Thank you to The Write Reads for organizing and inviting me to participate in this blog tour. Thank you for providing me with a copy of this book and tour materials in exchange for an honest review.

The Broken Heart of Arelium is the first book in an epic fantasy series full of amazing world-building, memorable characters, politics, betrayal, and action. Even though this isn’t my usual genre, it was easy enough to read, and I read the entire book in a day.

This book has lots of memorable, multi-dimensional characters. I liked getting to know more about them as I read on and watching them struggle with all of the challenges they were being faced with as the battle loomed and eventually raged on. I wish that we would have gotten more from Jelaïa though because I think she could be a much stronger character than she was.

I also liked the world-building in this book. I thought this book was a great introduction to the world that the author was creating for this series. I liked the scenes where Aldarin, one of The Knights of the Twelve, explained the world’s history to Reed, and I thought this was a good tool for explaining this fictional world. I also liked the politics and betrayal that were going on in this world; it made the book interesting because I was trying to figure out who was being genuine and who was being two-faced.

This book was too violent for my liking, but generally speaking, I try to avoid violence in books. This book features a lot of battles, wars, and bloodshed, and it was a lot to handle at some points for someone who doesn’t normally read books full of battles, war, and bloodshed.

Overall, even though this wasn’t my normal genre, it was still an enjoyable read. I don’t think I’ll read the rest of the series, but I think if you’re interested in epic fantasy, this book is definitely worth checking out.