Once Upon a Broken Heart

"There were a lot of twists that I was not not expecting and overall a pretty fun book to read."

"im speechless- new favorite book "

"In a world where fates reside among humans, I’ll-fated Evangeline request help from the prince of hearts, Jax. As Evangeline searches for true love, the prince of hearts is anything but the help she wished for. As her life goes from bad to worse, rose-golden haired Evangeline discovers there may be much more she needs to worry about than true love . "

"It was better than caraval. But honestly. I think donatella was a better match for jacks. "

"okay mrs. garber pls do a ouabh caraval like major crossover bc i need julian to be back! okay. thanks!"

"the ending was so shocking. but i HATE the cliffhanger it was left on."

"I gave this book 3 stars. This was another fantasy book I picked up without knowing what to expect, and while it had its highlights, it didn't fully work for me. The story follows Evangeline Fox, who is desperate to stop the love of her life from marrying someone else. She makes a dangerous deal with Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, which sets her on a journey filled with magic, curses, and unexpected twists. The characters are intriguing, and the settings have a whimsical, fairy-tale charm. However, as someone new to fantasy, I found the story overwhelming at times, with too much information being thrown at me. The pacing dragged in the middle, and it was a struggle to stay invested. That said, the twists near the end were a pleasant surprise and kept the book from falling flat for me. Even though it wasn't my favorite, the creativity behind the cursed kisses, magical bargains, and the unpredictable Jacks made it interesting enough for me to consider reading book two. If you enjoy magical worlds and stories of love, betrayal, and dangerous deals, you might find this book more enjoyable than I did!"

"I see the hype with this YA series. I loved this and I’m already sucked into book 2. Caraval was okay…legendary was alright but this OUABH is my jam. I skipped finale and will come back but I was too eager for Jacks’ story, and found myself falling in love with Evangeline and the world of the North along the way."

"This was so hard to finish because it is so boring. How can everything bad happen to one person in such a short time span. Not to mention the lack of character growth and once I hit part three I figured out the ending and was so disappointed. I won’t be finishing the series. "

"⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Wow. I had really high hopes for this book. Based on the dozens of reviews & recommendations I’ve seen of it, I genuinely thought my hopes would be met. Sadly, this book was half boring/half “really? this is really where we’re going with this story?”. First of all, the plot is a snore-fest. Literally nothing happens until (SPOILERish) Apollo is murdered, & suddenly everything is resolved in such a neat little way within the last 10% of the book. Evangeline is such a dull heroine, who is willfully ignorant and naive to red flags. Speaking of red flags, Jacks is the fately embodiment of one. I did not read Caraval and have no intention of doing so after this, but I did look up context online (before further context was given in OUABH) and he is unhinged in a ‘dark romance’ type of way that didn’t garner any sympathy from me. Not sure when we’re supposed to like him, but so far there’s a big fat “not ever” stamped on his forehead in my mind. Second, the plot holes are innumerable. Literally everything with Apollo/Marisol could have been solved with a truth potion, which, to my knowledge, only has mild side effects that can be treated with Pepto Bismol. Low risk compared to love potions’ effects if you ask me, so what’s the downside? Oh right, lazy writing. I had some forgiveness for these twists and turns that were lacking because this is considered YA, but sheesh, we should be past these weakly developed stories. I will say that I went in OUABH with caution, since Kerri Maniscalco mentioned Stephanie Garber in her KOTW series acknowledgements, and Maniscalco is on my “Do Not Ever Waste Your Time Again” list of authors. Sorry, but that just clued me in to being skeptical; I was ready to save Garber a seat on that list next to Maniscalco & Hannah Grace (shudder). While Garber is not nearly as terrible an author, this book left A LOT to be desired. I will, however, start Book 2 in the hopes that maybe the weak & watered down story ended in Book 1. "