bookboons: [New post] Once Upon A Broken Heart, Stephanie Garber

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Once Upon A Broken Heart, Stephanie Garber

by jeanniezelos

Once Upon A Broken Heart, Stephanie Garber

Genre: Sci Fi & Fantasy, Teens & YA, Women's Fiction

What the heck? We're bring sexist stuff into YA/Teen reads now?
Personally I think Women's Fiction is a genre way past its sell by date, has real fifties "little housewife" vibes, but to start introducing younger readers to the idea there's such a thing as male reads and female reads – just why? Its such a backwards concept....

Anyway, I adored the first two Caraval reads, not so much book three. Still, I love Jacks – c'mon, honestly, who doesn't? Though I have to slide quickly past all the poor women killed by his kiss as they weren't The One. Sad for him, but for them....much more so. So of course I wanted to read this.

I'm conflicted though, I love the concept, I love the magic world setting, but like book three of Caraval, for me this got a bit too rushed, confusing, jumped around so much. And Evangeline – if there's a book labeled how to make the Wrong Decision, how to be a doormat, I think it must be her life template. She's so Good, so Idealistic, so Loving even when people don't deserve it, so seeing only the good side/being naive constantly, that she rushes from one crisis to the next. At least Scarlett and Donatella had a) some sense and b) lots of courage and sense of adventure between them.

But there's Jacks....and I so want him to have a good ending. I didn't really see him and Donatello as being suited, I think he loved the idea of her. Maybe this time Evangeline will be his True Love? Or not – who knows? With this story I really can't see where anything is going, and that's one of my issues.
There's no real clear cut main plot, characters are in, then within a few pages, out again. Its a headlong rush of events, old characters, new characters, related characters and multiple concurrent plots, many of which feel too unexplained.
Maybe book two will make it clearer, and as I've found before, maybe reading later books will make my rating for this one higher. Rating a trilogy isn't easy, its rating part of a story without knowing the rest. Like a judge passing sentence after hearing only one third evidence