Once Upon a Broken Heart
Stephanie Garber, 2021
Fantasy Young adultRomanceContemporary fiction
A girl bargains with a dangerous, charming Fate to stop a wedding and learns that fairy-tale deals always cost more than they seem. The narrative moves with a lyrical quality, balancing moments of intense wonder and love with a creeping sense of dread and longing.
Feels like longing, wonder and dread. About power, love and freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like «Once Upon a Broken Heart» if you enjoy lyrical fantasy and stories about powerful, dangerous figures. Be aware that the cost of making a deal with Fate can be emotionally intense.
Why read it
Discover a rich, imaginative world where the lines between history and fairy tale blur. It offers a compelling look at the price of believing in magic.
A page from the book
The lie inside every story we love enough to believe.
She might not have seen much evidence of magic outside of the oddities in her father’s curiosity shop, but she had faith it existed. Her father, Maximilian, had always spoken of magic as if it were real. And her mother had been from the Magnificent North, where there was no difference between fairytales and history. All stories are made of both truths and lies, she used to say. What matters is the way that we believe in them. Stephanie Garber.Garber's Caraval trilogy and this novel share a world; Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, first appeared in Caraval and became a fan favourite.
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Caraval
Stephanie Garber, 2017
A game you can play only by invitation, a wish at the end of it, and a sister who won't wait for permission.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Once Upon a Broken Heart for me?
- You may like «Once Upon a Broken Heart» if you enjoy lyrical fantasy and stories about powerful, dangerous figures. Be aware that the cost of making a deal with Fate can be emotionally intense.
- What is Once Upon a Broken Heart like?
- The narrative moves with a lyrical quality, balancing moments of intense wonder and love with a creeping sense of dread and longing. Feels like longing, wonder and dread. About power, love and freedom.
- What should I read after Once Upon a Broken Heart?
- If you liked Once Upon a Broken Heart, try Lightlark (Alex Aster), The Queen of Nothing (Holly Black) and Midnight Sun (Stephenie Meyer).
A taste of the feed
What it sounds like when someone could ruin you and chooses not to.
I could open a black hole that would swallow the beach. I could turn the sea dark as ink and kill everything inside of it. I could demolish the castle, brick by brick, from where we stand. I could take you back to Nightshade lands with me right now.” His voice was deep as dreams, dark as nightmares. “I could do all of those things.” His lips pressed against the top of her ear, for just a moment. “And I might—if I didn’t think you would hate me for it.
Lightlark · Alex Aster
A plea that would rather have a fight than silence.
Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must.
The Queen of Nothing · Holly Black
The old story that turns a lover into a god of the underworld.
For just a second, I saw Persephone, pomegranate in hand. Dooming herself to the underworld. Is that who I was? Hades himself, coveting springtime, stealing it, condemning it to endless night.
Midnight Sun · Stephenie Meyer
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