This book was not my cup of tea, but I think romantasy readers will love it. It transports you to another time and place, with vivid imagery, and it's rather grounded for fantasy-- especially in the beginning. I would've liked it more had it kept that groundedness. There's a back-and-forth e-mail chain between the hierarchical angels/celestials that feels very Gaiman/Pratchett. Ultimately, it wound up being more YA romantasy than what I'd have liked, but, again, if that's your bag, definitely recommend this book for its lush setting and historical background.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

The Book of Heartbreak by Ova Ceren follows Sare, a girl cursed to die every time her heart breaks. If she experiences five heartbreaks before turning 18, she’ll die for good. Her only friend, Munu, helps protect her as she uncovers secrets about her family and the curse. After her mother’s death, Sare moves to Istanbul, where she meets Leon, a boy who may change everything.

This emotional YA novel mixes magic, romance, and heartbreak, with a slow-burn romance and deep emotional layers. It’s a beautifully written, character-driven story that explores love, loss, and self-discovery. A hidden gem that will tug at your heartstrings!

The Book of Heartbreak is one of those reads that gently wrecks you—in the best way possible. Ova Ceren captures the aching nuance of emotional loss with a kind of quiet vulnerability that lingers long after you close the last page. It doesn’t shout its pain; it whispers it, and somehow that hits harder.

Pros:
• The writing feels incredibly intimate, like reading a diary written in poetry—raw, soft, and striking.
• The themes of loss, self-reclamation, and quiet strength are beautifully interwoven.
• It doesn’t glamorize pain, but it does honor it, and that felt really validating.

Cons:
• A few pieces felt a bit repetitive or less polished than others—like emotional echoes rather than fresh insights.
• If you’re looking for more narrative or variety in structure, this leans heavily into the lyrical and emotional, so it might not be for everyone.

Overall, this is the kind of book you keep on your nightstand—not to race through, but to revisit when your heart needs a little understanding. Not perfect, but perfectly real.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an engaging read! I enjoyed the plot and would read it again.

“The Book of Heartbreak” is a heartbreakingly, achingly beautiful novel that moved me to tears multiple times as I read.

In the book, we meet Sare, a teenager affected by a cruel curse causing her to die whenever her heart is broken. If it happens five times before she’s 18, she’ll die forever. If she can avoid this, when she turns 18, the curse will lift, taking with it her ability to love.

She has a “fairy godmother,” if you will, as her only friend; this is by design, as Munu is tasked with “protecting” Sare and for Munu, who is battling her own demons (quite literally), people and love mean vulnerability and heartbreak. This idea is unwittingly reinforced by Sare’s mother, Daphne, who always seems to be chasing after men that are no good for her. Sare watches her mother go through life without a single healthy relationship until she’s tragically killed in an accident. It’s post-accident when Sare is about to go to foster care that Daphne’s father shows up to collect Sare — a grandfather Sare thought was long dead, per her mother’s lies.

He takes Sare back to Istanbul (Turkey), where she meets a boy named Leon who will change her life forever. As Munu and the grandfather struggle to protect Sare, the truths —and betrayals—begin to reveal themselves as generations of lies, betrayals, and heartbreaks converge and untangle in a convoluted web of deception, complete with angels, jinn, and a feisty cherub.

Will Sare listen to her heart? Or will she lose it forever?

The Book of Heartbreak by Ova Ceren is a romantasy inspired by Middle Eastern folktales. The main character, Sare, is on a quest to break a family curse that's been around for centuries. As she digs into her family's past, she uncovers betrayals and figures out how she wants to live her life. Divine intervention might either help or hinder her plans.
This was an interesting story with some surprising reveals about who did what and why. Despite being character-driven, I felt like there could have been a bit more attention to some of the others besides Sare. She was a bit pulled along with the circumstances. With all of the cultural references, I was dying to learn more about the setting. Due to the nature of the story, it made sense that there were only a couple of places that were described, but that didn’t stop me from wanting more. I did enjoy the humor that kept things from getting too weepy, and the celestial goings-on were an unexpected highlight.
I think a lot of people will really enjoy this book. For me, maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy, but the teenage characters didn't engage me as much as I'd hoped.
It was not presented as a young adult novel (but it is) which might have helped me adjust my expectations ahead of time.
Overall, I enjoyed the fairytale aspect of the novel even if the novel wasn’t really right for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the eARC.

