Once Upon a Broken Heart

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-15

Part 2, Chapters 16-19

Part 2, Chapters 20-25

Part 2, Chapters 26-31

Part 2, Chapters 32-36

Part 3, Chapters 37-42

Part 3, Chapters 43-45

Part 3, Chapters 46-50

Part 3, Chapters 51-54

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 1, Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary

Weeks pass, and summer turns to fall. Evangeline works at her father’s old bookstore, which wasn’t closed, and lives in fear of the debt she owes Jacks. She wants to believe that Luc will return, even though she knows he won’t, and she knows that, even though her life has changed, she did the right thing by drinking the poison. There’s more than one way to find a happy ending, and she’s sure “there was a happy ending waiting for her” (60).

Marisol comes to the bookshop with a note addressed to Evangeline. Since her two wedding attempts ended badly, Marisol has gained a reputation as the “cursed bride,” and being in public makes her uncomfortable. She feels she owes Evangeline for saving her life, which fills Evangeline with guilt for not telling the whole story.

Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary

The note Evangeline received was an invitation to the palace from the empress, who wishes to discuss an opportunity. Since she returned to life, Evangeline has heard rumors about how the empress and her sister slayed a Fate who killed the former heir to the throne, but when Evangeline meets the empress and her sister Donatella, she finds it difficult to believe such lovely people killed anyone.

The opportunity is a magical ball called Nocte Neverending. It is being held by the crown prince of the North to find a bride. Princess Donatella should have gone, but there’s someone in the North she’s trying to avoid so she wants to send Evangeline in her place. Evangeline still believes her happy ending is waiting for her, and it’s “practically impossible not to imagine that this could be her way to find it” (67). On the other hand, it’s likely Jacks fled north, which means she might be put back in his path, and she isn’t the hero the empress and princess think she is, which makes her feel uncomfortable about representing them.

Finally, Evangeline decides that waiting around for Luc to return is pathetic. She agrees to attend Nocte Neverending and negotiates taking Marisol with her to give her stepsister a chance where she isn’t known as the cursed bride. Lastly, Evangeline asks the empress and princess what they know about the prince, but neither sister can remember him. Knowing how northern magic works, Evangeline isn’t distressed by this. Rather, she is very concerned about the scars Jacks left on her wrist which have “suddenly started to burn” (73).

Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary

At home, Evangeline can’t bring herself to invite Marisol to accompany her north. While Evangeline was stone, her stepmother moved Marisol into Evangeline’s room, and Evangeline gets stuck thinking that the room and Luc had once been hers, but that Marisol had taken both. Though Marisol doesn’t “seem capable of stealing a book, let alone a boy” (75), Evangeline fears that if she finds love in the North, Marisol will take that, too.

When Evangeline overhears her stepmother lecturing Marisol about her appearance, she realizes she’s being unfair, and that Marisol deserves a second chance. Evangeline announces her intention to take Marisol to Nocte Neverending, and after a long pause, their stepmother agrees it’s a wonderful idea for them both to go.

Part 1, Chapters 8-10 Analysis

These chapters introduce the main plot of the book, which takes place in the Magnificent North. The empress and Princess Donatella are the main characters from Garber’s Caraval series, and the chapters while Evangeline is stone overlap with the timelines of Legend and Finale. In Legend, Jacks kissed Donatella, and Donatella felt his heartbeat, events that play a role later in Once Upon a Broken Heart. Jacks betrayed Donatella’s trust and disappeared, which makes him the person in the North that Donatella is trying to avoid. The events of the Caraval series directly impact Evangeline’s journey to the North and the events that play out there.

Evangeline continues to feel conflicted about Marisol. As has been set up by her sacrifice at the wedding and the article in the Whisper Gazette, Evangeline is a hero even if she doesn’t feel like one. She struggles with the competing interests of doing the right thing and avoiding situations that make her uncomfortable. Deep down, she knows something isn’t quite right about Marisol, but her desire to help her stepsister regain confidence and shed the “cursed bride” moniker convince Evangeline to trust and help Marisol. However, Marisol lies about Luc and his disappearance to manipulate Evangeline. Evangeline’s fear that Marisol will steal Evangeline’s chance at love in the North foreshadows Evangeline becoming a fugitive and Marisol bewitching Prince Tiberius.