Heart So Fierce and Broken

I enjoyed it but the first 150 pages was all recap of the first book's events..this talks self harm in the later chapters.

The romance wasn't really that believable to me and the plot was way too slow in parts overall this was fine enough for me to want to read the 3rd book

reread update 2022: I feel the same way about this book now as when I first read it. There are a lot of charming characters but also a lot of flaws. It's very much meh.

Initial Thoughts:

Real talk, the epilogue saved this book.

Spoiler Free Review:

What a strange sequel this is. Do not go into this expecting to love it for the same reasons you loved the first book, otherwise you will find yourself feeling disillusioned with the story - this very much feels like it's part of a completely different series.

Grey is one of the perspectives we get in this book, and it's a welcome one if you wanted to learn more about Grey in ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely'. We learn a lot more about Grey's past, his ambitions and hopes, and we do get to see what he really feels and what his true opinions separate from Rhen's are. He is a far more complex character in this book.

Lia Mara is also the other perspective we mainly read from in this sequel. She's an interesting YA female heroine and Kemmerer makes sure to explore the complexity of her situation thoroughly. She is different from Harper so it's nice I can distinguish between two female voices in a YA novel, as sometimes it's hard with certain authors.

However, do not go into this books expecting to see a lot of Rhen or Harper, or even to like them in this book because they're not there a lot - and when they are you'll wish they weren't. However, Kemmerer does expand on other characters featured in the first book and does introduce several more characters who are captivating in their own rights.

If you are expecting a book full of fast pace action packed adventure, find a different book. This is slow paced and doesn't contain a lot of fight scenes, but I think it's setting itself up for a bigger fight in the next book. It can be sluggish at times and the pacing is a little slow, the only thing that powered me through this novel was being unable to sleep one night and finishing at 2am.

However, this book has a certain charm to it I'm unable to put into words; something in here kept me reading, and I'm unsure of what it was.

This book is very much a filler-book for the trilogy(?), but all be it a necessary one. I just can't help but wonder if there wasn't a way to compact this book into book one or three. Although, I would recommend you read this just so you know what's going on If you really want to read the whole series, if you weren't big on the first book then move on because this probably isn't for you.

Spoiler Review:

hahah what was this?

Everything I enjoyed about the first book didn't exist here: the characters (particularly Rhen and Harper), the retelling of ‘Beauty and The Beast', the pacing, the idea of what love meant and what is was. All of that didn't exist in this book and I'm not sure why considering it is a sequel.

Everytime I read the name ‘Harper' I was like



I don't know who the girl who called ‘Harper' was in this but she was not the ‘Harper' we all knew and loved from ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely'. We get one chapter from her perspective and the only times we hear from her after that is when she's hanging off of Rhen's arm or apologising for his actions. Where is the girl who basically jumped out of a window from book one? Because this wasn't her, this was some girl who sat by and did nothing as Rhen tortured their friend and a little boy needlessly. She was so weird in this, and I hope Kremmerer redeems herself with the Harper we all love in book three.

Rhen as well was weird, and like I said in my initial thoughts the epilogue saved this - and it certainly saved Rhen. I'm not going to use the epilogue to excuse all of Rhen's actions because some of them were so cruel and unlike the man we grew slowly to know in the first book. As well as that, in book one he didn't bow to everything Lilith suggested, he let himself be tortured instead of Grey - and we're expected to believe everything he did was influenced by Lilith from one small epilogue? I don't think so, I need to know more and I'm also not sure how Kemmerer is going to redeem this character for a second time.

Their romance was strange in this book too if you look at how their romance developed in the first book, they felt like a completely different couple in this one. We spent the whole of the first book building up the romance to get to the end and read Harper confessing she wasn't sure if she was in love with Rhen or not, but in this book they are devoted to each other and very much in love - Jake even says Harper will never leave Rhen because she loves him that much. That's quite a jump to make in two months.

As well as this, I think Kemmerer spent a lot of this book trying to undo the almost love triangle she built in book one, because lets be real here, Grey and Harper had a lot more chemistry in ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely'; here's my problem with that: if you're built a love triangle, commit to it , don't try to undo it because it won't make sense. I think that's why Kemmerer wrote in Lia Mara for this second book, because other than being a romantic interest for Grey she didn't play a huge role until the very end. The author even had Lia Mara ask Grey TWICE why he and Harper weren't together - it was a very unsubtle way of shoving the Rhen/Harper ship down out throats.

I also didn't enjoy the plot or pacing of this novel. I found this really dragged because there was nothing happening. I read this as part of a buddy read and once it was over we had a really difficult time talking about what actually happened in terms of plot - because there wasn't much going on. It's very much a background story for book three, and I won't know until I read book three whether or not it would have been possible to merge this with the next book.

