This book had some odd pacing in terms of events. I loved the parts where Nym and Renn are forming a friendship and she is healing him, but I felt that the beginning and the end seemed incredibly rushed. I wasn't able to really understand what was happening. It was a very unique concept though.

I had been putting this one off because most “romantasy” is such low quality but I would put this firmly in the fantasy category with a subplot of romance and it was wonderfully done! I finished it in a day and I absolutely loved the magic system.

My one sticking point is that I don’t actually feel much chemistry between the main characters and don’t really understand how they would have fallen in love unless it’s simply caretaker/patient affection and it’s not actually romantic love. I feel like the author tries to explain why, but him treating her with basic human respect (questionable) and her feeling completely responsible for his health and happiness just isn’t really cutting it for me as “love”. Maybe it’s because I’m absolutely imagining the frail prince from the Swamp Castle in Monty Python’s Holy Grail but I see the MMC as a sickly child in love with his nanny and can’t really get past that.

That being said, I’ll be continuing the series due to its quality.

I absolutely fell in love with this book. Holmberg's world building is absolutely unmatched and in a massive market of fantasy novels, she manages to create wholly unique and enticing characters and worlds. I ended with very little confusion about the magic system and I am so excited to see more of it. The overall pacing of the book was good and I didn't feel like it lagged at all. It was very obvious that the book had a well-thought out story arc, making its execution seamless.

Nym is kind and incorruptible and I loved her personality and passion to help people, even in the worst conditions. The blossoming and slow burning relationship between Nym and Renn had me giggling and kicking my feet in excitement. They are both wholesome and low-key steamy at the same time and I am living for it.

This is the ultimate slow burn and there are very few, if any, explicit scenes. This ARC currently does not have a trigger warning, but there is one scene and a reference to a past event that would benefit to having a warning to it.

Overall this was a 5 star read for me. The ending had me screaming for the next one and I can't wait to continue with this series.

This book takes place in such an intriguing world, where a price has been ill all his life and people with a healing gift keep being brought to the palace to try to help him with no avail. That is until our protagonist Nym comes into the picture. This book is compelling and such a fast read, I couldn’t put it down. I loved the characters and the development of the healing in this book was so fleshed out. I had the best time reading this. Also, that cliffhanger set things up nicely for the next book in the series.

Welp- this is an extremely tough book to review.

First off, I’d like to thank NetGalley for the “read now” option. This was my first time trying it and I am grateful for the extended functionality.

3 “Tough Love” Feedback Points:

- “This one is terrible, but the ending is worth it” and “Start from the middle. You won’t miss anything.”

Sometimes I think authors write what the devil on their shoulder whispers to them. But in this case… this feedback felt accurate.

- I know we are reading fantasy- it’s fiction- but you must make your characters set up believable. The queen & many side characters scenes fell oddly flat and it didn’t feel like escapism. It felt predictable kids movie. Like the queen in Alice in Wonderland. 😅

- The magic system felt oddly suppressed until the last leg. It felt like whiplash as it was introduced. I wish it was woven throughout stronger.

3 Potential Wins going into Book 2:

- I think knowing the world building is more intricate- I’ll be curious how things work together or against each other.

- 1/2 a heart- the romantic needs to know what happens when you give that.

- The FMC’s family… I think they are key in adding more depth to this series. 🤞


2.5-3/5

Nym leaves behind her struggling family to travel to the castle because of her ability as a craftlock healer. She can enter a person's lumis (almost like someone's soul or inner being) and heal them by setting the object that represents their inner world to rights. Her success in their first encounter as well as her unique perspective on the prince's illness causes her to be retained at the castle with no chance to leave and return home to help her family survive.

The journey began as a beleaguered duty to fulfill the summons sent by the Queen, but as Nym gets to know the prince, it becomes so much more. This is a story that I enjoyed greatly. Prince Renn coming to see the world in a different, wider way... Nym finding joy in her work... so many great parts that I can't write about, or I'll spoil the story for you. I recommend that you check it out for yourself.

