Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Once Upon a Broken Heart

This was my very first Steohanie Garber and I think I love her!

The book had a beautiful, vivid and whimsical setting that came to life with her descriptions and the characters’ voices.

The main cast was both adorable, and felt really humane: like someone you could have met in real life, put into a world filled with magic.

I found Evangeline very realistic and easy to relate to: someone lovely and brave, who gets pushed ariund by her own feelings, but wants to always see the good in people even though it’s proving increasingly difficult as her circumstances change.

I knew Jacks was big on the bookish sphere and I do understand he has a certain magnetism and charm that jump out of the book to you, which makes it hard not to fall for him.

I felt like the plot was pretty well-crafted, and like it was an exciting and sweet start to a very promising trilogy.

Content Warnings

biobeetle's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Content Warnings

ameydireads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“But hope is a difficult thing to kill, just a spark of it can start a fire.”

Okay, I really liked the dedication!

“For anyone who has ever made a bad decision because of a broken heart.”

Overall, I liked how this book is written. I learned a lot of new words from it. It’s easy to read mainly due to the short chapters and the writing style. The characters are entertaining most of the time. It mainly focuses on Evangeline, Jacks AKA The Prince of Hearts, and Apollo. Evangeline is a heart-broken and naive girl. As she’s also a little insecure, her thoughts are everywhere which kind of frustrated me. Anyway, she goes to the Prince of Hearts to strike a deal to stop her ex from marrying her step-sister. But dealing with a Fate is tricky and in return Jacks wants Evangeline to kiss three people of his choosing and when he says so. Jacks is a very mysterious and quite selfish it seems. One thing that annoyed me was that Jacks’ nickname for Evangeline was ‘pet’. Later on, fortunately, he starts calling her Little Fox which was so much better!

At first, I didn’t understand where this story was going. Some characters get introduced, such as Marisol and Evangeline’s stepmother, and I expected them to have a bigger role in the story but that was not the case. I also feel like the story had some continuity problems which made it hard for me to visualise the story. For example, how can Apollo go on one knee and then take Evangeline’s hands after which he looks down on her? Perhaps Apollo is the tallest guy in the universe? This book is clearly a romance book set in a fantasy world. But I don’t feel like I’ve learned a lot about the background of this magical world, so the worldbuilding could have been better. For example, we don’t get an explanation on how one becomes a Fate. I’m not sure if this will be explained later on or if this was already explained in the ‘Caraval’ series.

It looks like Evangeline’s moving towards her happily ever after, fairy tale love story. But Fate seems to have other plans.

Content Warnings

zoeelora's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

vj_thompson's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Solid start to the series. The writing is BEAUTIFUL and magical. The beginning scene about the bell being described with humanistic concerns is a good example. The ending was a lot to process. Wow wow wow.

Content Warnings

yananhai's review against another edition

Go to review page

fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

this was PERFECT!
I honestly didn't think I would enjoy this book that much, but the whole banter between Evangeline and Jacks had me giggling 🤭

Content Warnings

faduma's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

Content Warnings

britwalsh16's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wait… that’s it? My exact thought when I finished this book. Usually I’m keeping track of & keep looking at the time I have left in a book when I’m on my kindle. But this book… it got to a point where I just forgot to look… and when I turned the last page I was like wait what?
I love me a morally grey villain, but jacks is something else, & I am here for it! Marisol annoys me, but Evangeline is *chefs kiss*, just amazing! I can’t believe it took me this long to read this book! But also I’m glad cause I won’t have to wait long to read the 3rd book. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to start the 2nd book now. 😁

Content Warnings

More...