A review by edrickashay
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

Alice-in-wonderland vibes with a naive human making deals with an attractive and manipulative god. The writing itself is nothing remarkable and at times cheesy, but this was a good enough time that I wanted to finish the book. 

It was a silly good time with lots of plot shifts in the begging and around 60%, with vampires then randomly thrown in. Again, a silly good time. You'll enjoy this book it you don't take it too seriously. 

My main qualms with this book include that I want to know how many Fates there are and what makes them Fates - they seem tarot card inspired rather than deck of cards inspired, but their lore isn't really explained other than that they're sort of Gods but not really. My other qualm is that some of the lines in this book had the opportunity to be deep and reflective about life - the kind of quotes you want to highlight - but came off feeling cheesy or too obvious. I wish the author trusted us more to see our MC changing instead of spelling it out for us.
 

I don't mind our MC's optimistism and positivity even though it makes her a hopeless naive romantic.