Book Review – Once Upon A Broken Heart

Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Time for some fantasy today, as we step into a world full of Fates with Stephanie Garber’s Once Upon A Broken Heart. As much as I love a cosy mystery for autumn days, a great fantasy novel is never to be be underestimated, and this one really is great.

Synopsis
How far would you go for happily ever after?
For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings… until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy….

Review
I absolutely loved this adventure. It was one of the most magical books I have ever read, and the protagonist Evangeline was just… everything. She was almost the heroine and villian of her own story, with the concequences of actions being far reaching, and this level of planning and forethought really resonated with me as a reader.

We’re met with a small cast of regular characters whom we come to know well – essentially, Evangeline, Jacks and, later, Marisol. Throughout the book, we come to see bits and pieces of their characters form brilliantly vibrant people that could simply jump off the page, and Jacks, trickster he is, possibly would.

I’ve always been a fan of morally grey characters, and Jacks certainly fits this brief perfectly. We’re never quite sure from page to page whether he is on Evangeline’s side or simply playing the cards to suit himself, and I adored this. Where Evangeline makes mistakes and choices, and has to deal with the concequences of those actions as they come, Jacks appears to always be thinking several steps ahead, never allowing us to fully trust him. Yet at the same time he allows himself to be vulnerable enough for us to see true parts of his character, and the bits we do see become more and more fascinating.

As the cards unfold, we’re left to wonder just how much of all of the situation has been that of Jacks’s design, and how much is, really, fate. Evangeline is faced with circumstances she could never have predicted, and we certainly couldn’t have seen coming from the beginning of the book.

Overall, this was just a fantastic read. A wonderful fantasy, a beautiful mystery, and the start to a fascinating series.

Thank you for stopping by my little blog, and for sharing in my love of this stunning book. It’s one I’ll be raving about for a while yet.