Once Upon A Broken Heart

"There were a lot of twists that I was not not expecting and overall a pretty fun book to read."

"im speechless- new favorite book "

"Love it!! I need book 2 immediately! This story was amazing, love the characters, such an easy read. I was flying through because I was so intrigued! There was so many pieces to puzzle through to make the big picture. Can I say that I fell in love with Jacks the first moment I met him?🤭. Great read! Highly recommend, especially if you like a school for good and evil, just because it gave off similar "vibes" in my opinion."

"This book was quick and sweet and full of twists and turns. I didn’t see the ending coming and I’m curious to see where the series leads next!"

"OMG THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!!! It’s dragging me out of a reading slump. HOORAY! Although it had a really slow and confusing start since all events flow but are really random, the end just ties up everything. It’s like a mystery, fairytale, romance, and fantasy all in one!!! I love itttt!!!!!!"

"okay mrs. garber pls do a ouabh caraval like major crossover bc i need julian to be back! okay. thanks!"

"the ending was so shocking. but i HATE the cliffhanger it was left on."

"I totally understand the hype after reading this book. All the characters were amazingly well written and I fell in love with them instantly. *spoiler maybe?* I’ve heard some rocky things happen with Apollo in the next book so I went ahead and ordered it right away! I am def going to recommend this book to other people!"

"This was so hard to finish because it is so boring. How can everything bad happen to one person in such a short time span. Not to mention the lack of character growth and once I hit part three I figured out the ending and was so disappointed. I won’t be finishing the series. "

"⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Wow. I had really high hopes for this book. Based on the dozens of reviews & recommendations I’ve seen of it, I genuinely thought my hopes would be met. Sadly, this book was half boring/half “really? this is really where we’re going with this story?”. First of all, the plot is a snore-fest. Literally nothing happens until (SPOILERish) Apollo is murdered, & suddenly everything is resolved in such a neat little way within the last 10% of the book. Evangeline is such a dull heroine, who is willfully ignorant and naive to red flags. Speaking of red flags, Jacks is the fately embodiment of one. I did not read Caraval and have no intention of doing so after this, but I did look up context online (before further context was given in OUABH) and he is unhinged in a ‘dark romance’ type of way that didn’t garner any sympathy from me. Not sure when we’re supposed to like him, but so far there’s a big fat “not ever” stamped on his forehead in my mind. Second, the plot holes are innumerable. Literally everything with Apollo/Marisol could have been solved with a truth potion, which, to my knowledge, only has mild side effects that can be treated with Pepto Bismol. Low risk compared to love potions’ effects if you ask me, so what’s the downside? Oh right, lazy writing. I had some forgiveness for these twists and turns that were lacking because this is considered YA, but sheesh, we should be past these weakly developed stories. I will say that I went in OUABH with caution, since Kerri Maniscalco mentioned Stephanie Garber in her KOTW series acknowledgements, and Maniscalco is on my “Do Not Ever Waste Your Time Again” list of authors. Sorry, but that just clued me in to being skeptical; I was ready to save Garber a seat on that list next to Maniscalco & Hannah Grace (shudder). While Garber is not nearly as terrible an author, this book left A LOT to be desired. I will, however, start Book 2 in the hopes that maybe the weak & watered down story ended in Book 1. "