Thank you to 47North and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thanks Netgalley and 47north and Charlie for the eARC.

What was that ending?

Ah, this book was like a fever dream of sorts. I has guessed the prophecy's meaning and must admit that the best part I enjoyed was how much I cared for the characters and how much I was affected by their fates.

Nym's story is so human, as well as her responses to her situations. This is a book worth the time.

Looking forward to book two.

OKAY I NEED THE SEQUEL NOW

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This took me by surprise. I thought the first bit was kind of slow but WOW the story snowballed the more I read. What a unique concept of magic in this book. Nym’s ability to look into a “lumis” (kind of like a soul or aura?!) and heal is incredible. The authors way of describing each lumis was so cool. The character relationship and development was also beautiful to watch unfold. I really really enjoyed this book and am anxious already for a sequel!!!

Thank you Charlie N Holmberg, NetGalley and 47North for the ARC!

This was my first read by Charlie Holmberg - and, yes, I went to find other books written by her.

I loved the world building and I think that made up for the parts that seemed to slow down. The characters were interesting and the plot and story were well developed and enjoyable. I think the concept of the book was great.

Fair warning this ends on a cliff hanger and I don't think we know when the next book will actually be released - that is hard. I could see this becoming a Tik Tok sensation

2.5/5

The first 75% didn’t really have any plot arc or suspense, making it feel like a trudge to keep reading.

And the romance just wasn’t there. There was no real personality or development given to Prince Renn, which left much to be desired in terms of any chemistry between him and Nym.

Now I will say the last 40 pages or so picked up in pace and action, and hinted at interesting things to come in the sequel, if one is willing to wait it out.

For me, this book was disappointing, and I mostly just toughed it out for the sake of writing a holistic review. Others might find more suspense and intrigue in places I did not.

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

Holmberg always brings something new to fantasy. In The Shattered King she gives us the lumis. In a genre where the possibilities are endless I always find it annoying when the same creatures or magic systems are repeated ad nauseam. Thinking about authors, ah you could do anything and you chose nothing new.

Here Holmberg delivers neoteric magic.

A healer must heal a broken prince before time runs out, for them both. I cannot wait to see where Holmberg takes this tale. I’m sure I won’t see it coming.

This world was so easy to slip into. Charlie Holmberg’s writing is incredibly vivid, her characters so well developed. And the pining!!!! Unmatched! I haven’t read a fantasy book in a while that has sucked me in so quickly. I tore through this one in a day and am desperate for a follow up.
Our FMC is a healer, the MMC is an ill prince. The side characters (servants, royal family, her family) are never one-dimensional, and the story moved forward at the perfect pace. This is a fantasy, and there happens to be romance. Not a spicy book. The magic system is well developed and unique.
Five stars, and thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

This is my first book by this author, and it was so engrossing, a total delight!

Nym, the main character, is a healer and conscripted to heal the third in line to the throne--Prince Renn. Unfortunately, she has to leave behind several siblings, which worries her greatly because the eldest brother has been conscripted into the crown's service as well. Most of the responsibilities to keep the household afloat have fallen to Nym. As a result, Nym makes it her goal to fail her "healing audition" with Renn so that she can go home. This doesn't go according to plan, and soon Nym finds herself as Renn's official healer and waits on him day and night. She is furthermore treated horribly in her position, with no wages and no respect.

As one can surmise from the summary, a romance does begin to bloom between Nym and Renn--this is marketed as an enemies-to-lovers story afterall--and the stakes just get higher and higher as war encroaches on the kingdom, and politics take hold around Nym and Renn.

Overall, my favorite aspect about this book is the unique take that the author has on the "healer" trope that is so prevalent in fantasy books. Oftentimes, the reader is just told that a character heals someone, usually by touch. Occasionally the reader may get a brief description of the magic that "flows" from the healer's hands to the patient in question. This is not the case in this book. Here, we get a glimpse into Nym's dowsing process--a process in which she enters a patient's lumis (kind of like a psyche or soul) and repairs it. Each person's lumis has different "infrastructure," so Nym has to figure out what the infrastructure is supposed to look like while she is embedded in the lumis and put it back together. This was so intriguing, and I found the author's descriptions of the different patients' lumi so creative.

