Reviews tagging 'Death'

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

134 reviews

midnacine's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

This was fun! Very fast paced and easy read, didn't take too much brain power. Fluffy and on the predictable side, but enjoyable nonetheless. The characters aren't anything special (with the exception of Jacks) and I wish we'd gotten to see more development on the main characters- some motivations felt very flat to me and it almost felt like the author realized she didn't have a compelling antagonist so she just slapped an "evil-and-behind-it-all" sticker on someone who could've easily been more nuanced and complicated. I wonder if my opinion would've changed if I'd read the Caraval books before diving into this.

And Miss Ma'am Evangeline jumping to conclusions in her head all the damn time... I think I might have gotten whiplash. I bought the second book anyways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

bectothebooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Confinement and Injury/Injury detail

kimduindam's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. Couldn't put it away! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

alli_the_bookaholic13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

esme_may's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

The perfect flight companion :) it’s a quick read and I read it over a day with lots of downtime on a flight. Can’t wait for the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Classism

anton13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

I love this book just like I love all other books by Stephanie that I’ve read. Her way with words are just magical and I absolutely adore her way of keeping you on your toes all the way through the book. I’m so sad now that I’ve got to wait to read the second book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Murder

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Violence, Blood, and Alcohol

amre23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, Torture, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious medium-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? No

4.0

The first half of this book (about like the 1st 200 pages) I didn't really have too many high hopes for. It wasn't bad, but for the first half I could feel how YA this book is if you get what I mean. I just felt like the storyline wasn't really that interesting and that I just grew out of fantasy (this is my first fantasy book after I got back into reading last year). I didn't really see why it was so beloved. I was finding trouble imagining the characters. The descriptions. The world. I thought maybe fantasy just isn't for me anymore, but I'm so glad I continued it cuz it just went up from there. I was so invested and entertained. I'm so glad Stephanie didn't take the traditional route in terms of the relationships between Evangeline and Jacks. I was pretty entertained after the second half of the book and I can feel my love for fantasy start to sprout again. I'll definitely be reading the 2nd book and the 3rd that comes out later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Blood

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Confinement, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

eetishmeh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

[This review was written without reading the perquisite Caraval books.]
Not my cup of tea, but from an objective standpoint I can tell how well-written it is. I adored the worldbuilding and the Magnificent North, but Evangeline tends to think in repetitive sentences whicu got tiring quick 🥲
The starting was meh for me (rofan veteran readers may think differently; I don't usually read this genre), but it picked up later with the mystery. Would've brought this up to 4 stars if not for some situations I thought were overly possessive in terms of interactions (

Jacks nipping Evangeline's ear and gripping her by the waist even though she was uncomfortable 😭 He didn't have to go that far

) which I believe were unnecessary. 

I don't know how I feel about Jacks potentially being Evangeline's love interest. He's done a lot of terrible things to her so far, and lemme just say that it'll take an out-of-this-world redemption arc to get me to be on-board with that. Whenever I think I'm starting to like Jacks, he turns around and pulls a new stunt :') I have faith in Stephanie Garber, though, because I can tell she's a good writer + my friend who's read the Caraval series vouches for her ability to do that haha

Also, this book is just a walking amatonormative theme, which was off-putting especially because I'm demiromantic 🥲
Conclusion: I think I'd be better off with Caraval tbh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Toxic relationship and Death of parent