Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

49 reviews

noellegrace8's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I cannot express how much I love this. Jacks x Evangeline's dynamic just works. He is mean and dark and full of desire, but in a way that makes you know there's a reason he is the way that he is, which gives you hope for him as naive as Evangeline's. He's a fully fleshed out character. She is as well, good-hearted and smart but fully capable of making mistakes. She's like a sweet fluffy pink frosted cupcake. They make every scene interesting. I hate Marisol's character though - she's very much like Taryn from Folk of the Air. And the plot does not disappoint. It is crisp and new, an almost-redo on old fairytales and prophecy stories. So much of the worldbulding/lore and plot twists here are fresh. And I adore the descriptions of all the dresses!!

I give Rebecca Soler's performance 4.5/5⭐️. She gives a steadily good performance in which the listener can tell the difference between the characters. However, sometimes her vocals are far too loud/unequalized.

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heather_freshparchment's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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emilywemily6's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I am loving how this author is expanding on the world of the Caraval series. I think Evangeline more than the Dragna sisters and I think it’s because while she acts like a teenager and makes mistakes, she also tries to fix them in very heroic ways. She is flawed and young but I still see her strengths in this book. Her efforts to do the right thing made for an interesting story with lots of dynamics, and leads into the future books well. I also felt like I never knew what would happen next in the story. Lots of plot twists I didn’t see coming, which made for a fun and quick read. I’m so excited to continue reading this series!

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linefelcei's review

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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reminiscences's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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witcheep's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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wrappingpaper's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i get the hype!! this book got me out of a few month long reading slump - the world is so magical in such a casual and cozy way. 
would recommend reading in winter not in the middle of a heat wave like i did to feel more immersed in the setting lol. overall tho great story, great characters, interesting plot points - can’t wait to get my hands on the second book to start it asap!!

ps. if you love vampires and princes - READ THIS RN

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gildedspines's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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justinekorson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

If you read my reviews and/or saw how I rated the Caraval series this will come as a surprise to see this book so high but, as with the Caraval series, I have some issues I want to address.

1. Is Evangeline really just that naive? I mean this in the nicest way possible.... Evangeline is stupid. Her constant back and forth with herself OVER EVERYTHING was tiresome. "Apollo isn't cursed. He actually loves me I swear!" "Jacks cursed Apollo to love me. This isn't real" "But it could be real! I believe it could be real!" WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!! If she hadn't been so trusting of Jacks literally none of this would've happened. You can't ask the Fates for things without consequences and she couldn't sus out literally any of the lies that Jack was telling her DESPITE EVERYONE, EVEN JACKS HIMSELF, saying she shouldn't trust him. 

2. I still can't get over what Jacks did to Tella in Finale... he was wonderful in Legendary but in Finale he was written so badly that I fell out of love with him. I almost didn't want to read this series because of it. How could I root for a character who had FORCED SOMEONE with magic to love them by MANIPULATING AND REMOVING THEIR FREE WILL. He didn't do anything nearly as bad as that in this novel (he felt like the same character I fell in love with in Legendary) but I kept thinking back to those horrible disgusting feelings I had as I read what he did in Finale. 

3. Again... Stephanie doesn't seem to want to kill off characters. (or in the case of Finale, killing of people at random for no reason). This is like the third (fourth? it's hard to keep track) time that someone's "died" only for her to say "SIKE!" and suddenly they're not dead. It's honestly annoying at this point.

4. .... Vampires.... seriously? This was a problem I also had in the Caraval series where lore was sometimes introduced so carelessly, like an afterthought and I'm somehow meant to believe it's been true this whole time? Evangeline was CONSTANTLY going on about stories from the North at the beginning, dragons and mermaids, etc. But she'd NEVER heard of vampires being real in this story she never even mentioned hearing a story about them from her mother! But Jacks made it sound like EVERY HUMAN has a fascination with vampires and knows about them. If that was true why did it surprise Evangeline so much??

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klsreads's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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