This was my first Julie C Dao book but it definitely won't be my last! I loved the vibes of this one and how magical it felt and I can't wait to continue reading her books!

When Elva witnesses a devastating vision of the future, she makes it her mission to make sure that nothing like it can ever happen. This leads Elva into tapping into her magical powers for the first time and readers are sent on an amazing adventure with magic and more.

The book explores themes of friendship, how power can be isolating and of course, what can happen when promises are broken. Well-written and fast-paced with exceptional world-building, Julie C. Dao's Broken Wish (The Mirror #1) is a dark fairytale that I couldn't get enough of.

Magic. Evil. Magic Mirrors. Witches. This book has all the perfect ingredients for a lovely, dark fairy tale! I loved the story!

The Broken Wish is a story of a family dealing with a multi-generational curse that stems from a broken promise.

I really enjoyed this fairy tale-esq type of story. It was very easy to read, but didn’t have the usual feel of a middle grade novel. The story was complex, sad, and told a wonderful tale of what happens to those that get “othered” and what some good people will do to fit in. The ending was slightly unsatisfying (I wanted more!!) but I understand this is the first in a new series.

Highly recommend especially for kids in the higher middle grade reading levels.

I love retellings and Julie’s other series so I honestly enjoyed this so much! The characters, the lore, everything. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would

I absolutely LOVED this book! I dove in not really knowing what to expect as I have not yet read any of Julie Dao's previous works. I was hooked from page 1 and could not put the book down.

The story takes place in the late 1800’s Germany and centers around Mathilda the Witch of the North Woods and 16-year-old Elva who has discovered that she may have magical powers. There may, just may, be a family curse involved. Please just pick this book up and give it a read for yourself. I have purchased two copies to gift to both of my nieces.

I now plan to read all of Julie Dao’s backlist titles. I also cannot wait for book #2 in this series to be released in 2021.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion for allowing me to read a copy of this deeply engaging tale.

Oh man this was sooo good in the beginning! VERY creepy and atmospheric as hell. But then it started to drag and I began to lose interest. Considering how the beginning grabbed me, I was surprised how meh I felt about it. I would still read more books by this author, I've enjoyed some of her previous stuff more than this, and I really truly love her writing style. But this specific story wasn't it for me.

Broken Wish is the first in a series called The Mirror, written by different authors, spanning generations and the curse that afflicts them. Julie C. Dao kicks off the series with Broken Wish, a story of friendship and broken promises. Fractured fairytales one of my favorite things—if it's done right—and I will even read YA if the premise sounds promising. I know, I'm a YA snob. Most of the time it's the angsty romance that I can't do in YA. In fairytale retellings, I'm expecting it to be angsty so it's okay, I guess? (Don't judge me.)

Beginning in Hanau, Germany (the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm, btw), a young woman named Agnes Heinrich befriends Mathilda, and their friendship is sweet and true. Unfortunately, they live in a time where different is to be feared and Mathilda is "different". Agnes and her husband can't have children and Mathilda agrees to help them in exchange for Agnes' friendship. Agnes agrees but breaks her promise to Mathilda, breaking her heart in the process. Years later, Agnes' daughter Elva discovers that she might be able to stop a vision of danger surrounding the village and her parents. She sets off on a journey to discover more about herself and the curse that befell her family all those years ago. That means hunting down the witch who set the curse in the first place.

I loved this story. The characters are fleshed out and the writing is beautifully stylized. All the components for a perfect fairytale are here: the witch, the woods, and a mirror. True to Disney style, there is so much to download from this. It's darker, somewhere between Disney and the original Brothers Grimm. There are a lot of Easter Eggs if you are a fairytale fan like me. While there's a bit of romance, there's definitely skew towards friendships and other forms of love like that of family. While it's technically YA, the focus on friendship is almost MG.

Overall, it's a story that feels true to Disney, about finding out who you are, staying true to your word, and forging ahead even if you don't know how the story will end.

I was really excited to pick up Broken Wish after I saw the author on Instagram and several others (that will later write books for the rest of the series) open some promotional mirrors and talk about their upcoming series. The original concept of a YA series with multiple books and each book written by a different author, sounded awesome. And for the booms to be centered around magic and fantasy with queens and resident brujas Dhonielle Clayton and Zoraida Cordova and others writing books? I was really excited and had extremely high expectations.

Broken Wish follows a girl, Elva, who has had to suppress her magic her whole life as her town is whack and thinks anyone with magic is an evil witch. But after seeing a horrible vision, she goes to seek help from the local ostracized witch to try and save the day.

The book starts off slow, relying mostly on character relations to move it forward for the first half. I personally, felt that the main characters were either dull, or maybe that we didn’t get a good look at who they really were. Elva is sixteen and seems to have just about everything she’s ever wanted except for having to hide her magic, which gave her just the one conflict and nothing that the reader could really relate better to her.

