Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

22 reviews

klsreads's review

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Bullying, Classism, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

prashiie's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Confinement

Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Blood

mssealey8's review

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was generally pretty good. The main character can be a bit dense at times, and the author really draws out the characters thoughts when solving the minor “mystery” of the story. However, the one major mystery is never given much attention and we are left knowing just as little about the prophecy at the end of the book as we are in the first half. Jacks is definitely the most likeable character despite being the stereotyped “villain”. Hoping the second book not only has better dialogue (some of it did not come across as natural speech at all— very flowery and I’m looking at you Marisol), but gives us some more answers about the prophecy. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Emotional abuse, Death, Sexual content, and Confinement

zoeelora's review

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Grief, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Confinement

vj_thompson's review

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Torture, Alcohol, and Confinement

tays_books's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Blood

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

Minor: Child abuse and Confinement

britwalsh16's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Torture and Gaslighting

Minor: Confinement and Stalking

ephalent's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Confinement and Bullying

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

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

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Confinement

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: Death, Blood, and Confinement

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

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