better fit the actual characters then I would've given this book a higher rating. I will definitely be looking out for book two as I need to know what happens

I think all I need to say is, when will the next book in the series be released please?

Step into a mesmerising world of magic.

Once Upon a Broken Heart is definitely not your traditional fairytale but it is one that enthrals and entertains.

I must admit that I haven't yet read any of Stephanie's other books but I believe this is set in a world which is first visited in her previous books. I'll be reading her other books as soon as I can.

With plenty of twists and turns, this is fantastical and romantic all at the same time. My heart raced as I read, I became lost in the mystery and mayhem.

Superb storytelling with an ending that will leave you wanting more.

Oh my goodness this book is perfection! I only found the world of Caraval earlier this year and so to be able to read more about Jacks was amazing. He is such an amazing character. I loved the setting the plot the characters. Absolutely amazing now I’m just sad that i didn’t take my time to read and finished it in one day!

This book was so good. So good. I absolutely loved the caraval trilogy so I was super excited to get a book about Jacks and it definitely didn’t disappoint!

I loved so many things about this book:
- Jacks. Jacks is such a good character! He’s broody and difficult and quite frankly a pain in the ass most of the time but I love him.
- Magic, fates, vampires, curses and deals.
- Mystery and murder!

I just had a great time reading this book and I can’t wait for the next one in the series because I have questions I need answers to!

2/5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Once Upon a Broken Heart follows Evangeline, an orphaned peasant who makes a deal with Jacks, a Fate, in order to save her relationship with Luc, who she believes is her true love.

Honestly, I was just extremely underwhelmed by this book. The pacing was irregular and at times just downright confusing, and the writing was simply mediocre. The worldbuilding was relatively weak for a fantasy novel, as was the plot, which as predictable and not very engaging. The characters largely fell flat for me too. The main character, Evangeline, was underdeveloped and I couldn’t bring myself to either sympathise with or root for her at any point in the book. The same applies to the majority of the other characters, who felt one-sided and again underdeveloped. The only exception to this would perhaps be Jacks, but elements of his character remained extremely stereotypical of a male love interest in a YA fantasy. I suppose I could stretch to recommending this as a cute, light fantasy read, and, providing the reader doesn’t go in with particularly high expectations, they might enjoy it. I know I’m in the minority disliking this, so if you think it sounds like your thing, go ahead and give it a try as it’s a quick and easy read, in the end it just wasn’t for me.

Content warnings: death of a parent, murder.

I knew it was probably a bad idea picking this up considering how much I didn’t vibe with the original Caraval series, but Jacks was (in my opinion) the only redeemable thing about that series so of course I thought this would be a safe enough read. What I got from this, however, was a lukewarm mess (saying it was a hot mess would imply strong feelings about absolutely any of the events of the book which.....) Jacks, the sole saving grace of the first series felt like a watered down ghost of the wicked Fate he was previously. I did enjoy the glimpses of how he felt after his entanglement with Tella, but they were few and far between. And Evangeline, our main protagonist, I feel absolutely nothing towards, I’m sorry. It all just felt like a mash-up of too many genres, fantasy and fairytale and romance and supernatural adventure that just reads more as middle grade than YA. Still debating on whether or not to read the next book when it comes out, as I am still invested in Jacks as a character and hope he gets the ending he deserves.

What a corker.

This book opened as magical as normal, and Garber managed to keep me captivated the entire way through. I didn’t think it was possible for me to love JACKS even more! But here we are.

I loved reading more about the fates. I loved the introduction of Chaos, I’m absolutely desperate to see where the ending leads us into book 2.

I was nervous going into this book because I loved Caraval SO MUCH, but it’s a beautiful opener to what will absolutely be a cracking new trilogy. Definitely recommend.

I have never read any of Stephanie Garber's book before but have heard great things on Bookstagram so when I saw this book on Netgalley I thought I would give it a go. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't really understand it all as although the author had said that you don't need to read Caravel to enjoy this one, I had seen a few reviews that disagreed. However, I really enjoyed it and understood everything. I think there were a few easter eggs that I probably missed but it didn't affect my overall enjoyment at all.

