We were two halves of something broken,
bleeding out for each other's wounds.
bleeding out for each other's wounds.
The Keeper's Codex
Celeanne Dorrington (Author's Website)
Heirs of the Shattered Veil, world guide
ebook, 253 pages
Upcoming Release: October 16, 2025
ARC Review
In the upcoming trilogy The Heirs of the Shattered Veil, our heroes race to heal a catastrophic tear in the Veil. Their only clue is a forbidden legend—the story of two lovers from warring factions whose bond may have caused the very fracture they’re fighting to mend.
This is that story.
A tragic myth from the final days before the world broke, a time before soulmarks and castes decided one’s fate. It tells of a bond that balanced on a knife’s edge between saving the world and shattering it. One choice would reveal their true nature. Were they fated lovers, or fated enemies whose only destiny was to be each other’s ruin?
This is a mature (18+) dark romantasy. Expect explicit sexual content, graphic violence/gore, adult language, and themes of war.
The Keeper’s Codex is a world guide for the upcoming trilogy, The Heirs of the Shattered Veil. It features a litany of character dossiers and creature descriptions that read more like a journal than an encyclopedia. The art is beautiful and there's so much personality woven throughout the logs that I couldn't help but feel like I was selecting my own character on release day of a long anticipated video game as I read through the pages. Also included is the novella, The Mirrored Pair, and a two chapter preview of The Heirs of the Shattered Veil.
The Novella: The Mirrored Pair
The wit. The charm. The banter that was laced with threats. From the very first page, I was enthralled.
Three years ago, the covenant between the Light and Shadow factions of the fae was broken and the Veil thus began to unravel without their joint efforts to secure it. Peace between the two sides has been a precarious illusion fueled by obscure threats and fake smiles ever since. And none execute the game so well as Lyra, princess of Light, and Malakor, the Shadow prince. Each a weapon, born and molded within those two opposing factions.
She, his perfect match.
He, her most egregious inconvenience.
Malakor is gleeful in his taunts of the princess while she firmly and repeatedly warns that the game he's playing at has already been decided by her hand. It's a battle of wills and solely of words... until he drops from the shadows beside her on a balcony and the event unfolds that will irrevocably shatter the peace between their people. Blow for blow, cut for cut, they go at each other with passion and with malice.
Until their spilled blood mingles and begins to sing.
Cue the explosion and flying shards of glass. The two are ripped apart by a force that leaves them shaking, in fear and outrage. Then the delegates and other royals storm the ground and allegations start flying and slicing as furiously as their weapons, Voidbringer and Dawnrender, had. And I'm sinking lower in my seat trying to dodge the strays.
Lyra is left corrupted by Malakor's darkness while he is tortured by the taint of her Light.
From there, it's a race to the Unweaver with each looking to promise a piece of the other's soul as payment for a cure and dissolution to the bond that links them. If they don't kill themselves while trying to inflict pain on the other first.
Lyra is a downright vicious opponent and I loved her for it. They are so beautifully reflected by one another. But though Lyra is dominant in battle, she is quite submissive as far as the spice is concerned. Poor Malakor was doing all the work. With, admittedly, a bit of help from his shadows.
I wanted desperately for more time with them but as the blurb forewarns—this is tale of tragedy. It is an action packed, true enemies-to-lovers story that features fated mates, morally grey leads with a dual pov, and graphic spice.
"You were the only one who fought for me," I said, the truth of it hollow and strange.
"You were the only one left worth fighting for," he answered, and it wasn't a comfort—it was a claim.
"You were the only one left worth fighting for," he answered, and it wasn't a comfort—it was a claim.
5 out of 5 stars.
Available in ebook
2025/47
