Once Upon a Broken Heart

My new favorite series I love Eva and jacks so much, and have bought all the other books. There’s just so many twists that you never get bored and has very good world building.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 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.

I liked this but I didn’t feel connected to it in any way. Kind of like it felt surface level somehow? I do think I’ll read the next one as I’ve heard it gets better

Imagine if some of the fairytales you were told as childhood bedtime stories had been true? I finished this book at 4 am this morning and even after getting some sleep, I still don't know if I have the ability to articulate the praise this book deserves. Reading this book felt like coming home and starting a new adventure all at once. I hadn't realized how much I missed the world of Caraval until I was back in Valenda. This story starts us on another mystery-filled adventure that I cannot wait to see unfold in the next installments. We meet new characters and are reunited with some familiar faces from Caraval (which made me actually squeal with delight). It is not necessary to read the Caraval trilogy first in order to enjoy this book, but I still highly recommend it. There are moments referenced throughout the story and if you've read Caraval, they have a much more significant impact. The magic system in this world is phenomenal. Truly, I don't know how she does it but Stephanie creates these worlds and characters and magic that just transport you into the story and capture your whole heart. This book has everything you could want - a prophecy, a new and mysterious setting, a highly relatable heroine, a murder, absolutely palpable tension, and magic. And Jacks. Best of all, Jacks. Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite throughout the Caraval trilogy was Legend. I wasn't really a fan of Jacks. But let me tell you, if you were like me, once you read Once Upon a Broken Heart, if Jacks doesn't win you over at least a little... you may not have a heart to be won. And if you already loved him, then you will absolutely devour this book. While our heroine Evangeline Fox gets to know the Prince of Hearts, we get to learn more about him as well. And if you've read Caraval, it puts things that happened in that trilogy in a whole new perspective. All in all, this book was everything I wanted it to be and more. The mysterious twists will keep you guessing until the very last page and even then, it leaves you with anticipation and intrigue as to what will happen in the next book.

A charming fairy tale with magic, romance, and a touch of darkness. I loved the atmosphere and Jacks was easily my favorite character. Looking forward to reading the next book.

[edit] Wow! I loved Jacks in the Caraval series but this book made me fall in love with him even more! Maybe that's his power just affecting us readers through the pages but you will definitely like this book if you loved the Caraval series. Evangeline is like a combination of Scarlett and Donatella in a way but so much different too. I like how this story fits in the same universe and timeline of the Caraval series but it introduces us to a new part of the world that's even more magical. While you don't necessarily have to read the other books to read this series, I highly recommend you do because they are so great and there are some fun connections that would make a little more sense if you had read them prior to this one. I cannot wait for The Ballad of Never After and to see where this story continues!

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 piece 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 ❤️

I debated reading this series for a long time but a lot of people recommended it so I decided to give it a try. This book took a while to grow on me until that ending changed everything. I am flummoxed yet it all made perfect sense. Now i need to know what happens. Already starting book 2. Once you read this book you will have to read the next.

Good start of the series. Loved it. And I love the new cover design!

Ok

جاني لونه ازرق

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.

It is a very nice with the fanstasy one.