This romantic fantasy fictional book really captured my attention right away! This is also in the multicultural interest genre. It made me feel a lot of emotions! I was sad, happy, hopeful and heartbroken while reading this. It is dark, mysterious, reflective, sad and tense. It also came with some humor and romance. It is well written, flows well and is a medium paced read. It comes with a diverse cast of characters, both likable and unlikable. The book cover is absolutely stunning! I found this book to be a hidden gem. With this being the author’s debut novel, I was pleasantly surprised and greatly impressed!

“The Book of Heartbreak” is a story that revolves around a young woman named Sara, who gets her heart broken four times, since she was born. The fourth heartbreak was her mother, who unexpectedly passes away. Sara is left confused as to why she has this curse and is scared to get close to anyone because of it. She does not want her heart broken five times, that would just be too much for her to deal with. As the story unravels, this story digs into why she is cursed and she discovers if she can break it. Along the way, a romance starts to blossom. Overall, I rate this a 5 out of 5 stars!

Content warnings include death and grief. I think people that love to read fantasy novels about curses would enjoy reading this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Ova Ceren and Alcove Press for this digital advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is expected to be published on August 26, 2025!

The Book of Heartbreak by Ova Ceren was a really fun and interesting read for me! I was never sure where the story was going, and I found myself pleasantly surprised with every chapter.

A young woman must find a way to end the curse on her heart before it claims her forever in this delightfully witty fantasy romance. Sare Silverbirch has already had her heart broken three times. A fifth heartbreak will stop her heart forever. Such is the nature of the curse she was born under, which forces her to live a life without letting anyone get too close. When her mother dies unexpectedly and her heart breaks for the fourth time, Sare begins to urgently question the curse. Where did it come from? Why her? And rather than accept it, could there be a way to break it?

Her questions lead her to Istanbul, where she meets Leon, a seer who helps her track down the mysteries of her mother’s past. But Sare’s heart is a fragile thing, and their blossoming romance poses a great risk to her survival. Especially when she discovers that her fate is in the hands of celestials beyond this earthly realm. Now the heavens are stirring, for they have a stake in Sare’s destiny, and they don’t like their plans being overturned.

I really enjoyed the Turkish myths and cultural references throughout the book. I felt very immersed, and it made me want to pick up more stories by authors with this background and setting. I also appreciated the way generational trauma was woven into the story and manifested as a literal curse.

If you’re someone who enjoys a little family gossip or office politics, then this is for you—and that’s as spoiler-free as I can make it.

I think the curse “system” could have been fleshed out more, and I would’ve loved to follow more of the “seer” type work and worldbuilding. Things kind of landed in Sare’s lap, and it felt like nothing was truly earned when it came to her character development. I was especially hoping she’d channel that inner anger and stand up for herself sooner. But I understand how small she might feel after being told to guard her heart and being gaslit for most of her childhood.

As a whole, this book hit all the right notes for me. I love a character-driven story that’s rich with culture, and this did a great job of blending both. I really enjoyed the writing style and the banter between characters. The magical realism was refreshing, and something about heavenly political intrigue just does it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Stars - Sare is cursed to die every time her heart breaks, and is running out of lives to break the curse. After her mother's death, which results in her fourth heartbreak, she is down to just one more chance to survive making it to her 18th birthday. If she survives, the cost will be her heart. Sare moves to Istanbul to live with her only remaining family, her grandfather. Along for the ride is her lifelong companion, a "guardian angel,"who helps her manage her curse. As soon as she arrives, she meets a neighbor who is a seer and eager to help Sare. Featuring angels, Curses, Love, and familial secrets this book had some of the prettiest writing I have read so far this year. Ova Ceren has a created a romantic and atmospheric world that felt real and immersive. Overall, a great read and I look forward to future works by this author!

Thanks to Ova Ceren, Alcove Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars - this was such a delight to read! It had a wonderful mix of yearning, humor, grief, heartbreak, and an interesting plot that kept me turning page after page. Sare is cursed to die if she experiences 5 heartbreaks before she turns 18. After experiencing her fourth, she’s determined not to have her heart broken again and to find a way to break the curse put on her and why she has it. This fourth heartbreak takes her to Istanbul, where she meets a seer named Leon, who dreams of breaking curses.

This story was beautiful, witty, and I enjoyed the twists and seeing the story unfold while I was reading as well. So well written and just refreshing to read.

I really hate to DNF books, but 20% is about all I could stand. The beginning of this book was so confusing and I don’t get the angel references. But I’m sure maybe that works itself out eventually. I just wasn’t interested in the main character and she had such lame reasons for her previous “heartbreaks” besides her mother. I just couldn’t bring myself to care or be interested in the rest of her story since it felt so incredibly predictable after the first two chapters.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this.

