Here’s to me trying out another super hyped book. I feel like I’ve been seeing even more love for the Once Upon a Broken Heart series. And so even though I have only read Caraval five hundred years ago, I embarked! Keep reading this book review of Once Upon a Broken Heart for my full thoughts.
Summary
For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has 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…
Review
Spoiler alert, Once Upon a Broken Heart and I didn’t get along as well as I thought. To be fair, I read Caraval a while ago and chose not to pursue the series. But I had done my research and they said I didn’t need to have finished to read this one. And I’m not sure if that’s right, but I did feel like I was missing things. First of all, in the first couple of chapters, there’s a six week jump which made the first impressions like whiplash. I wasn’t sure really about Evangeline and then all of a sudden we were six weeks in the future. I also had a sneaking suspicion that what I missed may have been the Caraval portion.
And that only began my questions about how much I really did need to read Caraval. Because there kept being references and I know that Evangeline doesn’t necessarily know either – so we’re in the same boat – but it just felt like my experience would have been helped a lot by reading the first. And it’s a feeling I haven’t really experienced with everyone stand alone series. Additionally, the short chapters gave it even more of a feeling of whiplash at the beginning. So I spent the rest of the middle catching up. By the end of Once Upon a Broken Heart I eventually figured out more of the mystery.
Overall,
It takes a while to get into the heart of the mystery. Until the point where more threads are introduced, I felt a bit like the plot was drifting. We had action that propelled us, but I was missing the link between it all. Additionally, there were some moments in the plot that I wish were given a bit more weight and space for development. Some of my favorite character moments, or character twists, were breezed by so fast that I wish we had another beat to dig into it. There are these tense moments of conflict and then resolved in a blink.
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Once Upon a Broken Heart definitely has strong fairy tale vibes which gave it a fun and detailed atmosphere. Ultimately I’d probably read the second if I did it as a buddy read, especially considering Evangeline’s growth. But it was just one of those slow start books that had me questioning my decisions. However, I’m sure the hype exists and grew as the series progresses, so I still have hope! Find Once Upon a Broken Heart on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.