A review by blandrea_reads
The Crack at the Heart of Everything by Fiona Fenn

3.0

I picked up this book because of the cover, and with a quick skim of the blurb I thought it was for me.

The story follows Orpheus, the mage, who has used his magic to help place Lore on the throne as Empress.  However, followed by a curse, Lore has now exiled him from her palace.  Fenrir, who was Lore’s General, decides to accompany Orpehus in his exile and hunt for the cure to the curse.

The story was pretty genre bendy.  Fantasy and post-apocalyptic can overlap and influence each other, and this sotry seemed to really play on that.  It was also interesting to hear the story cover the “after”.  Often stories focus on the Gaining the Empire part.  This story starts with that already complete and goes “ok now what?”

The chemistry between the characters didn’t quite work for me, in the sense that I didn’t get the sweeping, deeply romantic enemies to lovers that I has expected.  But it’s two men, who have spent a good chunk of their adult lives working towards a goal, achieving it, and then starting to wonder “are we the bad guys?”.  In that setting heart eyes don’t seem like that much of a high priority.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC