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Broken Song #1
Breaker of Fates
Perilous quests give rise to heroes. And broken songs call for Chosen Ones to be mended.
Roderick and Keeva, once friends, now orphaned by a dragon’s wrath that fractured the harmony between the great clans, spend their days locked in battle… until they are reunited, realizing that they’re both dating the same guy: Mateo, whose overdue transformation into a dragon is complicated by feelings of self doubt after the disastrous attempt to broker peace.
Choosing to get along is one thing, but forgiving one another—or themselves—for the hurt they’ve inflicted is another. Keeva keeps seeing the face of her dead best friend in her dreams, and Roderick’s suspicion and distrust keep him up at night. Soon, though, a great threat unites them against a common foe.
Someone has stolen a song from the gods, disrupting the tenuously rebuilt harmony of their homeland, and the very beast that tore them apart threatens to be set loose. True heroes of Koor Kosma are required to serve as vessels for the other four godly songs and reforge the divine harmony.
Neither Roderick nor Keeva are such heroes, but unless they can unite the divine and broken songs, unless harmony brings the shattered clans together, all will burn.
They are not chosen.
They are not the heroes of this story.
They are broken.
And they must be forgiven.
The Broken Song Duology is a story about queer grief, trauma, forgiveness and finding your place in the world.
Roderick and Keeva, once friends, now orphaned by a dragon’s wrath that fractured the harmony between the great clans, spend their days locked in battle… until they are reunited, realizing that they’re both dating the same guy: Mateo, whose overdue transformation into a dragon is complicated by feelings of self doubt after the disastrous attempt to broker peace.
Choosing to get along is one thing, but forgiving one another—or themselves—for the hurt they’ve inflicted is another. Keeva keeps seeing the face of her dead best friend in her dreams, and Roderick’s suspicion and distrust keep him up at night. Soon, though, a great threat unites them against a common foe.
Someone has stolen a song from the gods, disrupting the tenuously rebuilt harmony of their homeland, and the very beast that tore them apart threatens to be set loose. True heroes of Koor Kosma are required to serve as vessels for the other four godly songs and reforge the divine harmony.
Neither Roderick nor Keeva are such heroes, but unless they can unite the divine and broken songs, unless harmony brings the shattered clans together, all will burn.
They are not chosen.
They are not the heroes of this story.
They are broken.
And they must be forgiven.
The Broken Song Duology is a story about queer grief, trauma, forgiveness and finding your place in the world.
555 pages, ebook
Published January 31, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 31, 2024
This review was originally posted on Before We Go Blog
4.5 stars
Mixing the rich world building, hysterical humour, and queer messiness of A Chorus of Dragons with the deeply emotional trauma and healing themes of The Tithenai Chronicles, Breaker of Fates is a brand new own-voices queer epic dragon fantasy that will make your queer heart scream and drag you across the entire spectrum of emotions!
Roderick and Keeva, childhood best friends turned rivals, are unexpectedly reunited for the first time in over 15 years when they realise they have been dating the same guy. Or, more accurately, the same pansexual transgender dragon boyfriend, who just happens to be struggling to transform due to his self-doubt. So, no, they do in fact not know he is a dragon.
And if all that wasn’t complicated enough, a song from the gods has now been stolen, and the fate of their world lies in their hands. They might not be heroes or Chosen Ones, but if they can face their traumatic shared past and learn to forgive each other, and themselves, they might just have a chance of keeping it all from burning down.
Now, let me start this review off by saying that Breaker of Fates is not a romantasy or erotic fantasy, contrary to the vibes the cover might give off. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore this artwork, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting some explicit content. Though to my huge surprise and relief, there was none of that. But what exactly IS hidden inside these pages then? Well, I am glad you asked, get ready for some gushing. And please do take a shot every time I say ‘queer’. You’re welcome.
Breaker of Fates transports you into an unapologetically queer-normative and delightfully diverse world, where all types of genders, sexualities, pronoun preferences, disabilities, races, and cultural backgrounds are represented and embraced. Though all that is not to say that this story glamourises queerness, quite the opposite in fact. Here, the queers are nuanced. They are both heroes and villains, and we get to explore queerness in all its beauty and tragedy through the eyes of our lovable yet deeply flawed protagonists.