Now, there were things I liked about this book. I was really excited to read from the perspective of Grey and to learn more about him and the kind of character he is. He's evidently very sweet and a nurturing character and I enjoyed that (maybe I'm just a sucker for ‘looks like they could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll' archetype). I know not everyone liked Grey's character in this, they thought it was too different from what was featured in ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely', but I think it fits what was hinted at in book one as his personality, especially now that he's a free man and he's accepted his background and heritage.

Whilst Lia Mara served no real purpose in this book except to be Grey's love interest and at the very end where she killed her mother, I did actually like her. She and Harper are alike, but also different, and I want to see them become friends in the next book. I also really enjoyed the focus on a sister relationship from Lia Mara's perspective that felt fairly realistic and honest.

I enjoyed the new characters introduced in this. Iisak and Tycho were both great characters and it was nice to see Tycho's growth and to learn more about the world Kemmerer's built through Iisak. I'm excited to see how Tycho continues to grow in book three, but believe me when I say I will riot if Kemmerer kills him off. Also, I'm hoping Iisak's son is somehow involved in the plot of book three because Iisak and his son's situations are very interesting and I want to see more of them - I just don't know how it would tie in.

As well as this, I'm glad we learnt more about Jake and Noah in this sequel and they became their own people, rather than Harper's brother and his boyfriend. There was a nice focus on friendship with Grey and Jake, and I appreciated the discussions of friendship based on the two of them and also Rhen.

I also think it'd be ill of me not to mention this trilogy (I think it's a trilogy) so far seems to be fairly white, and therefore falls under the same problem we have with a lot of YA fantasies for their lack of diversity. I don't want to judge Kemmerer too harshly for this yet as the series is not completed, but it's something I have my eye on as a reader.

Overall, this was a real strange read. It's obviously a filler book and not a lot happens, especially not with the characters you grew to love in the first book. But Kemmerer does add several new characters that are great (she writes very good characters) and topics I enjoyed reading about.

The first book was AMAZING, but I had a lot of issues with this one. I'm hoping book 3 pulls it all together

The first book was AMAZING, but I had a lot of issues with this one. I'm hoping book 3 pulls it all together

[7.5/10 Rating] [Spoiler-free review]

At first I wasn't really feeling this book as I didn't like how the story was going, but as I read, I found myself liking the characters more, which helped to keep me going. The romance was kinda predictable (I saw it coming from miLeS away before it even began), but was still a good read. I wasn't able to sit down and binge it one-shot as I wasn't really a fan of how the story was progressing, but it was still interesting enough to keep me reading for “short bursts of time”. Like the first book, Rhen's personality was kinda hard to understand??? (Are you caring or cruel??? Why did you suddenly become cruel??) It was really quite confusing. I also did not expect Grey's POV to be written like that as, I understand that he's human and all but he feels like a completely different character from the first book? I'm just gonna assume that its his character development... Lia Mara on the other hand, however, grew on me quite a lot (I was really “eh” with her character beforehand).

OVERALL:
A good read, but I find that it's a bit sad that the main characters of the first book were kinda ‘tossed-aside' ? I understand why this had to happen (I mean the 2nd book was focused on Grey's story, not Rhen's) but I still believe that their story cannot be ignored? As a reader who read the first book and the second in succession, it was quite strange, as the main characters who were so vital in the previous book were practically non-existent in this one. Harper felt quite useless and irrelevant in this novel which was :/
But despite everything, I did enjoy the book. Great series, so you should pick it up! I will be reading the 3rd book in hopes that it might be better!

ALSO: THIS BOOK GETS BONUS POINTS FOR NOT HAVING A LOVE TRIANGLE because I absolutely hate love triangles.

2.25/5 stars

y'all must be lying because this was way better than the first.
not great but still better

SPOILERS**




OMG, I love Grey even MORE now. And Lia Mara, WHAT A CHAMP ♥ I love how Jake and Grey's relationship transformed! And the whole group ♥ And THE ENDING! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

I need to know what happens next, gosh I HATE THAT BITCH SO MUCH, YOU KNOW WHO.

I'll start book 3 tomorrow because I can't freaking wait! And I love the DUAL POV, specially in the audiobooks ♥

I thought this was really good. I don't want to give anything away since it's a sequel.
Grey is definitely still my favorite character. I can't wait to read the next one.

I honestly cannot decide if I liked this book or not. It was not what I was expecting at all. It didn't follow Rhen and Harper, so you have no idea what's going on with them throughout the whole book. I know some people love Grey, but he's just kind of boring for me, so following him was just eh. I think an opportunity was missed as well to develop more relationships between the group, including Noah, Jake, and Tycho.

The ending also made me furious. But it's also what's making me pick up the next book. All in all, I still love the setting and the characters, but not sure I liked this book.

“Ah yes, the most dangerous person at the party is always the girl sitting alone with a book.”

This book was so good. I loved every part of it, even though at first I was so mad when I found out it was going to be from the points of view of Lia Mara and Grey, not Harper and Rhen. But then I understood why and I absolutely loved it. It was even better than the first book!