The book does end in a cliffhanger, which isn't a surprise given this is a duology. Yet I would have liked to see and hear more about Renn's transformation that occurs at the end of book #1 thanks to Nym's sacrificial dowsing. It seemed a little sudden, and after learning that Renn has a connection to a higher power, my mind started to short circuit as I tried to figure out if there were breadcrumbs for this revelation earlier in the book. I suspect we will learn more about Renn's powers in the next book, and it is something I look forward to.

Ultimately, this book is perfect for readers who enjoy series like "The Cruel Prince," as there are several thematic parallels, and are looking for something more plot- and politics-driven compared to romance-driven. I absolutely loved this and can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to 47North and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

By now I've read over 10 books by Charlie N. Holmberg and I always admire her many cool ideas and ever solid execution. It's been a while since I picked up a new release by her, and I'm actually very pleasantly surprised how her stories developed even further. "The Shattered King" is the story of Nym, a 24-year-old healer who is called to court to care for the sick prince. Prince Renn is plagued by a mysterious and seemingly incurable disease, and only Nym's magical healing made him a little better. Now she lives at court and spends all her time with a pretty prince, but Nym is far from being swept up in the typical romantasy tale. She was forced to leave her family, works to exhaustion every day and isn't even paid for it. The royal family feels entitled to her magical abilities and demands everything from her while also ignoring most of her advice and even treating her cruelly. But Nym is there to do her job and it's not like she has much of a choice anyway. The prince eventually warms up to her, and Nym gains one ally at court. I really liked both characters, but it was a bit weird how Renn changed his whole behavior after Nym lost her patience with him once. That was surely not enough to shatter his entire world view. But anyway, I liked Nym and Renn because both were not the stereotypical romantasy characters that you read endlessly about. First things first: the female main character being four years older than her male counterpart? Basically unheard of and thus very refreshing. Nym really felt like an adult, and she's very capable without being forcedly badass. She often speaks her mind and gets in trouble for it, and she has a million problems that are not simply solved by romance. Renn's not dark and brooding and all-powerful and hot, but a character shaped by his sickness. He is calm and smart while also being frustrated by his poor health. And it was so great to see that not every connection has to be built on lust. It's a true slow burn, and it worked really well for me. By the time the characters started to like each other, I liked both of them as well. The fantasy aspect was intriguing too. It was all about different magical abilities with healing being the only legal one (because it benefits the royal family). The healing was described as a craft and the process was about fixing one's personal inner space. It's a unique way of portraying healing, but it also felt a bit too easy in most cases. Nym usually just has to find the broken area of a sick person and apply magic and everything is fine again. The magic can't repair lethal damage and Renn's disease is an exception anyway, but it was still a very powerful ability. Still, it added an interesting element about why Nym is more powerful than other healers and about the mystery of Renn's sickness. Not all questions were answered in this first book and I'm quite interested in continuing. The story wasn't cozy but mostly calm, except for the ending that got very intense all of a sudden. Book 2 will probably be very different, because the situation shifted entirely in the end. With this book and T. Kingfisher's "Hemlock & Silver" we get two solid fantasy books about healers facing incurable diseases this year. They are not too similar overall, but I think if you enjoyed one you will probably like the other as well. That's how I feel, anyway.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and 47North for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

I love Charlie Holmberg, and was so excited to be approved for this Advanced E-copy. The story was interesting and Charlie’s world building started off phenomenal, but ,for me, fell flat about halfway through. For a Kingdom so Pious and with so many gods, I was a little disappointed that they weren’t better explained. To be fair the MFC wasn’t particularly religious and this story is written in First Person POV. It was also never explained why the kingdom hates magic so much.

In the beginning of the book the MFC was treated so poorly. The lack of humanity of all the royals was appalling, and she nearly died due to her mistreatment. It was not until this near death that the MMC started to treat her better.

Speaking of the MMC, The romance in this book was sweet nearer the end but it lacked depth and tension. It was hard to truly get invested in it, because while the FMC had some depth, the MMC lacked it. I felt like the author was relying on his sickly predisposition and unhealthy childhood, to make up for his lack of personality.

I enjoyed that the book was well paced, and written like a puzzle that slowly being put together. There were some interesting elements of this book, and I may read the next one, as this one ended in a cliffhanger, but I also may forget about it in a few years.

Thank you to NetGalley and 47North for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this book. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but by then end of the first chapter I was hooked. I’ve read other stories from this author so I knew it would be good and I was right. I loved how we slowly discover Nym’s backstory as well as her powers. The description of how she heals and what it entailed pulled me into the story and had me invested in her world. Watching how others treated her and her response to her situation was heartbreaking. The pacing of the story was good and I felt all characters were well developed and interesting. I wish we were given more about the ending but I guess I’ll have to wait until it’s released for more details. This is definitely a book everyone should check out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

The Shattered King by Charlie N. Holmberg follows Nym, a magical healer, who is sent to heal the prince, who has been sick and disfigured for most of his life. Though Nym is succeeding when others have failed, her life within the castle are far from easy, and she is doing everything she can to get back to her family, before the war at the border reaches the capital. For some reason though, she cannot seem to keep her distance from the prince.

I was so excited to read Charlie N. Holmberg's next book, because I love the Paper Magician trilogy. This book did not disappoint! Every character was interesting and well-rounded, and I loved how the story unfolded. The magic system and the descriptions of how Nym heals people was absolutely beautiful and unique. I cannot stop thinking about it.

I truly enjoyed The Shattered King from start to finish and is perfect for any romantasy reader. Thank you 47North for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opnions are my own.

Note: I will be posting a video review via TikTok mid-August, closer to publication date.

I really enjoyed this original fantasy storyline. I was very engrossed. I cannot wait for the next book.

Thank you to netgalley for an advanced copy. My opinions are my own.

A healer bound by duty. A prince cursed by secrets. A kingdom teetering on the edge of ruin.

If you're drawn to slow-burn romantic fantasy with dark edges, The Shattered King delivers a layered tale of political intrigue, magic, and emotional restraint.

When Nym—an overworked beekeeper and healer—is summoned by royal decree to treat the reclusive Prince Renn, she intends to fail fast and return to the siblings who depend on her. But Renn’s illness is no ordinary affliction, and Nym’s unexpected success in alleviating his symptoms locks her into a castle full of secrets, suspicion, and a slow-building connection with the cold, enigmatic prince.

This book excels in atmosphere and premise, with a fascinating court full of veiled intentions, and a heroine whose grounding in practicality contrasts sharply with the palace’s dangers. However, pacing lags at times, particularly in the first half, and while the plot twists are satisfying, they feel slightly compressed toward the end. The relationship between Nym and Renn unfolds slowly and with care, although some readers may wish for more fire or payoff in the romance department.

A compelling standalone that blends court intrigue, emotional intimacy, and quiet strength.

This was my first book from this author and I'm definitely adding more to my TBR!

Nym is a healer conscripted to attempt healing Prince Renn, who has long been suffering illnesses and paralysis in his legs. No healer has been able to help him so far. Nym silently hopes she also fails so she can go back home to her siblings she has been raising after their parents were killed in an accident. After Nym makes the slightest progress, she's kept at the castle, working dawn to dusk to mend the broken prince. As she heals him, she starts to see the real Renn beneath the shattered pieces.

First, I absolutely loved the healing magic and the idea of the lumis. It was such a unique magic system I haven't seen before. It provided additional depth to the healing process. I also liked the relationship between Nym and Renn. I liked that he started to open up to her as they spent time together and how they got to know each other.

My main reasons for not going with 5 stars were the story being a tiny bit slow in the beginning, and I was a little confused about the ending. I'm sure the questions will be answered in the next book but a tiny bit more background and world building may have helped.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it if you like romantasy with a unique magic system and a slow burn romance.