Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber is about a girl named Evangeline who is heartbroken over a boy that she loved. He ended up engaged to her step sister, and Evangeline was deeply hurt. She finds the church of the Prince of Hearts, a mystical fate related to all things love and heartbreak, and prays that the marriage does not go on. While there, she meets a mysterious boy who turned out to be the Prince of Hearts himself. Evangeline makes a deal with him so that he ensures that her step sister’s marriage never happens. However, the consequences of this deal end up much bigger than Evangleine had earlier thought, and the course of her life is steered in a completely different direction than planned.
Evangleine finds herself in a new setting in a place not unlike a fairytale. She seems to be living out her best dreams when the Prince of Hearts shows up, wanting to collect a debt for helping her out. She regrets the deal she made and now must do what the Prince of Hearts says in order to survive. Evangleine finds herself in a difficult situation as she balances giving the Prince what she owes and exploring this new world, all while still heartbroken over her first love.
I rate this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I was hooked even from the first few pages and found this book difficult to put down. This trilogy only gets better with the other book in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot twists, adventure and romance within this book. The world-building was magical and the book had imagery that made me feel as though I was experiencing the empire of Valenda along with Evangeline. I highly recommend this to all teenagers and young adults that love fantasy and romance.