Heir of Broken Fate

HOBF #1

by Mads Rafferty

One hundred and fifty years ago the Fae race vanished. Along with their magic and creatures. With the fallen Fae lands the humans were soon to follow as corruption spread throughout the realm. Heir to the throne, Delilah Covington is forced to watch her people suffer under the sinful hands of her father, the king—while she herself suffers his cruel hand. Delilah has longed for change, her prayers going unanswered until she discovers salvation.
Fae are alive.
In desperation, Delilah flees her home and crosses the border, in hopes that the Fae will save her people.
Yet she isn’t the only one who needs help.
Caught in a web of lies and riddles Delilah’s only chance at hope is Knox, one of the irritating, yet frustratingly charming Fae kings. Together they’ll need to unravel the many mysteries to bring freedom to both their oppressed people, or damn them all.

Genres: Fantasy, Romantasy, Fantasy Romance, Fae, Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Magic

512 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2023

About the author

Never in a million years would I have thought my life would look like what it does today. If I told my younger self that I not only love to read but that I write books for a living … well let’s just say we would be attending her funeral. Books will forever hold a special place in my heart. At the age of nineteen, I immersed myself in the world of fiction and was lucky enough to be dragged out of a dark abyss. Books have been there for me through thick and thin, helping shape the person I am today and I hope for some, my books will do the same. In whatever capacity that may be.

Reviews

[isabelly button · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am really stupid.

So I was scrolling through booktok one day looking for a good fantasy romance, and I kept seeing this book pop up under whatever I put as search terms (I think it was probably spicy fantasy romance). I was like, "wow A LOT of people are recommending this alongside the likes of ACOTAR, FBAA, The Plated Prisoner, etc. - it must be really good!"

So I start reading it and am immediately confused. The writing feels off, the pace is inconsistent and the world-building isn't really doing it. So I go back to find these tik toks, and I discover... ALL OF THEM WERE POSTED BY THE AUTHOR. I'm not kidding when I tell you every single one that I saw was the author plugging her own book as if it wasn't her own book. Before anyone comes for me and wonders how I didn't notice it was the same girl, a lot of the tik toks didn't have her face in them!!! I was so DUPED. I totally get this was a marketing ploy, and I applaud Mads for this but also I clearly was just having a bad media literacy day to not notice this.

Anyway, this book was pretty bad I can't lie. I don't necessarily agree with the reviews on here that it was just an ACOTAR rip-off, but either way... it wasn't very good.

ROSE 🌹: ...

I really don't have one, I'm sorry. Some people may like it though!

The cover is pretty!

THORN ⚔️ : A LOT...

Just going to make a quick-hit list of what made this not good.

- What the hell time period was this??? I know, I know: it's a fantasy book. But they have things like electricity & stainless steel, Delilah wears short dresses, Knox wears suits, there's restaurants etc. yet they're still riding horses for transportation, there's supposed to be a sort of "grand" royalty feel, it clearly wants to be high fantasy... so what's going on?? This honestly took me out of the book so much.

- STOP BEING RUDE DELILAH. Yet again, the FMC was an insanely rude and "sassy" brat. Why are you being so mean to a man you literally JUST met? I know there's trauma with men for her, but she had absolutely NO sense of self-preservation.

- Why was she so good at magic when she just got it like two seconds ago? You're telling me that this girl (who thought she was human her whole life), is a master of magic? And can beat the most powerful fae lord in not only magic battles but also hand-to-hand combat? Something doesn't add up here.

- All the side characters fell so flat. I had zero interest in Knox's friend group, who suddenly appeared about halfway through. It felt like the author just wanted to shove a found family trope in without actually doing it well. Hazel was okay, I guess.

BUD 🌷: STOP BEING SO DUMB (a note to myself)

This is not the first (or probably the last) time I have been burned by Book Tok. I really need to use more critical thinking skills in the future.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid four stars!