I absolutely loved following each of these three hot messes, with the emphasis being on HOT there. I mean, my queer panic quite positively shot through the roof, and I am not even ashamed to admit that I was swooning over every single one of these charismatic characters at one point or another. Especially Zhean, they can live rent free in my heart, and I would very much like to know where I can sign up for a best friend like that?!
Breaker of Fates is just filled with some of the most beautiful and painfully realistic relationships, be they romantic, platonic, familial, sexual, or something confusingly beautiful in between all that. The banter is bantering, the found family vibes are off the charts, and the side characters get just as much time to shine as the protagonists. All of which is exactly why I was so deeply emotionally invested, and why the stakes felt so incredibly high.
As they all embark upon their quests, these characters quickly learn that they will have to face some ugly truths about themselves, which so organically brings forth the deep themes of self-discovery, grief, trauma, forgiveness, and hope. They are all faced with their own demons, both figuratively and literally, and seeing them cope (or not cope) was tragically beautiful. And I ultimately really appreciated how the tension in any relationship never came from any romantic conflict/miscommunication, but rather a personal hurdle that they had trouble to overcome.
I also thought it was quite brilliant how Keeva and Roderick’s past relationship and shared trauma was explored through some effective and moving flashbacks, which really helped explain their current difficult dynamic. The authors really nailed capturing that raw human emotion, and I honestly just loved all the heavy gut punches I suffered along the way.
If it wasn’t already clear, Breaker of Fates is a deeply character-driven story at its heart, yet that doesn’t mean that the world building or fantasy plot suffer. Yes, there were some little hiccups in the pacing, especially in the middle section, and sometimes characters almost seemed to go backwards in their development at times. But then, we all know that healing is not linear, so that backtracking and frustrating behaviour only made them more realistic and relatable to me.
Ultimately, every single aspect of this story is just perfectly balanced and inextricably linked, which resulted in an incredibly smooth and deeply immersive reading experience for me. I loved every single second of letting myself get lost in this epic world, and absolutely ate up all the little nuggets of history and lore that are so organically woven into the narrative.
Learning about the dragon speakers and dragon culture through Mateo’s perspective really captured my imagination, and I adored the strong bond with his dragon siblings. And in Keeva and Roderick’s POVs, religion and divinity are explored in a very captivating way, with some scenes having an almost ethereal vibe that just fully entranced me. If you like the gods walking among us trope, you’ve come to the right place.
All in all, I am extremely glad I took a complete gamble on Breaker of Fates, because it was quite literally the slow-burn queer epic fantasy of my dreams. While this first instalment in Broken Song Verse duology tells a beautiful and satisfying contained story, I am very intrigued by the threads that are yet to be tied up. There were some very exciting revelations in the final chapters that left me desperate for more in the best way possible, so I am counting down the days until the second book comes out. Which, fortunately for me, isn’t too long off!
If you’re looking for a story that offers a refreshing and unapologetically queer twist on epic dragon fantasy, then you have to check out Breaker of Fates. Dangerously seductive and effortlessly funny characters, complicated feelings, beautiful polyamourous love, found family vibes to die for, and raw explorations of queer grief, trauma, and healing; what’s not to love?
Thank you to the authors for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
4.5 stars
Mixing the rich world building, hysterical humour, and queer messiness of A Chorus of Dragons with the deeply emotional trauma and healing themes of The Tithenai Chronicles, Breaker of Fates is a brand new own-voices queer epic dragon fantasy that will make your queer heart scream and drag you across the entire spectrum of emotions!
Roderick and Keeva, childhood best friends turned rivals, are unexpectedly reunited for the first time in over 15 years when they realise they have been dating the same guy. Or, more accurately, the same pansexual transgender dragon boyfriend, who just happens to be struggling to transform due to his self-doubt. So, no, they do in fact not know he is a dragon.
And if all that wasn’t complicated enough, a song from the gods has now been stolen, and the fate of their world lies in their hands. They might not be heroes or Chosen Ones, but if they can face their traumatic shared past and learn to forgive each other, and themselves, they might just have a chance of keeping it all from burning down.
