A young woman strikes a deal with a Fate to stop a wedding, and learns that the price is set by someone who enjoys collecting.
Stephanie Garber opens her series with Evangeline Fox, whose wish to hold on to a lost love leads her to the Prince of Hearts and into a court where magic runs on bargains, stories and stolen kisses. The setting borrows from fairy tale rather than from epic fantasy, with curses, enchanted objects and a narrator whose judgement is worth doubting. The paperback carries the first book of the sequence across 417 pages.
Why it earns shelf space:
• The opening novel of the Once Upon a Broken Heart series
• Fairy-tale magic driven by bargains with the Fates
• A romantic plot with an unreliable emotional centre
• 417 pages in paperback for young adult readers
Well matched to readers of young adult fantasy romance, published by Hodderscape and available at Boipoka.