Pros:
- great story, some parts were kinda predictable but I still couldn’t answer every question
- the romance is done very well
- original type of story with new creatures I haven’t seen put into fantasy books lately

Cons:
- other than the FMC and MMC the characters fell a little flat, but I can look past that since there were a lot of characters and only 400 something pages. They were good enough!
- the writing is a LITTLE amateur, some sentences could’ve been written better, but it was good enough to not make me leave the story

Overall I think this is a great first installment! Someone said it was exactly like ACOTAR… uh no, this story is pretty original tbh. I really liked it! Can’t wait for the next book :)

————-

Also want to add - didn’t realize this book was independently published! And yet the writing is still 10x better than freaking From Blood and Ash LOL
Good job Mads!!

[Lori McEntee · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 4%

Even in a fantasy, stuff should make sense.

The intro scene has the MC being beaten to excess. So bad servants had to help her make it to the nurse.

But the next day, she is able to scale a building, jump from a roof, ride her "6 foot" horse (clearly no research was done on horses), then she single handedly takes out several trained soldiers to help save 100 prisoners.

Everything was too much.
Her father, the king, beats her all the time
He kills everyone for the mildest offenses like being late to work.
There are executions every day.

So even though she has the skill to kill several soldiers while being badly injured, she can take out her evil dad? What?

[Madison Kait · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/3.75!🤍 so good for Mads’ first book🤍

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5⭐️

So this was clearly heavily inspired by ACOTAR, which is fine, a lot of books are and I can usually get past it if it’s done right.. but there was way too many similarities in this, It felt like I was reading a fanfic.

It’s written well enough and it’s on kindle unlimited, I just think that the story needs a little more originality💫

[Katie Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 4.5 stars ✨ I absolute loved this, super fast paced and all the characters were so likeable! I couldn’t put it down, it definitely has similarities to ACOTAR but I feel like stories about the “Fae” always do! This was an amazing first novel!! 🎉🫶🏻

[Emily Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous Storyline

Loved the story line in this book. At times the wording felt a bit simplified for some of the events taking place but overall it was well put together and had me on edge the entire book. Can’t wait for the next!

[RiRi💌 (back in January) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9 ͙͘͡★

💌
„𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙪𝙨 𝙥𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚,
𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙨 𝙄 𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚.“
💌

I need the second book now!!🧘🏻‍♀️🧘🏻‍♀️

[Vee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seemed slow in all the WRONG places and fast in all the WRONG places. I understand changing the pace when it’s relevant, but this was so inconsistent and a little erratic ‼️

This sounds like a bold statement seeing as I have only read 40% and then DNFed. However, that 40% left an impression😅

These pivotal moments would occur that they felt soooo rushed. I understand the urgency in some situations, but if a character has just died you need to give me a moment to process it... I'm grieving 😂. Also, I needed more context a lot of the time and it was really lacking. People would just appear out of nowhere 🪄

For example, the POV suddenly changed to a random mermaid. Who is this woman ? Why is she here ? This happened in Chapter 9 and I was utterly confused. No introduction was given and suddenly Ariel is coming up from the waves, before she disappeared. I eventually understood what was happening, but I momentarily thought the FMC had turned into a fish 🐟

I actually liked Easton and Delilah's friendship. They had very sweet and natural-sounding interactions. I wish that was the same for all characters because they didn't all flow. I don’t know if this makes sense, but the speech sounded like actors who haven’t learned their lines yet. It sounded really wooden, unnatural and frankly awkward.

I just don’t think this is a book for me, which is a shame because I was excited by the plot. I really need another good romantasy. 2 ✨’s as I read over 20% .

[bookfiend · Rating 1 out of 5]

this cover is so fucking beautiful it hurts that the book didn’t live up to it at all

[Julia (teastarsandbooks) · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 25%

I’m one of those that got fooled by seeing it repeatedly on Booktok and didn’t realize till later it was all from the author.

I absolutely agree with all the other reviews on here saying that this reads like an ACOTAR fanfic. The writing is juvenile and makes it incredibly hard to get through. Sentence structure and flow is all over the place. I just could not keep going and had to DNF it. Character development and what drives them just did not seem to be there. There was no “click” with any of the characters for me.

Edit: the writing for this book has not sat well with me and after looking into how to tell if a book is written by AI, I heavily suspect this book is AI.

[paigeneverreads · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a sinking feeling like I’m going to DNF this book… here’s why: (Note this is the longest review I have ever written as of right now… I can’t believe I had this much to say about it. I’ve never taken reading a book this seriously but I must be heard!)

Let’s start first with the plot…
And let me be frank.. there isn’t one. Not that I can see and I’m already halfway through the book. I found myself skimming through it and skipping whole paragraphs because I thought “god if I keep reading for any longer I might go insane.” I feel like that’s all there really is to say about the plot other than the fact that there is lack thereof. And don’t try to tell me to keep reading so that the plot becomes more apparent throughout the end, the plot should be immediately introduced with an inciting incident… which there wasn’t one.

Secondly, the characters…
Ignoring the fact that our lovely main character is so blatantly a self insert, she’s also boring. I have never cared less for a character in my entire life! She’s immediately rude to her obvious love interest who can somehow read her mind and has bat wings and purrs when he talks (*cough* sound familiar?) She has no reason to hate him other than the fact that he’s a king and she doesn’t trust kings because of her dad. But also.. if you’re going to introduce a prejudice against men due to trauma at least make it make sense… There is no sense in being a complete raging brat to someone who has not hurt you in any way shape or form other than existing.

I would go on about the other characters but in all honesty, there really isn’t anything to them.

Thirdly, the world building…
Things like tarot readers, skin walkers, wendigos and oh my lord however many more things I have somehow missed simply DON’T fit into this world. It’s like all the authors research was done through TikTok! (that’s assuming she did any research at all…)
Let me explain, skin walkers and wendigos are a native American mythical creature and are immediately villianized and categorised under dark magic and demons in this book. Why are we putting native American mythical creatures in a book that seemingly has faerie folklore characteristics?
And someone please tell me what the hell an essence fae is??
And tell me why there are french doors and croissants in this world!! Does this world have France?! I assume not.
And why are there gas lamps and electricity in a time period that seems to be set in the middle ages…
And why is the devil and hell constantly referenced but the main character says “Oh gods.”
I could go on but this review is becoming long and painful. I’m sorry in advance.

Lastly but certainly not leastly, the writing…
Okay let me be slightly empathetic here for just two seconds. I understand the author is young and she self published on amazon. In all honesty I didn’t expect good writing, but I didn’t expect it to be this…interesting.
There are moments where she definitely did some potentially good work. But it’s tragically washed away by the amount of unedited and childish writing and dialogue. Oh my god the DIALOGUE! It’s written like it’s for 12 year olds and I mean that with the utmost respect (and slightly crippling disappointment). The characters say things that don’t fit into a fantasy setting. I would quote them but I fear if I do I might lose another brain cell to this book and god knows I can’t afford to lose more.
Not to mention the amount of repetitive nonsense that makes reading this book a complete headache. For example, “insert emotion… fills my heart” or “my heart fills with… insert emotion”. And the amount of times I had to read the word delight. “His eyes filled with delight”, “She squealed with delight”, “Her heart filled with delight.” If I took a shot every time I read the word delight I’d have to get my stomach pumped. (Keep in mind I’m only halfway through the book.) I’ve never wanted to stab my eye with a pencil before, but I can confidently say that after reading this I most definitely would consider it.

Here are my parting words and my final thoughts.
I think what the author should do is take this book off the market, heavily edit it and do some extra planning and researching and then put it back because I see the vision, I just wish the vision had been accomplished accordingly.
Secondly, I think in the future the author needs some sensitivity readers. Not only did she handle domestic abuse so poorly in the beginning but she also included a character dying who was clearly important to the main character and the main character BARELY thinks about it two seconds after the character died. I won’t speak further on that topic though as it is a spoiler.

So all in all to the author, do less marketing on TikTok! Stop promoting the book as enemies to lovers and slow burn and whatnot because it’s pretty misleading. I recommend you do more research and editing and character developing.

