Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

30 reviews

susanatherly's review

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

4.5

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vaderswife's review against another edition

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

5.0

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ameydireads's review against another edition

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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. 
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zoeelora's review against another edition

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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

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britwalsh16's review against another edition

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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. 😁
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skokalis's review against another edition

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

5.0

This book is not for those who like relaxed plots, it felt like every page I turned something was waiting that would change everything. Filled with surprising plot twists, interesting girls and hot/attractive men!
The scenes where Evangeline is alone with Fates and her lovers left me absolutely dying in awe! But it gets a bit descriptive/intense so I wouldn't read it if you can't handle "spicy" scenes.
I loved how you can never guess what will happen next, I couldn't put this book down. Plus the cliffhangers this book leaves you on left me scrambling to get my hands on the next book in the series "The Ballad of Never After" Stephanie Garber really did an amazing job when writing these. 
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shannonvonpesach's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

I love this book! I understand the hype so much more!
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abicaro17's review against another edition

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

4.5

Evangaline and Jacks present a promising start to a trilogy. With twists and turns in the most unexpected of places, this fairytale of fairytales presents the question of who to trust and when? The best part of the story so far seems to be that Evangeline is immune to Jacks charms literally and can hold her own in a sticky situation. The part that prevents this from being 5 stars however is the fact that shes so desperate to be loved that shes vulnerable to manipulation and is easily won over by pretty much any man who gives her affection. This was annoying in the beginning with Luc and continued throughout the remainder of the book. Hopefully she is less susceptible to this in the following two books. 
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nabaraditi's review against another edition

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

2.0

I was into the book till 60% and wanted to give like 3stars but then I got bored and pretty much skimmed through the last 70% of the book. I soooooooo wanted to like this book. But around 60% it put me in a slump.
The premise was fun and interesting and fresh. But the things that I could guess very early on.
I think the reason why I'm not a fan of this book is because it was a bit childish for me. And there are stuff in the book that are like very stereotypical and I rolled by eyes at it.

 
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frankieclc's review

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3.0

nothing fancy, nothing new but entertaining, enjoyable and easy to read 

(jacks is 5 stars)
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