Now, let me start this review off by saying that Breaker of Fates is not a romantasy or erotic fantasy, contrary to the vibes the cover might give off. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore this artwork, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting some explicit content. Though to my huge surprise and relief, there was none of that. But what exactly IS hidden inside these pages then? Well, I am glad you asked, get ready for some gushing. And please do take a shot every time I say ‘queer’. You’re welcome.
Breaker of Fates transports you into an unapologetically queer-normative and delightfully diverse world, where all types of genders, sexualities, pronoun preferences, disabilities, races, and cultural backgrounds are represented and embraced. Though all that is not to say that this story glamourises queerness, quite the opposite in fact. Here, the queers are nuanced. They are both heroes and villains, and we get to explore queerness in all its beauty and tragedy through the eyes of our lovable yet deeply flawed protagonists.
I absolutely loved following each of these three hot messes, with the emphasis being on HOT there. I mean, my queer panic quite positively shot through the roof, and I am not even ashamed to admit that I was swooning over every single one of these charismatic characters at one point or another. Especially Zhean, they can live rent free in my heart, and I would very much like to know where I can sign up for a best friend like that?!
Breaker of Fates is just filled with some of the most beautiful and painfully realistic relationships, be they romantic, platonic, familial, sexual, or something confusingly beautiful in between all that. The banter is bantering, the found family vibes are off the charts, and the side characters get just as much time to shine as the protagonists. All of which is exactly why I was so deeply emotionally invested, and why the stakes felt so incredibly high.
As they all embark upon their quests, these characters quickly learn that they will have to face some ugly truths about themselves, which so organically brings forth the deep themes of self-discovery, grief, trauma, forgiveness, and hope. They are all faced with their own demons, both figuratively and literally, and seeing them cope (or not cope) was tragically beautiful. And I ultimately really appreciated how the tension in any relationship never came from any romantic conflict/miscommunication, but rather a personal hurdle that they had trouble to overcome.
I also thought it was quite brilliant how Keeva and Roderick’s past relationship and shared trauma was explored through some effective and moving flashbacks, which really helped explain their current difficult dynamic. The authors really nailed capturing that raw human emotion, and I honestly just loved all the heavy gut punches I suffered along the way.
If it wasn’t already clear, Breaker of Fates is a deeply character-driven story at its heart, yet that doesn’t mean that the world building or fantasy plot suffer. Yes, there were some little hiccups in the pacing, especially in the middle section, and sometimes characters almost seemed to go backwards in their development at times. But then, we all know that healing is not linear, so that backtracking and frustrating behaviour only made them more realistic and relatable to me.
Ultimately, every single aspect of this story is just perfectly balanced and inextricably linked, which resulted in an incredibly smooth and deeply immersive reading experience for me. I loved every single second of letting myself get lost in this epic world, and absolutely ate up all the little nuggets of history and lore that are so organically woven into the narrative.
Learning about the dragon speakers and dragon culture through Mateo’s perspective really captured my imagination, and I adored the strong bond with his dragon siblings. And in Keeva and Roderick’s POVs, religion and divinity are explored in a very captivating way, with some scenes having an almost ethereal vibe that just fully entranced me. If you like the gods walking among us trope, you’ve come to the right place.
All in all, I am extremely glad I took a complete gamble on Breaker of Fates, because it was quite literally the slow-burn queer epic fantasy of my dreams. While this first instalment in Broken Song Verse duology tells a beautiful and satisfying contained story, I am very intrigued by the threads that are yet to be tied up. There were some very exciting revelations in the final chapters that left me desperate for more in the best way possible, so I am counting down the days until the second book comes out. Which, fortunately for me, isn’t too long off!
If you’re looking for a story that offers a refreshing and unapologetically queer twist on epic dragon fantasy, then you have to check out Breaker of Fates. Dangerously seductive and effortlessly funny characters, complicated feelings, beautiful polyamourous love, found family vibes to die for, and raw explorations of queer grief, trauma, and healing; what’s not to love?
Thank you to the authors for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
August 14, 2024
My SPFBOX review of Breaker of Fates is published at Before We Go Blog.
Breaker of Fates is a queer normative epic fantasy by Vaela Denarr and Micah Iannandrea featuring dragons and relationship drama aplenty. While the book is built on an interesting premise and worldbuilding, it ultimately comes up short on developing meaningful connections with its principal characters.
