My Rating ~ Four stars

4-gold-stars copy

RELEASE DATE: 30 September 2021

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Format: E-ARC

Pages: 384

Source: NetGalley

Blurb

Evangeline Fox was raised in her beloved father’s curiosity shop, where she grew up on legends about immortals, like the tragic Prince of Hearts. She knows his powers are mythic, his kiss is worth dying for, and that bargains with him rarely end well.

But when Evangeline learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, she becomes desperate enough to offer the Prince of Hearts whatever he wants in exchange for his help to stop the wedding. The prince only asks for three kisses. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’s pledged. And he has plans for Evangeline that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy…

Review

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with a copy of this book, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Evangeline Fox is feeling angry and betrayed upon hearing the man she loves is marrying her step sister. When she asks for the help of a Fate to stop the wedding, she was hoping he’d leave her step sister and come back to her, so she agrees to his price of 3 kisses. Instead, the Prince of Hearts stops the wedding in an unexpected way, because deals with Fates rarely turn out the way you wish them to.

Indebted to him regardless, Evangaline discovers the kisses he demands are for other people, and part of a bigger plan.

Once Upon a Broken Heart, whilst briefly including some of the main characters from Caraval, gave Jacks the focus of his own novel. I loved Jacks in Caraval so I was excited to see him develop further in this book. The Caraval series is still by far my favourite, but it was fun to get a little bit more up close and personal with a few of the Fates we had been introduced to in Finale! I adore Caraval so much that it feels almost disloyal to not give this book 5 stars, but there was just a slight lack of magic and a little predictability here for me to fall completely in love. It’s actually really hard for me to put into words what felt different from Caraval, because I hilighted so many amazing quotes and did enjoy the story, I just wasn’t as dazzled as I expected to be.

I know most people so far have absolutely adored this one though and I constantly suffer from slight disappointment in my most anticipated, hyped reads, so I know this one is going to be a popular book! I assume by the ending that left nothing wrapped up that there will be more to this story and there’s every chance I’ll fall further in love with it as it unfolds.