5 Reasons You Need to Read Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

You've probably seen it on BookTok. You've probably seen the fan art of a boy with white-blond hair eating an apple with unsettling calm. You've probably seen the quotes — "tick tock, little fox" — and thought, okay, but is it actually good?

It's actually good. Here's why.

1. Evangeline Fox Is the Heroine You Didn't Know You Needed

Evangeline doesn't start the series as a chosen one or a trained warrior. She starts it as a girl with a broken heart who makes a desperate, arguably unwise deal with the Prince of Hearts to save the boy she loves. It goes exactly as well as you'd expect.

What makes her extraordinary isn't power — it's persistence. Evangeline Fox keeps going. She gets knocked down by this world in increasingly creative ways and she gets back up, not because she's fearless, but because she refuses to stop hoping. In a genre full of heroines defined by their strength, she is defined by her hope. It's rarer than you'd think, and it hits harder.

2. Jacks Is Unlike Any Love Interest You've Read Before

The Prince of Hearts is centuries old, deeply strange, and eats apples constantly in a way that should not be as menacing as it is. He does not behave like a romantic lead. He behaves like someone who has watched humans make terrible decisions for so long that he's genuinely bored by everything — except, increasingly, Evangeline.

Garber is patient with him in a way that rewards patient readers. The slow accumulation of there is nothing of equal value to me is earned over thousands of pages. When it lands, it lands completely.

3. The World Is Extraordinary

Garber built the Caraval universe across two series, and by the time Once Upon a Broken Heart begins, it has real depth. The Magnificent North. Nocte Neverending. Jacks' Orchard. The Hollow. These are not just settings — they are atmospheres. Reading this series feels like being somewhere, which is the highest compliment you can give a fantasy world.

And the magic system rewards attention. Nothing is decorative. Every rule exists for a reason, and the reasons matter.

4. The Plot Will Genuinely Surprise You

Garber is not interested in giving you what you expect. The series goes directions that feel, in retrospect, inevitable — but only in retrospect. While you're in it, you will be wrong about what's coming. Repeatedly. This is not a complaint.

Heroes Don't Get Happy Endings is not just a title. It is a warning. Take it seriously.

5. The Fandom Is Half the Fun

There is something special about reading a series while it's still being actively discussed. The theories, the re-reads, the debates about Jacks vs. every other character — Once Upon a Broken Heart has a community of readers who are genuinely obsessed, in the best possible way. Starting now means you get to be part of that.

And when you finish — when you close the last page and sit very still for a moment — you'll want something to hold onto.

Shop The Bean Workshop's Once Upon a Broken Heart collection — candles, blankets, apparel, mugs, journals, and more. For every reader who made a deal they don't regret.