Once Upon a Broken Heart Series by Stephanie Garber
For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox as 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.
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This series was a very whimsical fantasy that was a perfect read for the holidays. I don’t typically go for fairytale retellings that aren’t a bit dark, whimsical fantasies aren’t really my cup of tea but I actually really enjoyed this series. There’s just something in the plot that I couldn’t stop reading. In this book, we enter a fairytale world where people are given monickers like “The Handsome Stranger” etc. So at times I felt it wasn’t that serious of a book but it surprised me with how deep and heartbreaking the story could get. The cliffhangers for BOTH books, however, before the third book is even out was a very cruel move by the author so beware if you pick this up before the series is completed! I might go crazy with theories before the final instalment comes out next fall.
The first book takes place during a very quick timeline where Evangeline strikes a deal with the Fate of broken hearts to stop her sister from marrying the love of her life. This deal leads to a sequence of events, each more ridiculous than the last but so entertaining. Eventually Evangeline is swept off to the Magnificent North to help the Prince of Hearts with his secretive plans. Book Two deals with the fallout from Book One where secrets of the past and the creation of Fates dangles tantalizingly in front of Evangeline and the readers. Things become much more dangerous and a lot less fairytale in the second book with an ending that had my head spinning for days.
One thing I really loved in this series was just how intricate the plot got. Starting out so whimsically and cheesy I figured this would be some kind of spoof fairytale but the complexity of the plot threw those ideas out the window. I was intrigued throughout the entirety of both books and I absolutely love where this story is going. It’s become somewhat of a mystery and the secretiveness of at least half of the cast of characters has me guessing every second what might happen. It takes a lot for a book to surprise me but these ones did.
The thing that lacked for me in this book was the character development for the main character. It seemed that even if other characters seemed “stuck in their ways”, they still had some growth as we discovered more aspects of their character. We are reading from Evangeline’s viewpoint and I feel like she has barely changed throughout two books. Her love is fickle and fleeting and seems to change with the wind. Her dedication to Apollo makes zero sense given their beginnings, and her treatment of Jacks is so hot and cold that I’ve found myself feeling more sorry for him than for her. I’m excited to see where she goes from here and I do like her, I just think she has a long way to go in growth before she can find her happily ever after. Hopefully Book Three explores more of that. I did really like the developing relationships and I do think those relationships can be great building blocks for Evangeline’s own development as we go forward.
Overall, this was an enjoyable series and I’ll definitely be waiting (impatiently) for the final book to come out. It was the perfect lighthearted fantasy (with just the right amount of angst) to read gearing up for the holidays. 4 stars for this series.