Did I buy Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber because it was a signed edition? Yes. Did I do any research on what it was about? No. Pretty cover and I’m in. Same first name helped too, but really, I’m a sucker for signed and shiny.

Once Upon a Broken Heart is about a girl who believes in magic and happily ever afters. However, Evangeline Fox doesn’t get the dream life she thought was coming to her because her secret boyfriend Luke announces he’s engaged to her stepsister right before he was going to announce their announcement. Big time family drama there.

Anyways, Evangeline is so distraught over her broken heart that she summons a Fate to help her. But the Prince of Hearts is a bit of a tool and turns the whole wedding party to stone. Evangeline feels guilty and drinks the poison to trade places with them, becoming stone for several months until she’s rescued. The tale of her heroism (or so they think) spreads and Evangeline takes her stepsister to another country in hopes of marrying the prince there. She also makes a second deal with the Prince of Hearts and that requires her to kiss a few people of his choosing along the way.

But that’s just the set up. Evangeline learns there is a prophesy for who will open the portal for the Valors and that person sounds suspiciously like her.

There’s a lot of twists along the way, including some fun with more Fates and vampires too, because why not. This Evangeline makes a heck of a lot of bad decisions and mistakes, but that’s what young people do, right?

Once Upon A Broken Heart is a bit of a chaotic mess of random magic thrown into a pot and stirred, but it’s also a fun adventure story. I really didn’t know what I got myself into, but I’m now eager to snatch up the second book whenever it becomes available and see what other magical creatures make an appearance.

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