The second half builds and reads much better and I really ended up enjoying Elva’s relationship with her brother, as well as the witch. I wish her relationship with her “boyfriend” had been better explored and written as it could have meant so much more to the story and the message.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and am still looking forward to the other books in the series. I think this was a really good starting place for the series to be developed into something really unique and cool.

honestly, i had no clue what to expect going into this book. i mean, for one i'm not the biggest historal fiction fan, but this was a surprise. it was actually pretty good and i really liked all of the family members and what they all added to the story. i do wish we got to see more of the parents when they are younger, like before they had the kids. but, i still really liked it. and the whole talk about the witch was honestly pretty good and i really liked it all in the end. the writing was also kind of decent, i mean they did a good job with telling the story. in the future i am really excited to see what the author has in store for this series.

I am a big fan of alternative fairy tales, and this one did not disappoint! I enjoy a plot that is not predictable, but which is believable and fits in with the already-published body of work. This story checked all the boxes. I was surprised at the ending at first, but when I took some time to think about it, the ending also fits with the established story, so it was unconventionally satisfying.

I just could not get into this one, though I eventually pushed myself to finish it.

I had read Julie C. Dao's Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and absolutely loved it. But the writing style in this one is completely different, and something about it just turned me off and kept me from truly getting attached to the characters.

The plot itself is pretty interesting: a bit of a blend of Rapunzel, Snow White, and its own unique fairy-tale. But Elva is not particularly compelling as a main character.

Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of this book by Disney Hyperion through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Broken Wish is an alluring, fast-paced, magical, mysterious, and twisted book that is very reminiscent of the Grimm fairytales. This story is set in Germany in the mid to late 1800s and centers around two main characters, Mathilda and Elva who wield magic. This story hooked me right in with the story of Mathilda and Agnes and kept me hooked all throughout the book as the subsequent scenes unfolded. This story, though classified as a YA book felt more like a middle-grade book. This, however, is not a bad thing and as an educator, the themes in this book would resonate highly with a wide ranger of readers such as middle grade, young adult, and adult readers. This book discussed many important topics such as wanting to feel accepted/feeling misunderstood, grief, sexism, infertility, and the consequences of our choices. The Broken Wish is an entrancing novel where the characters endure incredible arcs and learn important lessons. The world-building was phenomenal for this story and alongside a strong plot, incredible female leads, important decisions, and a magical forest? what more could you want!

I would highly recommend this book to readers who love magic, fairytales, strong-female leads, and a story that has friendship and acceptance at its core.

An absolutely enchanting story of friendship, the tale of Broken Wish is one of both magic and humanity, and the loneliness that can come from great power and the pressure to conform and therefore belong. Elva and Mathilda's friendship is a beautiful thing that grows slowly and quietly, as Elva drifts further away from the prejudices of Hanau and Mathilda learns how to trust again. Broken Wish is an excellent start to a series spanning generations, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed reading this lush, magical fairytale by Julie C. Dao. It was enchanting from start to finish and I can't wait to read the next three books in the series!

Broken Wish is one of the best books I’ve read this year! Young Elva is forced by her parents to hide her ability to see events that will happen in the future. They teach her to see her gift as something embarrassing and, worse, to be ashamed of. When Elva meets the witch who inadvertently caused her to have this ability, they forge a deep friendship. Through it, Elva learns to appreciate and be proud of who she is but at what cost? A heart-wrenching fairytale of the power of love. An absolute winner!

Julie Dao does no wrong in my book, and this is the first in a super stellar new Disney series! I love the way Dao's novel sets up this family curse that other authors will continue to explore. She's the perfect first author to jump start this series, and does fabulous world-building and exploration that really makes this story come alive.

I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars for this, but settled on 4. The ending was not at all what I expected, and I look forward to reading more in the series.

I was quite drawn in during the first third, then slowed down for the middle third, then couldn't put it down for the final third. I think I agree with another review I saw that something about Mathilda's behavior throughout the book seemed off, maybe even immature, but as we saw more of her later in the book she became more believable. Elva was, for the most part, believable and I liked her more as the story wore on.

I tried really really hard to finish this book but after about half way it just felt like I was putting off reading cause I just didn't like it.

The concept is an interesting one. But I could NOT get behind the choices that were made. Agnes and her husband annoyed the ever loving crap out of me for one. To break a promise is such a horrible thing to do and the reason behind it? Was just worse. I get Elvie wanted to know more about herself I just hate that her parents forced her to go behind their backs for such a selfish reason.

Maybe I'll give this book another try someday, but for now I just wasn't vibing with it.

A fairytale reimagining worth your time, Broken Wish is the first of a series of Wishverse novels that is compelling and a marvelous homage to the genre itself. I only wish there was BIPOC representation in this story, as I'd had some expectation of it.