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

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

What an emotional journey for me to be on. Idk about this one guys. I’ll divide this review into pros and cons

Pros:

• The world was really fun to be in! Very whimsical and magical and the idea of all these fates and the balance between their world and the human world is fun!
• I liked SOME of the characters’ dynamics. Jacks is fairly interesting enough (although sometimes he can be a bit one note) and the dynamic between Marisol and Evangeline was interesting (At first)
• The vibes are very fairy tale Studio Ghibli, and I really liked my those vibes
• The beginning was incredibly compelling and interesting

Cons

• Evangeline was not a character that I enjoyed reading about, sometimes she came off as really annoying and dull
• The character motivations are absolutely all over the place
• Some of the world building was really confusing and there were so many elements just thrown in there and they made no sense whatsoever 
• Kissing chess????????? 
• Simply too many descriptions of heat and kissing and biting
• While the beginning was interesting, it definitely lost my interest towards the middle and end, the story got VERY tropey. There was a lot of room to subvert expectations but everything felt really predictable instead

I don’t know if I’ll read the sequels this is a lot LOL