The Crack at the Heart of Everything | ARC Book Review

all images from author’s insta

He accidentally cursed himself…

When the consequences get him exiled to the land he helped terrorize, can this evil wizard find redemption… and love?

Orpheus can’t believe it’s come to this. After helping his childhood friend conquer the realm by raising an army of hell-beasts, the befuddled dark sorcerer finds himself banished when the price of his magic endangers the palace. Isolated and betrayed, the feared spellcaster isn’t exactly thrilled when his irritating and handsome rival keeps stepping between him and certain doom.

Ill at ease in the barren wasteland his powers created, Orpheus slowly warms to the charismatic ex-general’s relentless overtures. But as his feelings grow more intense, the former villain struggles with an inconvenient calling towards heroism.

Will dabbling in good deeds get him killed or open the doors to happily ever after?

The Crack at the Heart of Everything is the charmingly swoon-worthy first book in an epic LGBTQ+ fantasy series. If you like character-driven stories, snarky humor, and well-earned redemption arcs, then you’ll adore Fiona Fenn’s unexpected hero’s journey.

Pub: Nov. 12th, 2024: Amazon | Bookshop.org

this review is spoiler free

A cozy read?

What even qualifies as a cozy read anymore? Is it a low-stakes book that holds your attention, or one that gives you warm, fuzzy feelings? Now, I don’t think this book was necessarily meant to be a cozy read (or was it??), but the beginning felt slow—almost boring at times—yet still interesting enough to keep me going. It was definitely a slow read for me, though not necessarily a bad one. I had several issues with it, but they were the kind I could easily ignore and just keep going.

Without going into any spoilers, there are A LOT of things in this book that just don’t make sense or leave you going, huh…did I read that right? This is mostly related to the world-building, as it’s hard to pin down exactly what kind of world is being created.

Why so nice?

I went into this expecting an evil wizard, but instead, I got a moody, crying wizard. Sure, Orpheus has done some evil things, but rather than coming off as an all-powerful dark sorcerer, he gave more of a petulant child vibe. Even the evil things he did were done with this weird lack of awareness about just how bad they were. This really watered down the so-called “redemption arc” as well. I was promised an evil, dark wizard, and that is not what I got.

I struggled to like or care about any of the characters in this book. A lot of things were left unanswered, and many aspects felt like they needed more background. Because of that, I wasn’t really invested in the relationship between the two main characters either.

But would I still buy it?

Yes! For all the weirdness in this book, it’s still a debut novel, and the author clearly has talent when it comes to writing. While this wasn’t an amazing read for me, I did enjoy the prose and would definitely pick up another series by this author. Also, I absolutely adore the cover of this book.

“If someone asked Orpheus what he knew about horses he’d only be able to tell them that they looked one extra meal away from being crushed by their own body weight, and they smelled like shit.”