Book: Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
Read From: 11th December - 20th December 2021
Rating: 4/5 stars
Summary: Evangeline Fox was raised in her fathers curiosity shop, where she grew up on legends about immortals like the tragic Prince of Hearts. She knows his kisses are worth dying for and that bargains with him rarely end well. But when Evangeline finds out the love of her life is marrying another girl, she becomes desperate enough to make a bargain with the Prince of Hearts. In return, he only asks for three kisses. But after her first kiss, Evangeline learns that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’s pledged. And he has plans for Evangeline that will either end in happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy…
After reading (and loving!) Garber’s Caraval series in 2020, Once Upon A Broken Heart made its way straight onto my most anticipated releases for 2021. Those of you who have read Caraval will understand my excitement of getting a story all about Jacks, and I’m very pleased to report that this book lived up to all my expectations. After already meeting him in Garber’s previous series, I KNEW I would adore following Jacks again but this magical and whimsical story delivers on so much more than this - I ended up falling in love with Evangeline, the world of the Magnificent North and all of the other characters within it. We also got some Caraval Easter Eggs too! (Because of this, I’d recommend that if you are on the fence about reading the Caraval series then definitely read it first - there are spoilers. But, if you have no intentions of reading Caraval, then Once Upon A Broken Heart can definitely be read and appreciated in its own right without needing to read the trilogy)!
Garber has such a talent for story-telling, it can’t be easy to write such a magical book in a fluffy way without it becoming convoluted but she manages to hit the mark perfectly. Once Upon A Broken Heart feels reads like it’s own fairy tale, it’s incredibly easy to get swept up in the beautiful writing and luscious atmosphere and just completely forget that you’re literally reading a book and not right there experiencing everything. The world-building was exquisite, the grandeur of the Magnificent North and it’s palaces was captured perfectly, yet so was the eerie and mysterious dungeons housing the ominous Chaos. Every location our characters visit was obviously extremely well thought out, and it certainly paid off - the reading experience was just incredible.
And of course the characters themselves - I’ve already mentioned how much I adored Evangeline and Jacks but the side characters were also amazing (and thankfully I had my stunning Fairyloot edition of this book on hand where I could see them all brought to life in the gorgeous artwork)! All of their individual personalities were fleshed out really well and I felt as though I really got to know them even though the book was only 400 pages. I’m very excited to see the role they will all play in the sequel.
And talking of the sequel… ahhh I can’t wait! At the time of writing this review, the title has since been released (The Ballad of Never After) which has made me even MORE excited. Sadly, I’ve still got 9 months to wait but in the meantime I hope as many people as possible read this incredible book! I think you’ll know straight away whether Stephanie Garber’s style of writing is for you or not - if you already know that you get on with it, I can assure you that Once Upon A Broken Heart won’t let you down. This is definitely worthy of all the hype it has been getting since it’s release and on an unrelated note, I’m so happy to own such a beautiful special edition.