Love & Heart Braking

Magical Dating Agency #3

by Kelly St. Clare

A moneylending kraken, angry echo imp, and emotionally limited witch have it out for me.

I swear. What did I ever do to deserve this crap?

Life is more twisted than a forest nymph’s vines, and in an ingenious or moronic move, I’m now working for the Twelve. Until this point they’ve seemed happy to kidnap and drain me, so safe to say this risk is bigger than an earth guardian’s... well, you know.

Protecting those I care about is imperative, yet a sexy detective in a long coat has a different agenda. Then Venus is sending signals that have me doubting 97.5 percent of my choices. Oh, a goblin, griffin, and fangless vampire are counting on me. And on top of all that, Soleil is parading around her true love with no idea that’s what he is. Someone pass me the avocado-covered chocolate, seriously.

The Twelve are up to something huge, something deadly, and I need to figure out what. Because everyone and everything I care about is slipping through my fingers. In my blood and bones I know there’s an answer. But if love is meant to save the day, then this gal is running out of time. And heart.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Magic, Paranormal Romance, Audiobook

434 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2022

About the author

When USA Today bestselling author, Kelly St Clare is not reading or writing, she is lost in her latest reverie.

Books have always been magical and mysterious to her. One day she decided to start unravelling this mystery and began writing.

The Tainted Accords was her debut series. The After Trilogy is now available.

A New Zealander in origin and in heart, Kelly currently resides in Australia with her soon-to-be husband, a great group of friends, and some huntsman spiders who love to come inside when it rains. Their love is not returned.

Find out more at her website, and claim a free paranormal dystopian short story, coloring book, and free bonus chapters from The Tainted Accords.

http://www.kellystclare.com/free-gift

Reviews

[Ronda]

Well, going from 'I don't know if this book is for me' to 'Bloody Amazing series' has been a bit of a shock to be fair, a great one at that!

From book one being filled with so many different characters and types of magical beings and being introduced to a whole new world where love and war fought to the bitter end to the grand finish in book 3 has been a whirl wind! A fantastical world wind at that!

Kelly St. Clare has catered to just about every feeling I could ever have in the books she has written and I have read, I have actually binged read her books lately and I honestly can't get enough... this series has been amazing and I honestly recommend it especially if you like this type of genre.

[Rhiannon Chillingworth]

This was absolutely the best book yet and I adored this final installment.

This series has been the most original and fresh Urban Fantasy series I have read in a long time. Kelly has created such a rich and intriguing world (a feature in all of her series I've read) and I love the way she has mixed mythology into the different species and types.

Then we have Cerys. She's so different to your typical UF heroine. She's unashamedly girly, she doesn't know how to fight, but she's incredible. She's brave, fierce, loyal and has the biggest heart. I grew to love her so much as the series progressed. Her relationship with her best friend, Sol, is also such a strength, as her friendship played as big a role in the story as her relationship with Dev. I also really grew the like Dev more in this final book, as I feel we saw more depth to his character and him and Cerys are adorable together. We also have incredible side characters, too, including a righteous, formally drunk unicorn!

While I would describe the first book, and bits of the second book quite a light fluffy read, this one was very action packed as the gang race to take down the Twelve before its soo late. This is still a light, comical read, but there were darker elements at play here, too.

This book has propelled this series from 'really liked' to 'loved' and I definitely recommend it.

[Katie]

"So many sayings about the heart had been misinterpreted, and that was one of them. To be brave in love wasn’t to wear your heart on your sleeve and fall in love with as many people as possible. It wasn’t to fearlessly open your heart at every turn. Being brave in love was to fearfully open your heart."

What an amazing conclusion to the most unique urban fantasy series I have ever read! This book is full of so much heart - I was smiling and laughing and squealing while I read. At the same time, this final book really escalated the conflict and everything was playing out on a much bigger scale. This is seriously a series that I will treasure forever 💖

[Alicia]

I am very happy to report that this did not follow the same route as Death Game, even though book two totally set up the same way. I was worried it might end up being a recycled storyline, but it went somewhere entirely different. Everything that’s been building up to this point pretty much exploded and caused absolute mayhem. Little hints and clues that had been peppered throughout the series were revealed and most of the threads were tied up nicely. I really liked the friendships and found family elements, and how the magic development grew and expanded outside of the expected.
The tote contents reveal was entirely disappointing though. It didn’t wind up going anywhere after all that, and it had so much potential!

