Quick Take
- Narration: Elisabeth Lagelee brings warmth and genuine vulnerability to Oona’s first-person interiority, making the princess’s longing for Kitlyn feel earned rather than melodramatic.
- Themes: Forbidden love, coming-of-age identity, duty versus desire
- Mood: Slow-burning and emotionally tender, with flashes of real danger
- Verdict: Readers who prize emotional payoff over fast plotting will find this a quietly affecting LGBTQ+ fantasy debut.
I came to The Eldritch Heart on a quiet Thursday night, the kind where I wanted something that felt different from the grimdark stack piling up on my nightstand. The title sounded strange to me at first, and I admit I shared the mild skepticism I’ve seen in some reviews about a male author writing a lesbian fantasy romance. What I found instead was a story that handles its central relationship with more care than a lot of LGBTQ+ fiction I’ve encountered from inside the community. That is not a claim I make lightly, and it comes with some caveats about pacing and plotting that I will get to.
Matthew S. Cox’s first novel in the Eldritch Heart series follows Princess Oona Talomir, who has spent most of her sixteen years confined inside a castle because seers prophesied she would end a decades-long war and the neighboring kingdom has been trying to kill her ever since. That premise is standard fantasy scaffolding, but what Cox does with it is less conventional: Oona’s primary preoccupation is not the war or the assassins, but Kitlyn, her servant girl. When the king announces she must marry a prince to forge a military alliance, Oona can’t explain why she refuses. She simply runs, alone and utterly unprepared for the wilderness, hoping Kitlyn will find her before the assassins do.
Our Take on The Eldritch Heart
This is a slow-start book, and I want to be clear about that upfront because a number of listeners seem to have nearly given up before the story found its footing. Multiple reviewers flag the first thirty percent as deliberate in its pacing, and I agree: Cox is building a world and establishing Oona’s interiority before putting her in motion. Once she flees the castle, the story opens considerably. The blend of adventure and romance that follows feels balanced rather than forced, and the magical elements that eventually surface are more grounded than the title implies. “Eldritch” promises something stranger than what arrives, which is worth knowing in advance. The title’s meaning does eventually resolve, but listeners should not expect the cosmic horror register the word typically signals.
Why Listen to The Eldritch Heart
Elisabeth Lagelee’s narration is the quiet anchor of the whole production. She gives Oona a softness that reads as youth rather than weakness, and she differentiates Kitlyn as someone more settled and resolute. The contrast between the two characters comes through clearly in audio in a way that might be harder to track on the page. One reviewer called Kitlyn “a badass” who balances out Oona’s more anxious register, and Lagelee makes that dynamic legible without overplaying it. At sixteen hours, the audiobook is long for a debut YA-adjacent fantasy, but the runtime earns its space in the second half, where the story stops hesitating and commits to its emotional logic.
What to Watch For in The Eldritch Heart
The book operates inside a kingdom that is explicitly religious about purity, and Cox uses that theology to externalize the pressure Oona feels about her love for Kitlyn. It’s a useful structural choice, but the weight of that external condemnation can pile up in the middle section. Listeners who want LGBTQ+ fiction that explores societal shame in depth will find that thread satisfying. Those who prefer their queer romance unburdened by theological hand-wringing may find it a slower go. The assassin plotline, meanwhile, never quite reaches the tension its setup promises, and the resolution of the prophecy element feels more perfunctory than cathartic. Cox is at his strongest in the quieter scenes between Oona and Kitlyn, and the book knows this.
Who Should Listen to The Eldritch Heart
This audiobook is best suited for listeners who seek out LGBTQ+ fantasy romance and can tolerate a patient first act. Fans of queer YA with strong emotional cores, or anyone who has complained that lesbian representation in fantasy is “so bleeding rare” (a phrase one reviewer used that stuck with me), will likely find exactly what they came for here. Listeners who need propulsive plotting from page one, or who want the magic system front and center, will struggle. This is a story about two young women who want each other in a world that tells them they cannot, told with genuine feeling and a narrator who clearly understands both characters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Elisabeth Lagelee handle both Oona and Kitlyn distinctly enough to follow the relationship in audio?
Yes. Lagelee differentiates the two characters clearly, giving Oona a softer, more anxious quality and Kitlyn a more grounded, capable presence. The contrast that multiple readers praised in the text comes through well in the narration.
How slow is the slow start, and is the payoff worth it?
Most reviewers peg the setup as lasting through roughly the first third of the book. Once Oona flees the castle, pacing picks up substantially. Reviewers who pushed through uniformly found the emotional payoff satisfying, particularly around the central relationship.
Is this appropriate for younger teen listeners given the romance content?
The romance is emotionally intimate but not explicit. The coming-of-age framing and the absence of graphic content make it appropriate for older middle-grade and YA audiences, though the heavier theological pressure around the characters’ love may need context for younger readers.
Does the title actually mean anything, and do we find out what an ‘eldritch heart’ is?
This is a legitimate question raised by several reviewers. The answer arrives, but not quickly. The slow revelation of what the title signifies is part of the story’s structure, and listeners expecting an explanation in the first half will have to wait.