The problems begin with the book’s cover art, which to my eye (and to several other members of our judging team) appears to imply that Breaker of Fates is an explicit read. I fear the cover art will be an immediate turnoff for many epic fantasy readers. At the same time, readers looking for erotica or romantasy will need to look elsewhere, as the level of spiciness in this book is moderate at most.
The second problem arises with an overly long (roughly 15-page) preface from the authors in which they justify a long list of choices made during the writing of this book. These introductory remarks have a defensive tone, in which the authors respond to imagined criticisms of their work, covering everything from their choice of measurement units (a mixture of metric and imperial units) to their choice of obscenities. The tone of this preface left me feeling rather salty before I even started Chapter One of the book. For example, at the end of their preface the authors call for “the crash of the housing market, death of capitalism,” telling the reader, “if you disagree…please go read a different book.” I have no idea why my enjoyment of a fantasy book should be contingent upon a desire to inflict economic calamity on the real estate market. I found this to be a rather jarring introduction to the book before the story even gets underway. Personally, I’d rather let a story stand on its own and allows readers a chance to draw their own conclusions about the narrative choices and themes pursued by the authors instead of telling readers exactly how they should view the work.
As for the story itself, Breaker of Fates has the feel of an overwrought soap opera. We are thrown immediately into a love triangle romance where two characters, Roderick and Keeva, come to realize they are both dating the same person, Mateo. At the same time, Mateo is addressing an internal struggle about transformation into a dragon. Although draconic transformation introduces a very interesting aspect of worldbuilding, this is fundamentally a character-driven story.
Unfortunately, the authors do not give the readers an opportunity to connect with the characters individually before throwing them into the deep end of relationship drama. As a result, the emotions feel both hollow and overblown, rather than something we can connect with.
The authors’ writing is quite good overall, although Breaker of Fates could use another round of editing to address stray typos and reduce repetition. While this is a cut from SPFBOX, readers looking to explore a new epic fantasy in a queer normative world may wish to check this out.
Breaker of Fates is a queer normative epic fantasy by Vaela Denarr and Micah Iannandrea featuring dragons and relationship drama aplenty. While the book is built on an interesting premise and worldbuilding, it ultimately comes up short on developing meaningful connections with its principal characters.
The problems begin with the book’s cover art, which to my eye (and to several other members of our judging team) appears to imply that Breaker of Fates is an explicit read. I fear the cover art will be an immediate turnoff for many epic fantasy readers. At the same time, readers looking for erotica or romantasy will need to look elsewhere, as the level of spiciness in this book is moderate at most.
The second problem arises with an overly long (roughly 15-page) preface from the authors in which they justify a long list of choices made during the writing of this book. These introductory remarks have a defensive tone, in which the authors respond to imagined criticisms of their work, covering everything from their choice of measurement units (a mixture of metric and imperial units) to their choice of obscenities. The tone of this preface left me feeling rather salty before I even started Chapter One of the book. For example, at the end of their preface the authors call for “the crash of the housing market, death of capitalism,” telling the reader, “if you disagree…please go read a different book.” I have no idea why my enjoyment of a fantasy book should be contingent upon a desire to inflict economic calamity on the real estate market. I found this to be a rather jarring introduction to the book before the story even gets underway. Personally, I’d rather let a story stand on its own and allows readers a chance to draw their own conclusions about the narrative choices and themes pursued by the authors instead of telling readers exactly how they should view the work.
As for the story itself, Breaker of Fates has the feel of an overwrought soap opera. We are thrown immediately into a love triangle romance where two characters, Roderick and Keeva, come to realize they are both dating the same person, Mateo. At the same time, Mateo is addressing an internal struggle about transformation into a dragon. Although draconic transformation introduces a very interesting aspect of worldbuilding, this is fundamentally a character-driven story.
Unfortunately, the authors do not give the readers an opportunity to connect with the characters individually before throwing them into the deep end of relationship drama. As a result, the emotions feel both hollow and overblown, rather than something we can connect with.
The authors’ writing is quite good overall, although Breaker of Fates could use another round of editing to address stray typos and reduce repetition. While this is a cut from SPFBOX, readers looking to explore a new epic fantasy in a queer normative world may wish to check this out.