[Antonella]

2,5 stars

[Meg loves to read]

what a great end to a great series.

Vampires. Witches. Werewolves. Fairies. Monsters. And more. This cute romance fantasy had it all.

Book three picks up where book two leaves off - in the deep of the drama and betrayals. But the author does a wonderful job answering all our questions and resolving everything by the end.

If you are looking for a fast paced urban fantasy with an unique spin on mythology and cupid’s love then look no further - this series meets that criteria.

Smut factor: 🌶🌶🌶 (perfect amount, it doesn’t overtake the actual plot).

[Daisy Delfin]

I binged this series. When I was thinking about what to write about this series I came across the reviews of a gr friend of mine. She wrote such good reviews, that I will just quote them here with links, because she said it all and much better than I could.
I definitely recommend this series!

Love & Curse Makeing:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Love and Magic Shaking:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Love and Heart Breaking:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Gail Marie]

I'm grateful I made it through the series after the slow pace of book one. Clare’s world building was vividly detailed. I enjoyed the characters and the political introspection that always pulls me into these ‘overcoming tyrants’ stories. The ending was well worth the buildup to book 3.

[TXBRITGAL]

Love is a battlefield 😉💓

An EPIC conclusion to this oh so wonderful series!!! What a journey our gals have gone on through the course of this series. Get ready for more cloak and dagger type stuff, twists and turns, magical revelations and a few misfires 🤷🏻‍♀️....humor galore, and a wonderful through line of LOVE. Not all romantic mind you, as sometimes friends become family and the people we are closest to in the world. You will feel ALL the feels in this one... possibly cheer, boo, and maybe even shed a tear at certain points. Get ready for it to all come full circle in this brilliant final chapter to the series!!! I absolutely LOVED this book, and highly recommend checking it out 😊.

[Kindra Binder]

Loved the conclusion of this super fun Cupid series!

For a Cupid story, this was fun. I felt the Cupid love through every book and the sweet gushy love was all over the place.

Kelly is so fun when she writes. Between crazy world building, imaginative characters, and romance she is always on point.

Cerys is a great character and her friends and chosen family are just as remarkable. Love is explained throughout this series as more than romance. Love of family and friends is just as important throughout.

The showdown with the 12 had me on the edge of my seat and some of the reviles were pretty dang sad.

Overall this was an easy, pallet cleansing read. Super easy, fun, comical, and heart warming. You should read it. Only very.

[thebooksuccubus]

I wish I had a more eloquent word beside wow, but WOW! I absolutely fell for the series within the first book in the first chapter. I truly believe this is my favorite series of the year. Kelly made the perfect concoction of, mystery, humor, suspense, love, and friendship, everything that is life is in this series. She literally had be balling like a baby the last little bit with that letter (you will find out) and not all of it was sad tears. Then she turns around the next bit and has be fanning my self and giving a woot woot!

[Kelly]

This one was the weakest of the series. It tried to fit too much plot/action with the 12 families (couldn’t keep them straight), so pacing got bogged down and I started getting bored. Balance between fun/cute vibes from the earlier books and serious rebellion was also weird and didn’t quite hit the mark. I would have been fine if the rebellion plot had just been cut entirely and the stakes were lower.

Enjoyed the characters and the worldbuilding with the different lines! It was a fun series overall.

[Andrea]

Oh yeah, here we go for the crazy confrontation.



Everything wrapped up nicely!

[Kacy]

The first book got me but then it became pretty boring as the series continues. The same emotional angst dragged for me with no momentum.

[Hetal]

So hilarious. I read this both as an arc and then as an audiobook because the narrator is fantastic and just adds a whole new life to the story. Marnye Young is the perfect...the only choice for this series. she captures all the characters so freaking well, and I honestly viewed them a wee bit more whimsically after reading her audible narration of it.

A 5-star ending to a 5-star series. We get the answers to our qiuestions and the plots are wrapped up in a feel good ending. I do hope Kelly St. Clare writes more in this world, just as she did in her supernatural battle series.

[Mona Brown]

Perfect ending

This is the perfect ending for this book and series. There's plenty of action, answers to questions and most importantly of all? The contents of the purse😂😂.... just kidding, kinda of
Seriously though, this book is amazing and intense and so many things finally come out. I really enjoyed reading it

[Ruxandra]

Nice end to the trilogy.
And I am so happy I finally found out what was in that tote bag 😂

[Noemi]

We have reached the end of Cerys' story. Her curse has taken away more than just her ability to touch her love interest... it was keeping away her power, and now that she has it, the 12 families won't stop coming for her until they get what they want. Thankfully, Cerys is not ready to give up, and she'll do everything she can to put a stop at their tyranny and protect all the people she love. She's powerful and the 12 families should tremble in front of her.