And to you, reader, if you were thinking about reading this and you somehow made it this far into my review… I would strongly advise against it. If however, you WANT to lose a couple of braincells, happy reading!

[charley · Rating 4 out of 5]

i know everyone is saying this is heavily influenced by acotar, but honestly i don’t see it? other than the fact there’s a curse i don’t really see the similarities. Then again i’ve only read acotar twice and i do tend to forget a book a day after reading it lol.

This book was brilliant. Towards the end there was quite a lot of smut, i don’t mind that at all usually but it just went 80% of the book having no smut whatsoever to the last 20% being filled with it that i almost had a jump scare 😂 don’t get me wrong it wasn’t bad at all.
also it had every trope imaginable.

i’m a little bit annoyed because i really didn’t want to start a series that wasn’t completed and when i came onto here / the authors tiktok there was no indication that it is in fact going to be a series (ends on a cliff hanger) but we move.

spice: 🌶️ 🌶️🌶️/5
overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[Meghan Bird · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give 0 out of 5 I would

[Britnee Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book

This is definitely a great book to read if you want to continue in the realm of ACOTAR. It had romance, spice, and found family. I loved the character developments within the book.

[Tegan Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

very “ACOTAR” like

Because I’m such a huge ACOTAR fan I saw way to many similarities in this book. However!!

I really did enjoy the storyline, I’m very excited to see how it’ll all pan out especially with the Human lands and Delilah’s father and mother etc.
it was actually pretty steady and captivating.
4/5
Would recommend

[daisydii · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect 5 stars read for me. I feel like I’m forgetting the real world while reading this book. The story is so beautiful and enchanting.

But, the cliffhanger?!? I need second book ASAP!!! I can’t wait to read more the adventure of Delilah, Knox and his court.

[Emma Skapetis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun and addictive read. I liked Delilah, Knox and all of the side characters and the plot was interesting. The romance wasn't my favorite (it was a bit insta-lovey and the smut was really cringe) but it was cute. I would definitely recommend this if you want to read something that has ACOTAR and Zodiac academy vibes. I'm going to read the second book soon even though the cliffhanger wasn't that bad. RTC.
The plot
Delilah is a princess who is abused by her tyrant father who is the king of the humans. He represses and executes his subjects and Delilah wishes she could help them but she is only able to save some of them. The only solace she finds in the palace is with her best friend Easton and her maid Annie. However Delilah and Easton discover that the fae who are said to be long dead are actually alive but are trapped in the human land. They decide to escape the palace and rescue these fae. However Easton is brutally killed by Delilah's father for trying to protect Delilah when her father is abusing her. This obviously devastates her but she escapes the palace alone. She ends up in the fae land and meets a fae woman called Hazel who she quickly becomes friends with. They soon meet Knox, who is a fae king (I think you all know what's going to happen between him and Delilah). Delilah and the others start investigating how the fae have ended up imprisoned in both the human and fae worlds. Will they be able to save the fae before it's too late?
The characters
Delilah: I liked her but she definitely doesn't stand out as a character to me. At the beginning of the book she seemed to be too perfect but later on she was kind of annoying. Also she has every element and is the chosen one (the chosen one really annoys me at this point because it is every fantasy book ever).
Knox: He is exactly like every other fantasy romance love interest from his appearance (tall, dark and handsome with a dimple) and his actions. He also does really popular tropes such as who did this to you, touch her and you will die and the others that I've forgotten the names of.
This made it hard for me to connect with him because he never felt like an original character.
Hazel: She was fine. She was definitely sweet to Delilah but I didn't really connect to her.
The romance
It was predictable in every way. I knew as soon as Knox first appeared that he would be Delilah's love interest and I predicted that he would be her mate as well. The mating bond and smelling the intermingled scents was definitely inspired by ACOTAR because those things are significant parts of relationships in that series. Also the smut is not great in this book (I was internally cringing at it so much). Hopefully the smut is better in the next book.
My thoughts
This wasn't a perfect read but I enjoyed it overall. This book was fun and engaging. I'm still confused about the fae world and how it works but hopefully I will get clarification on that in the next book. I will be reading that one soon.

[Brittany · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a ACOMAF douuupe but like the kind you get from the dollar store that actually just sucks, and makes you wish you didn’t even waste one dollar on it.

I can say with 100% certainty that if ACOMAF was never written, this book wouldn’t exist. It’s basically plagiarism. There are ZERO original ideas in this story.

In fact.
I’m willing to call this plagiarism it’s THAT blatant.

If this happened in a different industry, let’s say music, if Adele wrote a song then some random nobody came and wrote another song which sounded basically the exact same, same melody, but like slightly off key and the lyrics were Adele’s exact lyrics with some slight changes that make it sound like it was written by a brain dead moron, Adele would sue and win. That should happen for this book. I’m actually hoping SJM does have a team to start suing “authors” who are doing this with her stories.

Let me just list a few examples to back up my claims:

- MMC is a high fey male who rules a court and has an inner circle of hot friends who serve high ranks in his court, there’s even a Mor duuupee🙄
- MMC can communicate to MFC by just thinking and hE HaS nO IdEa WhY 🤬
- MFC is literally Feyre except with a dad who beats her instead of a dad who is useless.
- MFC is human but magically turns fey one day. 😡
- MFC has super unique powers that amaze everyone and she’s SO special because of them 🙄
- They are faeries with wings like bats. 🤬
- There’s a mating bond which “snaps into place”🫠
- The scene in ACOMAF where they get stranded because of weather in the middle of nowhere and there’s a little shabby hotel type thing with only one bed AND it’s freezing?! Yeah that’s EXACT FUCKING SCENE is in this book.
- The part in ACOMAF where Rhys has a nightmare and Feyre senses it through the bond and comes to check on him and she sees him naked with his wings out in the middle of his bed. THAT SAME FUCKING SCENE IS IN THIS BOOK.

Case fucking closed.
I can’t make this shit up people.
It’s unoriginal B.S. if I want to read ACOMAF, I’ll read fucking ACOMAF.

❌❌❌ Red buzzer, get off the stage. NEXT!!

[Colourfulmind · Rating 1 out of 5]

I Finally stopped reading at like 20% in, because I kept going back about 20 times and read the same 3 pages again and again before putting it away again.
There were quite a few things, which did not make it for me.
The female lead... Where to beginn. I hated her. From the beginning. She is that shiny hero type with no flaws and an unnerving sense of rightfullness. There was no depth or Character at all, only a big fat sign on her forehead, that said "I am the hero, and I would do anything to help anyone"
I could not come to like her.
The Story as well. It seemed childish to me, without depth.
I stopped, when the heroine came across the in between and decided to save everyone, because it's just the way she ist, only in two sentences.

Unfortunately, this book came across like a wattpad Story to me.

[Emmy Rosam · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ If you like ACOTAR you’ll probably like this!!

Enemies to lovers, Princess fleeing the castle, mortal realm vs fae, fated mates, only one bed at the inn trope, elemental magic, witches, griffins, dragons, so so many mythical creatures.

If you take all the best elements of a romantasy book and put them together you have this book. It’s adult fantasy but it doesn’t get spicy until the end and is not too much. I love the characters and really connected to them I only wish we got more of the 2nd half of the book! The pace was slower to start with world building and setting up for what’s to come but the 2nd half FLEW by and I wanted more time with those characters. I know we will get more in book 2 which I will be starting straight away!!

[Nina Quill]

DNF 18%

[Sian Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 😩 what a shame! I am in the biggest slump after fourth wing and needed another fantasy romance book. This was just not it! Influenced on TikTok it was written so poorly. Using “giggling” “I giggled” far too much it almost made them out to be children and having that image with all the spice was just not right. Using the same words like “in every which direction” over and over again was flat out infuriating. This could have been a really good book if it was written better.