Shelved as 'dnf'
February 24, 2024DNF. I got to about 40% and just stopped picking it back up. It's extremely charcater driven and they seemed to be having the same conversations over the same drama/history. Queer norm world with interesting characters. I just coulnd't bring myself to finish it.
I recieved this eARC from the author with the intention of reading and leaveing an honest review
I recieved this eARC from the author with the intention of reading and leaveing an honest review
May 28, 2024
Breaker of Fates by Vaela Denarr and Micah Iannandrea is the kind of epic fantasy book that i absolutely need more of in my life, so I was very happy to see that work on book two of this Broken Song series is already well underway.
At first this book seems like fun take on an adventure tale, with one of the central characters, Mateo, having two lovers who know about each other but not the actual identity of the other. Mateo has been encouraging them to correspond in an effort to get to know each other better. Roderick is something of a Robin Hood style bandit who can't quite believe that Mateo has fallen for him while Keeva is a big, badass warrior who is not afraid to take what she wants. The situation becomes vastly more compicated when it emerges that Roderick and Keeva share a past trauma that sundered the bonds of their friendship many years before, to such an extent that the former friends are now bitter enemies. When they are forced to embark on a dangerous quest together they are also forced to confront their shared past, but a secret that Mateo has been hiding from them could change everything, not just for them but for the whole world.
This was such an immersive book, I felt completely transported while reading it. The world building and lore is complex and original and while it felt a little confusing at first I soon found my feet. The characters are exceptional, I loved each of the three main protagonists, which is unusual, often there is one point of view that I am rushing through to get back to another character that I liked better, but that just did not happen here. Even the secondary characters felt special, most notably Zhean, Keeva's equally badass second in command. The representation is exceptional both in terms of gender identity and pronoun use as well as queerness and even some disability representation which is sadly lacking in many books in this genre. The plot is clever , there is mystery to keep the reader intrigued, lots of romance obviously and of course some very knuckle biting fights. The writing style is descriptive in a way that really sets the scene for the reader without slowing down the pace. All of this is great but what makes this book truly exceptional is the way the authors examine the lasting effects of trauma and the consequences of different ways of handling it, and having read the author's note after finishing the book I have a better understanding of why this theme is so central to the story.
After the surprising revelations in the last few chapters, I cannot wait to see where this story is headed and in the meantime I hope lots of readers take a chance on this book , it has Gods, dragons, warriors and dreamers, what more could a reader ask for?
I read an ARC provided by the authors, all opinions are my own.
At first this book seems like fun take on an adventure tale, with one of the central characters, Mateo, having two lovers who know about each other but not the actual identity of the other. Mateo has been encouraging them to correspond in an effort to get to know each other better. Roderick is something of a Robin Hood style bandit who can't quite believe that Mateo has fallen for him while Keeva is a big, badass warrior who is not afraid to take what she wants. The situation becomes vastly more compicated when it emerges that Roderick and Keeva share a past trauma that sundered the bonds of their friendship many years before, to such an extent that the former friends are now bitter enemies. When they are forced to embark on a dangerous quest together they are also forced to confront their shared past, but a secret that Mateo has been hiding from them could change everything, not just for them but for the whole world.
This was such an immersive book, I felt completely transported while reading it. The world building and lore is complex and original and while it felt a little confusing at first I soon found my feet. The characters are exceptional, I loved each of the three main protagonists, which is unusual, often there is one point of view that I am rushing through to get back to another character that I liked better, but that just did not happen here. Even the secondary characters felt special, most notably Zhean, Keeva's equally badass second in command. The representation is exceptional both in terms of gender identity and pronoun use as well as queerness and even some disability representation which is sadly lacking in many books in this genre. The plot is clever , there is mystery to keep the reader intrigued, lots of romance obviously and of course some very knuckle biting fights. The writing style is descriptive in a way that really sets the scene for the reader without slowing down the pace. All of this is great but what makes this book truly exceptional is the way the authors examine the lasting effects of trauma and the consequences of different ways of handling it, and having read the author's note after finishing the book I have a better understanding of why this theme is so central to the story.
After the surprising revelations in the last few chapters, I cannot wait to see where this story is headed and in the meantime I hope lots of readers take a chance on this book , it has Gods, dragons, warriors and dreamers, what more could a reader ask for?
I read an ARC provided by the authors, all opinions are my own.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews