This book has a beautiful premise: Sare is cursed to die of heartbreak unless she can make it to 18 before her heart is broken for the fifth time. While it starts a bit slow and doesn't always seem to flow as easily as it could, this story still managed to suck me in and keep me interested. I laughed and I cried, and this is a quintessential young adult fantasy novel. I look forward to reading what Ova writes next!

Sare is cursed. One more heartbreak and she dies. However, if she lives until her 18th birthday, the curse goes away, but she loses her ability to love. After the death of her mother, she goes to live with her grandfather, whom she has never met, in Istanbul, Turkey. There, she meets a seer/curse breaker, Leon. With the help of Leon and against the wishes of Sare’s guardian, Manu, Sare learns the origins of her curse and her family. This was such a lovely story. It kept me interested right from the very beginning. It’s a fantastic story about love and being courageous enough to follow your instincts, with a dash of enemies-to-lovers romance. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGally, Ova Ceren, and Alcove Press for allowing me the privilege of reading this book.

I was really drawn in by the unique premise of The Book of Heartbreak—it felt fresh and emotionally rich right from the start! Ova Ceren’s writing has a lyrical, almost dreamlike quality that added depth to the story’s exploration of pain and healing. That said, the pacing didn’t always work for me. Still, I appreciated the originality! It wasn’t perfect, but it definitely stood out as something different. Thank you, NetGalley!

I can see how some will absolutely love this book. For me, it seemed to drag through the 2nd half. Sare is thankfully not one of those 17 year old FMCs that come across as extremely YA. Her family history and her drive to uncover it is really well laid out. The intermittent correspondence between the celestial beings didn’t really do much for me and my enjoyment of the book. I did appreciate however that this really is set in modern times and all the characters, divine or mortal, speak and act as such.

Overall it’s was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 rounded up

The Book of Heartbreak is a dazzlingly romantic contemporary fantasy set in Istanbul. Following Sare Silverbirch, readers are taken on a journey to break a curse of heartbreak that holds Sare back from experiencing love and life the way others do.

I was sent a widget of this book the day after adding it to my 'want to read' list and I could not have been more excited. This book was advertised to me as a story that was for fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Once Upon a Broken Heart. After reading, I'm glad to say that I think these are great comp titles. Especially if you loved the elements of curses, the complexities of love and heartbreak, and the whimsical nature of Once Upon a Broken Heart, I think there's a lot of hope for you to love this book.

As fantastical as this book may be, it is more modern and it takes place in the real world. Contemporary fantasy has been a recent obsession of mine and I loved that this story fell into that category. One of the most memorable parts of this for me was the inclusion of emails between some of the chapters. The way they were used to move the story along and give readers a view into the world and story that wasn't from Sare's POV was incredible. I don't see a lot of emails in books, but this makes me want more!

While I think the contemporary element was done well, I wish Ova Ceren took a deeper dive into the setting of this book. Sare's story takes place in Istanbul, but we don't hear as much about that as I would've liked. I'm a lover of heavy description and world-building (which I know isn't for everyone), and I feel like we didn't get much of either in this book. Descriptions of setting are brief and don't come up often. I also felt like they were lacking when it came to bigger, more important scenes.

I felt distant from the setting and the characters, other than Sare, for most of the book. It felt like we were scratching the surface of an incredible world and deep emotion, but didn't always fully jump into it. During the biggest scenes of this book, I felt like I was watching from the sidelines rather than really being in it. Which is a shame, because I feel like the story was plotted so well.

It's clear that Ova Ceren is a talented storyteller. The way she can connect strings and weave a story together is magical to see. Each plot point made so much sense and the progression of the story was perfect. Unfortunately, I found it hard to completely connect to what was going on and who we were following.

While I don't think this book was perfect for me personally, I still believe this will be a new favorite for so many people. If you love YA romantasy with a whimisical, fairytale touch and a modern feel to it, I'm confident that you'll love The Book of Heartbreak.

Review on Goodreads (sophreadingbooks https://www.goodreads.com/sophreadingbooks) as of of 6/26/2025
Review on Instagram (sophiesreading https://www.instagram.com/sophiesreading/) expected 8/26/2025

There’s something rare about a book that doesn’t just tell a story—but feels like it’s holding a mirror to your own heart.

The Book of Heartbreak took me by surprise in the best way. Sare Silverbirch is a protagonist who doesn't just walk through the world—she aches through it. Living with a curse that makes each heartbreak a countdown toward her death is already compelling enough, but what moved me most was how deeply human her pain felt. Her grief, her confusion, her desire to believe in something more than fate—it all rang so true.

The writing is delicate and emotionally charged, without ever becoming overly ornate. Ceran knows exactly when to hold back and when to let a sentence slice right through you. From Istanbul’s rich and dreamy atmosphere to the quiet intimacy of Sare’s journey, everything felt intentionally crafted to echo the loneliness and hope tangled inside her.

And then there’s the love story—slow, tender, and tinged with fear. Falling in love when it could kill you? That emotional tension is so well-executed. I felt every hesitation, every stolen moment, every risk. The magic is there, yes—but it never overshadows the aching humanity at the core.

This is a story about choosing love even when it terrifies you. About questioning the stories we inherit and writing new ones for ourselves. About grief, and legacy, and the quiet rebellion of healing.

I closed this book feeling full—like I’d been handed a piece of Sare’s fragile, beautiful heart to carry with me.

Thank you Alcove Press, NetGalley and Ova Ceren for the eARC!

Thank you so much for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely adored this book. It sucked me in from the first page and held my attention the entire time. Emotional, forbidden love, slow burn. Some of my absolute favorite tropes done so fantastically. I can’t wait to get a physical Copy for my shelf

Thank you to NetGalley, Ova Ceren, and Alcove Press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I loved the way that grief and death were explored. Sare has dealt with a horrible curse of heartbreak. These heartbreaks could eventually kill her. She has only five heartbreaks before she doesn't come back for good. I thought the magic system was interesting. I would have loved more details about the world to help understand how important some of the characters are in this world. The characters and the mystery surrounding her curse kept my attention. I wanted to know what happened. I would recommend it!

I found this book really interesting and the mythology so interesting.
It was a little slow for me to get into in the beginning because I was not familiar with the myth at all.
But once it starts going it’s a really fun book!
Don’t expect instant action though. It’s delayed gratification 😂

"you have a responsibility to protect yourself. You must care about yourself and no one else".

In this YA historical romance, Sare tragically finds out her mother is deceased. This leads to a panic attack, and negative thoughts consuming her. The curse of heartbreak leaves her isolated from love, family, and friendships. Not allowed to cry. With so many severe heartbreaks in life, no matter how hard she tried to fight it, she is left with only one heartbreak left. This story follows our FMC as she discovers why she is cursed, and how she can break it. She finds an unexpected love interest along the way (which as a reader is easy to get immersed in). The emotions that were flooded during this read.

The grief and heartbreak resonated deeply with me, as it had alot of death in my family the last few years. This book shocked me at how I was able to resonant with it. It has curses, forbidden love/ slowburn, coming of age, middle eastern folklore. It is well written, and flows at a medium pace. If you love romantasy or fantasy novels, this will be right up your alley!

Romance is still a genre that I’m getting used to. I don’t know if it was that or maybe that I read this through the read aloud feature and parts of the book just didn’t translate well through that feature. This is a great book for those who love the romance genre, but this one just wasn’t for me.

4.5 rounded up.

So if you like Urban Fantasy type romantasies, this is gonna be your style. But it's also incredibly elegant in the way it was written. The story really brings you into Istanbul, and the mystery and betrayals unfold organically. Character development was incredible as well, and overall I'm just loving how this came together.

The only thing I didn't like was how slow it was at the beginning. Between that and how unlikable I felt Sare was at first, I was struggling. But around a quarter of the way in it started grabbing my attention enough that I was loving it!

I went into The Book of Heartbreak by Ova Ceren expecting a whimsical romantasy with a poetic twist, but what I found was something far more layered, tender, and emotionally resonant. It’s a debut that wears its heart on its sleeve while questioning whether the heart can survive being worn at all. Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for my ARC.

The setup is instantly gripping: Sare Silverbirch is cursed. Every time her heart breaks, she dies. And after four heartbreaks, she’s only got one left. Her entire life has been shaped around this ticking emotional time bomb. She doesn’t cry, doesn’t connect too deeply, and certainly doesn’t fall in love. The story opens as Sare’s mother dies—her fourth heartbreak—and the sense of urgency sets in immediately. But instead of leaning into melodrama, Ceren writes grief with a quiet sharpness. Sare’s pain is internalized, heavy, and all the more relatable because of how restrained it feels. She’s not dramatic—she’s just trying to survive.

Sare ends up moving to Istanbul with a grandfather she’s never met, and this is where the novel begins to take flight. The setting is moody and magical without falling into stereotype. Ceren’s Istanbul is elegant, ethereal, and steeped in mysticism. While some parts of the city could’ve been explored more deeply, the atmosphere is rich enough to feel lived-in. I especially enjoyed how elements of Turkish folklore are woven into the narrative—not in an expositional way, but like whispers just beneath the surface of the story. There’s a quiet reverence for culture and place here that never feels like window dressing.

Then there’s Leon, the seer Sare meets in Istanbul, who quickly becomes a partner in her quest to uncover the origins of the curse. Their relationship is where I had mixed feelings. There’s undeniable chemistry and emotional stakes, but the romance feels a bit too quick for a story built around emotional restraint and fragility. Sare is literally cursed to die of heartbreak—so the speed at which she lets Leon in stretched plausibility a bit. That said, they do grow into each other well, and the bond they share around unraveling generational secrets is more compelling than their romantic arc.

Ceren also makes a bold choice by incorporating emails and interludes from the celestial beings who seem to be orchestrating—or at least monitoring—Sare’s fate. At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of these emails. They felt jarring, pulling me out of the deeply personal story into what felt like an over-the-top cosmic HR department. But as I kept reading, I realized they served a purpose. These moments inject humor, irony, and a strange kind of bureaucratic absurdity into the story that acts as a foil to Sare’s intensely human struggles. Think The Good Place meets The Screwtape Letters, with a bit of Terry Pratchett flair.

Thematically, this book goes beyond fantasy and romance. It’s about inherited trauma, maternal silence, and what it means to be shaped by pain you didn’t choose. Sare’s mother is a shadow throughout the book—not just in death but in what she left unsaid. Unpacking that silence is one of the most powerful parts of the novel. I found myself more drawn to Sare’s journey toward emotional truth than to the curse-breaking mechanics, which sometimes felt convoluted or underexplained.

If I have one major critique, it’s that the climax comes too easily. For a story with such high emotional and mythological stakes, the resolution felt rushed and a bit too neat. The celestial beings who had loomed large throughout ended up feeling more like comic relief than actual threats. I wanted more weight to the final confrontations, more consequences for the ones who had manipulated Sare’s life from above.

Still, there’s something undeniably beautiful about the way this book handles grief, longing, and identity. Sare isn’t just fighting for love—she’s fighting for her right to feel anything at all. Ceren’s prose balances lyrical beauty with emotional clarity. Some passages stopped me cold, not because they were flowery, but because they were honest. There’s a gentleness to the writing that doesn’t undercut its power.

The Book of Heartbreak is a quiet storm of a novel. It doesn’t yell to get your attention—it just keeps building, one truth at a time. It’s whimsical, funny, sad, and hopeful in equal measure. If you’re drawn to character-driven fantasy with emotional depth, cultural richness, and a touch of myth, this is a story worth falling into. Even if it breaks your heart a little.