The only part I did enjoy was when Easton was murdered. Thought finally we getting somewhere, nope it was then multiple chapters of her and Hazel talking nonsense. It’s not believable enough.

I’m sorry to the author who will probably read this. But there is A LOT of work to be done.

[majunia · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok so i have 3 main comments on this book

1. i like how the mc wasnt 16/17 like they usually are in fantasy books but 22 - finally a respectable age

2. ive never read a book with so much smut before but i can safely say i felt rather uncomfortable most of the time

3. the style of writing felt basic and childish but even so i liked the plot of the story

[Kendall (worst reading slump of my life) · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ pg281

I tried to give this a really fair chance. The idea of this book is amazing and very original and unique. But the execution of it was not there for me. I saw that people were comparing this to ACOTAR, I haven’t read it yet so I can’t make an opinion on that.

I love a good flawed character with issues that they try to overcome, but Delilah almost doesn’t have any? It’s like the author wanted her to have every personality trait ever.

🚨MINOR SPOILERS🚨

When she becomes Fae, she gets everything they do and more. She has every element along with something else entirely. She can Hunt and Track, she is extremely good at fighting hand to hand and with swords. It’s like she doesn’t have any weaknesses. She’s able to beat a Fae King in a training match no problem and he says she’s more powerful than him? But gets hit by two arrows and she’s down and out. She can also get beaten to a pulp but then the next day scale buildings and fight guards to release prisoners, after being told she has broken ribs. Makes no sense to me.

The characters themselves are like stale crackers to me. I didn’t connect with any of them. Even my favorite character doesn’t seem to have any sort of depth. Everything just seems so surface level! Even though we know quite a bit about Hazel and Delilah at this point, I want MORE. I want to feel more emotion. But the writing is very choppy and I feel like I’m being forced to feel certain things. The relationship between Knox and Delilah feels very childish to me, and again, forced. I feel no chemistry between them, which makes me so upset because I LOVE A SLOW BURN!!! But I didn’t feel any burn 😫

[Amelia Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in pretty much one day. It is so good, I would say it’s just below ACOTAR. Yes it’s semi predictable but I also thought it was slightly different to other fantasy books. Everything was explained. I wasn’t left feeling like there were gaps or that some things just didn’t make sense. I felt it was very realistic. Please give me more booooks Thankyou. Wish I could just binge read this series

[Siobhan Davidson · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 ⭐️

I think it started slow but I was interested mostly. A few things I didnt like e.g. the scenes jumping so quick, one chapter Knox and Delilah are having sex for the first time and then the next she is mid battle with no description of how she got there etc.
some of the language became quite repetitive as if author couldnt think of any other words/ways to explain events/descriptions

Everything came too easily for the characters, a ‘problem’ arose and it was solved within 2-3 pages. Main characters magic came way too easily to her every time for example. Or the final even that the whole book built up to was over in less than a chapter.

I think too many unanswered questions between this book and the obvious next one that’s in the works; why was the father bashing her all the time? What happened to her mother? That didn’t make sense to me

[Victoria Werngreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 ⭐️ this was such a fun read! all of the characters are so loveable! it is super fast-paced in the best way. the romantic and platonic relationships were great and made me so happy! even though there are quite a few chatacters, they all had background stories which I’m exctited to hear more about. I really liked the plot/storyline and super I’m excited to see how it will evolve in future books!

it is the perfect amount of slow-burn with great chemisty between Delilah and Knox until the 'lover' (spice) part of 'enemies to lovers' kicks in!🥰

there were a few small things that reminded me a bit of ACOTAR and TOG (like shadow hands and another thing I can’t say without spoiling hehe) which could be totally unintentional - but I love those books anyway, so I didn’t mind at all 🙌🏼


the author did send this to me, but my review/opinion is 100% honest

[kel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was truly just a watered down version of ACOTAR in my opinion.

[Bambi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is #1 on my reccomendations if you want to read the most bland fantasy novel ever. It's like Rafferty read a bunch of cliche romances and thought she could write one herself. She failed.