Once Upon A Broken Heart: Stephanie Garber

This book has had me hooked and I've sped through it! I loved the world building aspect of this book, everything is totally on theme for a fairytale story. The description was so good that I felt like I could place myself directly into the story and watch it unfold.There was so many different themes to this book that it is impossible to get bored. From one chapter to the next there were new mysteries unfolding. I am so intrigued by this series and I can't quite figure out what is going to happen next!The dynamic between Evangeline and Jacks is fantastic to read. Evangeline is naive but makes up for it with her curiosity and need to do what's right. Jacks is difficult to describe as you don't get to see the real him, just the side he portrays. The banter between the two is hilarious and exciting!I hope to see more of Lala and Chaos in the series. I think Lala is such a big personality that she could bring something amazing to the story. And I was insanely intrigued by Chaos, I just want more!

4.5 stars - an addictive read that I was not expecting to love!The title, cover art and premise gave me the impression the book would be enjoyable, somewhat childish, and nothing overly exciting - boy was I wrong!While it was a bit fluffy in parts, this was in such a good way, feeling somewhat self aware and intentional given the premise of the plot. Plus made it so easy to enjoy and read. The characters and world building were great, it was action packed and moved along at such a great pace that I struggled to put it down.I loved that the characters weren't painted to be all-knowing or perfect. They were shown to have flaws, but that made them all the more interesting to read. *No spoilers* but none of the pain points or dilemmas felt forced or unnatural in the plot, and they didn't drive me insane with overly illogical, irrational decision making, everything felt pretty realistic (the world and context aside).Overall loved it - went on to read the whole series in the space of a week-ish. Definitely recommend this series.

Theres nothing more thrilling than an enemies to lovers storyline and this one is glorious. The banter between our Fmc and mmc is the most fun, witty, flirtatious dialogue ive read and each give as good as the other, you will fall in love with Evangeline and Jacks quicker than a book can chage its cover in The Magnificant North!!!! The world building is magical, it is a fairytale world after all, with wicked step mothers/sisters, Princes, Castles, Dragons and curses (lots of curses) but it isn't all whimsy and saccharine. The world has very dark undertones. This is the whole fueling of Eveangelines story really, she's on a reluctant quest that 'should' help her achive the perfect, magical fairytale, happy everafter, but is it really all that its made out to be and is that REALLY what she wants after all?Also, i need me one of them cute baby dragons!This is a lovely read that flows smoothly but there are cliffhangers so i advise that you buy all three books together because you will NOT want to wait from one book to the next!!

Im a bit conflicted with this book as I do want to continue the trilogy, and I found it incredibly easy to read/ get through. But overall I found that it was written in a rather juvenile fashion. The writer was spoon feeding certain plot points and a lot of the descriptions seemed a bit underbaked/ easy. Also certain parts in the plot were so forced (especially the end). I feel if you’re wanting a bit of a brainless, teenage, fairytale easy read go for it. But if you’re after something a bit more fully rounded/ adult, maybe skip it

I loved Jacks in Caraval so I was excited about reading his story in a new series. I did hope for his point of view, but I'll take what I can get.The world is the same world as Caraval but expanded, we get to meet all sorts of people and creatures in this one and ot was much bigger than Caraval.Stephanie's writings is magical itself, it's very flowery and flows like water, she uses a lot of imagery to describe things, but it was never difficult to read.I didn't like Evangeline much in the beginning, she's very naive and borderline stupid, she believed in magic and stories to point anyone can get her to do anything if they use it to their advantage. Curiosity does kill the cat, sadly there are others who get hurt by her foolish actions instead of her.Jacks was everything. He's such a complicated being that you honestly don't know anything about it, and anything you do know, you can't tell if it's real or not. I wasn't sure if he's the other main character and still unsure if he's gonna be the main love interest but we can all hope.If you liked Caraval, you would like this book, there's a lot of similarities to it and vibes the same. If you enjoy magical fairytale worlds, morally grey/villain love interests, murder mystery, adventure, girl who believes in first love, etc, you'll enjoy this too. It gave me cinderella vibes too.