ARC
READ IT FIRST
WHERE THE WORLD SPLIT by Charli Belle
The gods split the world in two — a frozen north, a south dying of thirst — and a crack between them that neither can close alone.
Every hundred years the wound opens for a contest. Two champions, granted the power to name: to build worlds out of what they learn of each other, and to survive what gets built from knowledge of them. The deeper the knowing, the more dangerous the world.
Nahara has come to win water for her people. Her opponent is a Northern prince who has read every account of the South and believes most of them.
The planes bleed both ways. Every room you build for them is also a room in you.
And the competition is just the beginning.
ALL ABOUT THE ARC
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This is for the reader who highlights sentences. Who thinks the best moment in a romance is the one where nobody touches. Who wants a heroine already carrying a loss she can't undo, not a girl discovering she's special. Who reads a tournament book for what the fight reveals, not who wins.
If you loved the behind-enemy-lines loyalty ache of The Bridge Kingdom, the thaws-by-millimeters hero of Shield of Sparrows, or the battle-worn heroine energy of Dire Bound - this is your next one. It's built on a unique magic system: you speak worlds into being, and to win you have to survive the one your enemy built out of everything they know about you. Every attack is a confession.
This is not for you if you need heat on the page. It's closed-door, all tension, no payoff yet. If you need momentum from chapter one, this takes its time on purpose. And if a final-page cliffhanger with no resolution will ruin your week, wait for book two and read them back to back.
But if "two people building worlds out of their wounds and shoving each other inside" does something to you, you're going to lose a weekend.
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Read the book before launch March 2027.
If you want to leave a review (Amazon, Goodreads, StoryGraph, anywhere you post) I'd be grateful. On or before launch day is ideal.
That's it. No review is required. No minimum word count, no required format, no obligation to finish. Honest means honest: a two-star review from someone who genuinely engaged with the book is worth more to me than a five-star from someone who didn't.
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Reviews are welcome and they matter enormously to a debut, but nothing is required - not a review, not a rating, not finishing the book.
If you review please note that you received an early copy and that the review is your honest and genuine opinion.
Please avoid phrasing like ‘in exchange for a review,’ since Amazon may flag it and I want your words to stay up!
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Enemies to lovers · slow burn · magical competition · forced proximity · duty vs. desire · morally gray love interest · competent heroine · found family · court intrigue · desert and ice kingdoms · magic that requires knowing someone completely · cliffhanger ending
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Spice: closed-door. Book 1 is an ultra-slow burn focused on forced proximity and world stakes — setting the stage for high-heat payoff later in the series. The magic doubles as the intimacy. You build a world from everything you know about someone and make them survive it, so every round plays as confession. Slow-burn purists, this is your Roman Empire. If you need it consummated on the page, please skip rather than force it.
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grief and loss · a dying land, thirst and scarcity · violence and injury, some on-page · chronic illness, including a child's · drowning and near-drowning · captivity and coercive control · child loss (not on page) · gambling, debt, and exploitation · past corporal punishment · no on-page sexual content · on-page death of companion
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ARCs go out: [DATE TBC - January 2027]
Launch: March 2027
Reviews welcome any time, before or after launch.
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Email me at charli@charlibelle.com or find me on BookTok or Instagram (links in header). The readers who go out of their way are the ones who make a debut like this possible.
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Come visit the FAQ page and if you still have questions send me a note on the contact form - I read everything.