Lia Mara is such a great and well written character and everything about her is amazing. I am glad that she and Grey found each other, when they didn't even know they needed it.
Rhen makes me so sad and all his decisions are so harsh, I couldn't believe what he did to Grey. His only friend, the person who was always there for him, how could he forget all of this in such a short time and become ruthless when it came to Grey? But I feel like Harper can truly help him see the better part of things, even though some things will never be forgotten.

I cannot wait to see if Grey and Rhen will find their way back to being friends or... anything else than enemies. And I truly hope that Lia Mara and Harper will become friends, because they are so much alike and I believe they would make a great pair.

Absolutely loved this book! Such a fun read. I give it 5 heart-eyes!

Book Three Please.

The moment I finished A Curse So Dark and Lonely, I knew I needed A Heart So Fierce and Broken right then and there. And I was a bit skeptical about the new introduction of a point-of-view character because I had hopes for a certain guardsman and princess to be the end game. But by the end of this book, I realized that I loved it even more than the first one! I was actually excited because the release date was January 7th of 2020 and that is the Macedonian Christmas and I bought it sadly it took me way too long to read it.


A Heart So Fierce and Broken introduces Lia Mara, daughter of the queen of the bordering lands, a nation determined to take on Emberfall even if it means war. On her own, I really loved her character and my only real hang-up was that I spent how many pages in the first book getting to know Harper so when I first heard Grey would be a main Point of view in the sequel, I thought it would be him and Harper.
I'm glad it wasn't.

Lia Mara has been the cast-off her entire life but she finally gets to shine. I loved watching this intelligent young woman leave her family's shadow and really hold her own. And Grey was amazing as always, his internal conflict between duty and what he thinks is right was balanced just so, not overwhelming the story with unnecessary monologues and such.

But while I loved Grey and Lia Mara, even more than Harper and Rhen, bringing them to the forefront seemed to take away from the first couple. Rhen, while I wasn't a huge fan of him, was tolerable in A Curse So Dark and Lonely, but in this sequel he was cruel. His actions didn't match up to the character we spent hundreds of pages getting to know in the last book and I didn't understand why he changed. And Harper, who I thought was a fantastic heroine, all but drifted off the page. I felt like their characters were sacrificed for the sake of Grey and Lia Mara which makes me wonder where things are going in the next book.

Speaking of the story, as much as I wanted this sequel (mostly because of Grey), I didn't understand where the story could go after ACSDAL (which, if you cut a single moment at the end, could have worked pretty well as a standalone). But Kemmerer found a story and I wasn't 100% sold on it the whole time. It felt like two conflicts going in the beginning and I sat around waiting for something to happen on either front. This book almost feels like a “response” to the first one's “call” (action/reaction, cause and effect) rather than a continuation, if that makes sense. I definitely wouldn't recommend reading A Heart So Fierce and Broken without reading A Curse So Dark and Lonely. The backstory established in the first book is too important in the sequel. But this book very much felt like a reaction rather than its own story.

ALL THAT SAID, yes, I actually enjoyed this book even more than A Curse So Dark and Lonely. Which seems impossible based on everything I just said but it's the characters. Lia Mara had my attention from the first page and only continued to keep me reading, and I was already a fan of Grey from the last book so not much work was needed there. Despite not feeling like much really happened in this 400+ page book, it was the little things that added up and I am definitely interested to see how these two books come together in the third installment!

It was going well...until the end.

While I enjoyed this, it pales in comparison to its prequel. My main beef with this book is the thinness of Grey's motivations, which are integral to the plot but aren't strong enough to really support it.

So ok...I read this all today...did not mean to lol. I could not put this one down. I really enjoyed the pace and feel of the characters. My heart feels for Rhen and the decisions he feels forced to make. You see Harper throughout but she is not the focus and I appreciated the indepth look into the world around and outside of Ironrose Castle.

I loved getting to know Grey better and sympathized with his struggle in how to decide what path to take. Lia Mara is a pleasant surprise and I loved her instantly, as I did her sister.

The ending leaves me devastated yet hopeful for what the next book will bring.

This was a really good sequel that did not fall to the curse of the second book. This book is centered around Grey and is thoroughly enjoyable since Grey gets a personality far more than his loyal-to-the-throne-self.

Things I enjoyed:
- Character development for Grey
- Tycho!

I enjoyed this installment! It was even better than the first and it left me guessing until the end. I can honestly say I was not at all expecting the ending. While I was able to guess some of what happened throughout the book, the ending was still a shocker.

One complaint I have about this book is the lack of focus on Harper and Rhen. While Grey's story is vital to the overall story, we missed a lot of what happened with characters we came to know in book 1. I also do not feel like Rhen was written as I would expect based on his character in book one. There were many aspects of book 2 that just did not seem to fit how I see his character. I understand he has been going through a lot but he was almost seen as the villain in this book and I did not agree with that.