This book was so beautiful and so heartbreaking and I enjoyed every moment! I am a big fan of Addie larue and this scratched the itch I’ve been missing while still being totally unique and lovely in its own way. Full of grief and longing and love.

A beautifully magical mix of historical and modern realism fantasy. The story is poetically written but full of grief and longing. The past and the present are interwoven. Ova Ceren does an amazing job incorporating an already exiting legend from Istanbul and bringing the story to life again with her own twist.
This story is heavy with the themes of forgiveness, grief and love. It also hilights how one can be manipulated without realizing it.

The story did pull at my heart, as well because our main FMC, Sera, looses her mother in the beginning of the book and cannot properly grieve her because of her own curse. In early 2024 I lost my own mother and due to what was happening in my life also did not feel I could properly grieve initially.

The story is well written and done beautifully so. I did at times find Sera frustrating but her choices did make sense to her character so it was inline with the story.

Sare Silverbirch is cursed. If her heart breaks five times before her eighteenth birthday she will die. If she survives, then she will lose all ability to love. Four heartbreaks in and two months away from her eighteenth birthday, Sare finds the first clue to the origins of her curse. The good news? Her curse can be broken. The bad news? She doesn’t know how and every answer she finds just leads to more questions. To learn the truth about her curse, Sare must first discover the truth about her family.

What I like most about this book is the constant contradiction of Sare’s life. The only way to break her curse is to go snooping into her mother’s past and uncover her family’s secrets. Yet each discovery risks another broken heart and her death. Sare shows a lot of strength in feeling the emotions of her discoveries without letting them break her. She turns to anger a lot, but she also uses logic and pure strength of will. I think that her entire story is a great reminder that women are stronger than they realise.

The angels act more as plot devices than anything else, moving the story forwards and adding dramatic flair and tension to the final showdown. However, their existence also allows for the existence of ethereal beings and it is the ethereal being Munu that adds the most depth to this book. She acts as a bridge between both the mortal and the magic, and the past and the present. Munu is also another delightful contradiction. Her role is to keep Sare from heartbreak, but in doing so she actually gives Sare someone else to love. She is almost the cause of multiple heartbreaks.

When I started this book, I expected romance to be a big part of it. However, it is the loss and betrayals of family that put Sare’s heart most at risk. This may be because Sare avoids romantic interest out of fear, whereas family are more difficult to avoid. Yet, when romantic love does find her, it actually ends up strengthening Sare and helping her to break the curse. It helps her to face her fears, it motivates her to find a way to break the curse, and it gives her someone else other than Munu to turn to for help. This last point is particularly important as, from the very beginning, it is clear to the reader that Munu’s motives are not wholly pure.

Overall, it was the mystery at the heart of this book that kept me reading. The romance and magic were just a very nice bonus!

I struggled a bit to connect with this story but may need to return to it another time! Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

I was initially pulled into the book by the title and cover, but this ended up being a DNF for me. Everything felt interconnected, which if done well can be fascinating and pull you right in, but it felt like there was too much going on. It was difficult to follow along most of the time as the writing style just wasn't for me. I know a lot of people who would love this book, and I will definitely recommend it to them, it just wasn't for me.

The Book of Heartbreak is my first Ova Ceren read and I was caught by the cover. Kailey Whitman did a phenomenal design and it was truly eye catching.

This is told in first-person POV and this was a great historical romantasy.
I loved going on the journey with Sare as she seeks the truth and for her place in the world.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this although I originally thought it was adult (it's not). Kind of sad but very unique.

Overall I think this was a very unique, yet tragic, story. I just wish it had been marketed as YA because it definitely is. The blurb doesn't mention that the FMC, Sare, is 17. I feel like I would've enjoyed this much more if I were still a young adult myself, but it was harder to get into as a person in my 30's. I really liked the setting and the fact that this is based on a Middle Eastern legend. There's insta lust, and the plot is extremely messy, but I do think there's an audience for this one. The cover is undeniably gorgeous. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

The Book of Heartbreak by Ova Ceren is an unusual novel taking place in the UK and Istanbul and revolves around Sare and the curse that she has carried since she was born. If her heart is broken 5 times before her 18th birthday, she will die. The first time it happens is when she is four years old and the fourth time is four months before she turns 18. If she makes it to 18, her heart will harden and she will never know love. After her mother's death, she goes to Istanbul to live with her grandfather and it is there she learns the history of the curse and meets someone who might be able to help her. I thoroughly enjoyed the uniqueness of this novel! Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.