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Once Upon a Broken Heart

by Stephanie Garber
432 pages 2021 Fantasy, Young Adult 🌶️ Clean Series: Once Upon a Broken Heart
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The Vibe

Evangeline Fox makes a deal with Jacks — the Prince of Hearts, who can make anyone fall in love — to stop a wedding. The price: three kisses. Simple. Except nothing with Jacks is ever simple, and the world of Once Upon doesn't follow any rules Evangeline knows. Garber's most atmospheric and romantically charged series.

Mood Meter

Romance
7/10
Fantasy / Magic
9/10
Pacing
7/10
Darkness
6/10
Humor
4/10
Angst
7/10

Mood Tags

MagicalAtmosphericSlow BurnForbidden

Trope Tags

Morally Grey Love InterestDeal with the DevilForbidden RomanceFairytale World

Spice Check

🌶️ Clean

Clean YA with intense emotional and magical tension.

Content Heads-Up

Is This Book for You?

Skip if you dislike:

Ending: Cliffhanger
Pacing: Medium

What This Book Feels Like

Moods: Magical Atmospheric Slow Burn Forbidden

Tropes: Morally Grey Love Interest Deal with the Devil Forbidden Romance Fairytale World

Reading Order: Once Upon a Broken Heart

1 Once Upon a Broken Heart You are here
2 The Ballad of Never After
3 A Night of Eternal Becoming

If You Loved This, Try These

Finale
Stephanie Garber
Same world, Caraval trilogy conclusion
The Ballad of Never After
Stephanie Garber
Book 2 — direct sequel
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas
Morally grey fae romance

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this connected to the Caraval trilogy?

It shares the same world and Jacks appears in Caraval — but can be read independently.

Is Jacks a villain?

Morally grey — he's dangerous, unpredictable, and utterly compelling.

Does Once Upon a Broken Heart end on a cliffhanger?

Yes — the series is three books and they build on each other.

Keep Exploring

Books Like Once Upon a Broken Heart More by Stephanie Garber Once Upon a Broken Heart Reading Order Magical BooksAtmospheric BooksSlow Burn Books Morally Grey Love Interest BooksDeal with the Devil BooksForbidden Romance Books All Books Take the Quiz Subscribe

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How this guide was built

Every Sort By Cravings guide is written after a full read-through — not scraped from publisher blurbs or Amazon summaries. We map tropes directly from the text, cross-reference BookTok and Goodreads reader reactions across 500+ community posts, and calibrate heat ratings against reader consensus before publishing. Mood tags, spice numbers, and “skip if” notes reflect actual reading experience. Read our editorial standards.

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