Evangeline is a hopeless romantic. She has grown up on fairytales and hopes for her life to mirror the stories she loves. However, when her love becomes engaged to someone else she is overcome by grief. Her grief drives her to make a bargain with the Prince of Hearts in order to stop the wedding. But as soon as the deal is made things start to go very wrong. She soon realises that Jacks wants a lot more from her than the three kisses she promises.

Ah I loved it! The tension between Evangeline and Jacks was just perfect and I cannot wait to see what happens next. That is the only bad thing about receiving an advanced copy - I now have even longer to wait for a sequel! However, I think I will pick up the Caravel series to get my Stephani Garber fix until then.

I loved this more than I expected! There's not much of a world-building and you kind of get little pieces of information about the magic in this world as the story goes but I didn't mind it as much as I usually do. And that's because Evangeline's story is just full of excitement. Just when I thought I knew that the book is going to be about, there was a twist that changed the whole course of the story. This made of a thrilling read and me finishing Once Upon A Broken Heart in two days.

My first Stephanie garber book (I know I know I’m later to the party)

But I’m glad this is my first, Such a beautiful first instalment of the series. The only thing I’m mad about is that I now have to wait for the next in the series but it gives me chance to catch up with the authors other work

This ARC request was a no-brainer for me, especially because I had no idea that there was going to be a Caraval spinoff about my favourite character! Jacks was one of the highlights of the main series for me and once again, he did not disappoint—his deceptive, supposedly heartless self was just as weirdly endearing as I remembered. Some of the new characters didn’t feel quite as memorable to me, and sometimes I found their intentions hard to connect with due to a lot of instances of telling rather than showing. That being said, each of them still brought that same, Caraval-esquive whimsy that was easy to enjoy. The same goes for the plot; it perhaps wasn’t as cohesive as the main series, with some twists seeming a bit random, but it was chaos of the most enjoyable kind. Towards the end, the plot went in a direction that came slightly out of left-field, but it used one of my guilty pleasure tropes in doing so, so I’m not complaining! Despite its flaws, the book knew how to highlight its strengths well and make me forget all about the elements that didn’t quite add up, and it’s safe to say that I’m still looking forward to the sequel.

Oh my goodness me. Once Upon a Broken Heart was every bit as wonderful and magical as I had hoped. I really loved being back in the world of Caraval and getting to explore The Magnificent North was just incredible!

I fell in love with Evangeline straight away and it was so interesting to follow her on her journey as she makes some really brave and some really questionable choices all in the name of love. She is so in love with the idea of love and it really is her motivation for everything. I love that we, as readers, get to experience this adventure with her.

The world building is absolutely incredible. I wish I could visit The Magnificent North, it is even more magical (dare I say this) that Caraval. Reading Once Upon A Broken Heart has made me realise that my reread of the entire Caraval trilogy is really overdue.

As I knew I would, I totally fell in love (again) with Jacks. I really should know better by now but I just cannot help myself!

I honestly cannot recommend Once Upon A Broken Heart it is a wonderfully magical YA fantasy and one that I will definitely be rereading! I just need the next book already!!!

Once Upon A Broken Heart is a magical fairytale of a girl, Evangeline, desperately wishing for her happily ever after. Personally, I prefer a stronger female character so it took me a while to grow attached to Evangeline. She’s sweet, caring, and sees the good in everyone. She did surprise me, but I’ll keep that bit to myself. You’ll get no spoilers from me.

Jack, is quite the opposite of our rose gold heroine. As the Prince of Hearts and one of the Fates, it’s hard to see the cards he’s playing. He definitely has his secrets.

I fell right into the story as it moved along steadily, but I was about a third of the way through before I finally felt enraptured. My fingers couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. It was a mystery I had to solve, but atlas it leaves us on a cliffhanger.

You don’t have to read The Caraval Series to read this one, but I highly recommend it as the story does contain spoilers for that series as well as introduces the fates and more importantly, Jack the Prince of Hearts. I felt lost not knowing who or what a fate was and never developed a connection or understanding of Jack.