Book Review:
Title: A Heart so Fierce and Broken
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Books
I received an early copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
“Choices are never easy. There are good and bad options, but the most dangerous is to not make any choice at all.”
Find the heir, win the crown.
The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers.
Win the crown, save the kingdom.
Rumored to be the heir, Grey has been on the run since he destroyed Lilith. He has no desire to challenge Rhen--until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother’s violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall?
The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.
Okay, I am so in love with this series! And 85% of that love stems from how much of a fantastic character Grey is.
Did I love this sequel as much as the first one? From a plot
and character development perspective, it probably falls a little short. But then,
the fact that we got to see Grey’s development and experience things from his
perspective makes me want to say AHSFAB > ACSDAL.
Can you tell how much I love Grey?
Grey is brooding, yet sweet and loyal to a fault. There’s not
one thing about him I don’t love. He treats everyone around him equally, regardless
of their gender or age or anything else. He’s pretty much perfect. As I said
previously, I really enjoyed seeing him grow as a character and really coming
into his own.
*spoilers for ACSDAL ahead*
In the first book, we see him 100% committed to his role of being a guard to Rhen, but you could tell there is so much
more of him to unpack. And we got to see that in this book. He still carried all
those loyal traits, but we got to see them come into play in so many more scenarios
and with so many other people. I think the biggest thing I loved was him coming
to grips with the idea of being not only being the heir, but having magic run
through his veins and accepting that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing and can
be used for good.
I could honestly talk about Grey for hours, but let’s move on to the
other things I loved.
The other characters in this book were all wonderful too
(although like many others, I did find Rhen’s character development backtracked
a little and felt like it undid some of the amazing growth I witnessed in the
first book – but it did bring some great drama, so I’m not going to be too
mad).
Lia Mara was a great addition. She has this quiet strength,
which I loved, and she really grew on me throughout the whole novel. Like Grey,
she is loyal to a fault, always putting her family first. I’m really excited to
see her story plays out in the 3rd book, especially after reading what
went down in those final chapters!
Another fantastic addition was Tycho, who must be protected
at all costs! Such a pure cinnamon roll that tugged on my heartstrings. I think
as a character he was great, but my favourite moments were when he was interacting
with Grey. They had this older brother/younger brother relationship that was
built on mutual respect and love, and it was so heart-warming and adorable.
They’ve both sort of struggled with feeling part of a family, so to see them
create their own familial relationship was beautiful.
We also got to see more of Jake and Noah (Harper’s brother
and his bf) more in this book, which was nice, because although they are side
characters, they definitely have a great impact in certain scenes.
Moving on from the characters…
The writing was amazing – It’s so easy to become immersed
into the story, which meant that I honestly flew through this book so quickly
The plot kept me engaged, but possibly moved a little slow – the majority of this book is Grey and his team travelling, which I didn’t mind as much because there were action scenes sprinkled out throughout, but I would have loved to see the heir and magic plotline move a little quicker (probably because I’m so bloody impatient and just want to see how it’ll all pan out!!) But it did set us up amazingly for the final book, which I can already tell is going to be action-packed and heart-pounding!
Overall, I really loved this sequel. It contained all the
things I love; romance, action, political intrigue, magic and my favourite,
Grey!
With the way this book ended, I am just itching to get my hands on the 3rd and final book – I’m kind of hoping it’ll be from both Rhen and Grey’s perspective because seeing the conflict from both perspectives would be incredibly fascinating!
With the way this book ended, I am just itching to get my hands on the 3rd and final book – I’m kind of hoping it’ll be from both Rhen and Grey’s perspective because seeing the conflict from both perspectives would be incredibly fascinating!
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