I did not read this book all the way through, but I do think it is well written. I could not get hooked on the story at this time, but I would potentially go back to it at a later date. The premise is unique, and the setting is not like most of today's romantasy novels.

A curse that causes literal heartbreak and the girl who must break the curse before her fifth and final death or before she loses her heart forever: The Book of Heartbreak certainly has a unique premise! Add onto that a beautiful setting, interesting folklore, and a bunch of angelic hosts who range from quirky to malicious, and Ova Ceren's debut is a fun read. However, the instalove is hard at work, and I didn't truly feel the connection between the main character, Sare, and her love interest. As friends, sure; as partners in breaking the curse, sure; but not as a romantic pair so quickly. There were also some confusing moments as people (intentionally) went by different names and things were happening so quickly that it was a little difficult to keep track of who was doing this or that, but these weren't often enough to really impact the story. However, the found family, generational trauma, and lessons on forgiveness really shone and made up for the cons. The Book of Heartbreak is a great debut, and I can't wait to see what Ceren writes next!

This was such an amazing book! I loved everything about it. The magic and the characters in this book was perfection! I look forward to reading more from this author.

This one hit all the emotions—heartbreak, hope, laughter, and that deep ache you only get from a truly great romantasy. The writing was stunning, the characters unforgettable, and the mythology—new to me—made the world feel even more immersive. I couldn’t put it down. I’ll absolutely be grabbing a finished copy as soon as it’s out. A beautifully crafted, emotional ride from start to finish.

I didn't know anything about the folklore behind this story, but I don't think that hindered my enjoyment of the book. Sare is an occasionally frustrating character to follow, but I was still rooting for her to break the curse. The romance felt a bit forced. I would have liked to see more of her relationship with her grandfather.
Five being the catalyst for the curse and its revival feels a bit unnecessary, though I did like the addition of Heaven being like a badly managed government office. It's not entirely clear if Five sired Sare specifically to be his prophet, or if that was an afterthought on his part.

3.5 stars

This was a beautifully written book that I think just missed the mark a bit with its tone.

Overall, I really enjoyed the plot and thought that Istanbul was the perfect setting for this magical story. It was atmospheric and vivid and cozy and emotional. Sare's story was a great exploration of trauma and complicated familial relationships and the work that goes into trying to fix broken families. Sare had to somehow come to terms with the reality that her mom had two separate lives and kept her in the dark about some very important truths. She had to learn to accept that her mom wasn't the greatest mother in the world, and it's okay to resent her for that, while also understanding that she was dealt a really bad hand in life involving things that were so far out of control. These types of conflicts are so hard to portray correctly, but I think Ceren really killed it. It all felt believable and I felt my heart breaking along with Sare's.

However, I really had a problem with the ending. While I do like how it ended for Sare, I think it was a little too quick and easy and the seriousness of the whole situation was really undercut by the silliness of the celestial beings and their bickering. I don't think those email breaks were needed, and I think we could have just learned all the world building from that through Sare's growing relationship with Leon, which was honestly too underdeveloped and lacking in chemistry. It all moved too quickly in my opinion, and this could have been helped if Ceren got rid of the emails and used that space to have Leon and Sare spend more time working together. Additionally, in the end, I don't feel like the villain was really punished and Ceren leaned too much into the weird office vibes of the celestial headquarters. I don't know, Sare just went on such an amazing personal journey and I wish it focused more on that than the fantastical elements of the story.

I received a temporary digital copy of The Book of Heartbreak from NetGalley, Alcove Press and the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Sare Silverbirch is cursed and with less than a few months to break the curse, Sare must discover the origins. Can she uncover her mother's story without her heartbreaking? Without killing herself?

I found The Book of Heartbreak extremely difficult to get into. The hierarchy of the celestials was extremely confusing in the beginning, maybe due to the emails? Although, once I gained the understanding of who-was-who, the emails were a highlight and very funny. I loved Sare and Leon's relationship and did enjoy the story after the half-way point. 3.5 stars rounded up.