I'm a little bit sad to say goodbye to Cerys, but I'm glad the issues between her and Dev were resolved. They deserve their HEA.

[Lauren]

M - 3.8, not totally gripping and a bit of a different St.Clare story. Kidnapping, torture, cupids/griffins/sirens/berserkers and a short romantic burst at the very end.

[Demi Mansfield]

2.5

[Hillary]

I loved this series so much!! The last book was actually my least favourite of the three but it still had that cute, sweet and funny vibe to it!

[TJ ☾]

3.5 stars 💫

“Since knowing you, Cerys Concordia, I’ve discovered it doesn’t really matter what you do. It only matters that you’re the one doing it.”

🧚🏼‍♀️ deveraux and cherys have the most boring, healthy relationship development ever and i'm just.... obsessed w it. i must be growing as a person idk. their sickeningly sweet courtship is plain as hell but i be so giddy reading it

🧚🏼‍♀️ i really thought soleil and bane would come to slay this book but sadly they did not. soleil is a queen and can do no wrong which means the fault lays w the unicorn

[Deanna]

3.75 stars! Great finish to the trilogy! I’m happy to say that everyone, including the side characters, get their HEA. This book was packed with plot and mystery and scheming for how to take down the twelve families, but it lacked a little in the romance department.

I would’ve loved to have seen more predator/berserker content between Ceres and Devereaux. I think the first book did a great job at setting up the romance, and I wish the third book did a better job at maintaining that sexual tension and developing Ceres and Devereaux’s relationship. Dev is even-keeled and highly protective—it's a combination that I'm learning I love. They talk about boundaries and communicate calmly about how they could go about things better in the future. I like that he didn't let Ceres push him away. It was very healthy, which is refreshing, but I would’ve liked to have seen MORE of the possessive, protective bits of Devereaux.

He held up his hands. “Your heart is racing. I need you to calm down. My predator doesn’t like it.” <— I wanted more of this stuff right here.

On the other side, I love how much emphasis St. Clare places on friendship. Soleil and Ceres truly do feel like platonic soulmates, and I liked how love was depicted as so much more than just romantic love. All in all, this might not be my favorite trilogy by her, but it was still entertaining. If you like contemporary fantasy romance with a heavy emphasis on plot, then you might like this one!

[Absolutelyred]

Too long, too boring, too much stuff going on.

The author tried to include as much action as possible to make this book gripping but the result was anything but that. It felt too compacted and despite all the action, I was borred out of my mind because it was stupid action. And so much was going on that I felt dizzy at times. Also the balance between funny and serious in this last book felt off.

[Sam]

What a fantastic cast of characters! This one was the most intense in the series in that it had more action and higher stakes, as compared to the first one especially which was 99% cute fluffiness. There were a lot of lucky coincidental discoveries for the rebels, but I won’t complain about a HEA. Hoping one day soon Cerys and Sol take over the dating apps in our world.

[Fatima]

Way longer than it should've been. It just kept going.

[Courtney Delgado]

An Action-Packed Fight for Love

Love & Heart Braking takes us back to Nepos as Cerys prepares to take on the twelve families. She makes sacrifices, meets new allies, and continues to grow with her loved ones. The introduction of new characters adds so much to the story, everyone is appropriately fleshed-out, complementing our main characters and their journeys. Be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster. Detective VIncori alone could give you all the feels, but beyond the fantastic leading man, this book has a more intense vibe than the previous two. That intensity and darkness is balanced with the thus far expected light-hearted moments of fun and rom-com hilarity. My biggest critique is that there is a moment in this book that I think may warrant a trigger warning (see below), especially given the light-heartedness of the other books in this series. Overall, Kelly St. Clare’s mastery of world-building and story-crafting shines as the reader is drawn into this battle towards the epic conclusion. 

Cerys, descendant of Venus, is ready to do more than just make love matches!  

💖 Length: Novel 
💖 Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romantic Comedy 
💖 POV: First person, female main character 
💖 Age: New Adult/Adult 
💖 Warnings: These characters curse and have active love lives; the action/violence increases, including captivity and torture that some may find uncomfortable 
💖 Spice: Things heat up, and there is on the page “action” 
💖 Violence: There is an increase in violence in this book compared to those before. This is the final fight, so there is battle-related violence (action-focused), but also note that Cerys is subject to various forms of ill treatment while she fights for herself and her friends 
💖 Editing: The book reads smoothly with no glaring errors 
💖 World: Nepos, hidden magical world – characters based on Roman Mythology 
💖 Series: Book 3 of the Magical Dating Agency 
💖 Tropes: Grumpy/sunshine, cursed love, underdog, ride or die bestie, enemies to lovers (side characters), magical creatures 
💖 Ending: Cerys journey has come to an end – sadly, this is it folks 
💖 Re-read? One hundred percent yes!

[Katie]

Perfect for a break from the angst!

This series is so ridiculous and fun. Great for a break when it seems like everything you pick up is full of angst, drama, and miscommunications. (So sick of books that are based solely on everyone misunderstanding each other.) This is quite the opposite. The main character excels at helping others better understand and communicate with each other, and the author does it in such fun and creative ways. (Sometimes bordering on too silly, but I recommend you just roll with the punches and have a good time as you see the adventure through.) By the third book, it gets more serious, and I feel the author really shows us their skills with two quotes that I would hope someone could tell me if I’m in those situations:
1. Permission to love again: “A new partner doesn’t compare. You will love another person differently. They won’t overshadow or erase what you had with your husband because you’ll like and dislike unique qualities within this new partner. You’ll form new memories and new traditions if you wish to. And none of that means you need to forget whatever you shared and created with your husband. He was an important part of your life for a long time, I’m sure. Take things slow, take pressure off yourself, and try to enjoy finding a second wave of love, knowing it’s normal to feel unsure and hesitant.”
2. Permission to grieve and move on: “If you cry for me, daughter, then don’t cry for too long, nor too frequently. I have had love. I have experienced love’s journey. I cherished those moments dearly. I am ready. Never doubt the love I had for you.”

Masterfully worded and extremely surprising compared to the jovial nature of most of the three books.

[WyoGal]

Whirlwind finish to the series

This third installment of the series brings together lots of loose ends and secondary characters. Although it’s a longer book, it goes by too quickly.

Deveraux and Cerys have some steamy sexual encounters. After the slow burn in the first two books, it’s not a surprise they’d be ripping off clothes, but I was a bit surprised by the focus on anatomy instead balancing that with emotional bonding—like more cuddling afterwards and pillow talk—but it’s a little difficult to achieve that when sex is happening away from the bedroom. There are some great moments of emotional connecting between the two throughout the book, so their relationship is committed and healthy in that regard.

There are moments of peril for the characters, and a couple of them die. One death happened so suddenly I had to reread to figure what happened as the placement of characters at that moment wasn’t clear.

The political, diabolical plot of the Twelve is revealed, but there are so many families that I couldn’t tell which family was doing what. Their motivation is a little thin, especially if they already control everything and are filthy rich.

There are some character reveals that were very fast—wish more time had been given to the climatic scene for a slowmo, blow-by-blow of the fighting by key players, reactions, setting the tension….It was still great, but it went by in a flash.

The protagonists have more agency in this book, and their actions lead to their victory—so that is quite satisfying. Overall, this book does a great job wrapping up the story.

[Laura]

Flinitinatinitans

It's full speed ahead in Love and Heart Braking, the third and final entry from Kelly St Clare in her Magical Dating Agency Series.

It's unhealthy being the last heart elemental in a town run by criminals who want your power for themselves. Being caught in their web is not only dangerous for Cerys, but for the people she loves.

And though she's a street smart, jazz talking gal, Cerys's only lethality is her pink tipped hair, great cleavage, cute wardrobe, and a tote bag filled with Venus only knows what, and heavy enough that it should probably be registered as a weapon of mass destruction. But as her curse weakens, and she and the very sexy Detective Devereux Vincori become closer, much much closer, her powers grow and that may give her just the edge she needs in this fight for Nepos and freedom.

One of the things I love about Kelly St Clare's books, there is always a great story. Always. Her characters come to life on her pages. The world building is always top notch. And often her characters will speak to your heart, as I found Cerys to do to me in this book. Truth often finds you where you are, even reading a YA, urban fantasy, paranormal romcom. You just have to have an open heart.

So, Cerys and the sexy detective? Do they break the longest dry spell ever? And Flinitinatinitans.? Wanna know how it all turns out? Grab Love and Heart Braking and fall in love for yourself.