danibee3's review
5.0
This book left me in awe and needing more! After the events of book one Crown of Feathers, (which I adored) I was worried a squeal wouldnt live up to my expectations. Trust me, there is no need to worry about that. Heart of flames goes above and beyond. There was so much action, emotion and romances. We see so much character development especially Veronyka and Sev. As always Val is such an interesting character to read you want to hate her but love her at the same time.
Since reading Crown of feathers I have been recommending it to everyone and will be doing the same with Heart of flames. I cant wait for the next book and to see where these amazing characters take us.
A huge thanks to Nicki Pau Preto for these amazing books and NetGalley for allowing me an arc in exchange for review.
Since reading Crown of feathers I have been recommending it to everyone and will be doing the same with Heart of flames. I cant wait for the next book and to see where these amazing characters take us.
A huge thanks to Nicki Pau Preto for these amazing books and NetGalley for allowing me an arc in exchange for review.
mybookwitchreviews's review
4.0
First off I wanted to say a massive thank you to Nicki for having me be apart of the FirstRidersStreetTeam, and for allowing me to read a advanced copy through Netgalley.
Now to the good stuff.
This book lived up the first instalment. The pacing and the writing and the beautiful intense world-building held me captured for the (many many) pages and I cannot wait to hold this gorgeous baby in my hands.
Val and Veronyka's relationship continue to expand in a way I wish I could have predicted and though there are moments I wish could have been written a little differently I know this series has my heart. I will now pine for Kade and Sev until book three comes out.
For a more in depth non-spoiler review/thoughts please see my blog below:
https://bookwitchreviews.wordpress.com/2020/01/02/cauldronreviews-heart-of-flame-by-nicki-pau-preto/
Now to the good stuff.
This book lived up the first instalment. The pacing and the writing and the beautiful intense world-building held me captured for the (many many) pages and I cannot wait to hold this gorgeous baby in my hands.
Val and Veronyka's relationship continue to expand in a way I wish I could have predicted and though there are moments I wish could have been written a little differently I know this series has my heart. I will now pine for Kade and Sev until book three comes out.
For a more in depth non-spoiler review/thoughts please see my blog below:
https://bookwitchreviews.wordpress.com/2020/01/02/cauldronreviews-heart-of-flame-by-nicki-pau-preto/
stephanietutt1's review
5.0
I think this book was amazing and makes up for the (very few) flaws of the first book. I love the development of the charaters and seeing into their thoughts and why they make the decisions they do. I also loved the timing of the books. We didn't linger on events too long and there isn't a lot of traveling sections where the characters are spending their time walking around from destination to destination. Thank god for phoenixes. That being said, there is one thing I would have wished for differently.
We start the book off with the age old troupe of "I don't want people to know of this gift I have because it can hurt people. So instead of practicing to enhance it, I will make the decision for everybody to hide the fact I have this gift." Which of course, never turns out great. I hate this troupe because all it does is add tension and a plot line where it otherwise does not need to be. If the main character feels she can share every aspect of her life, then why would she hide this? It doesn't make sense.
Otherwise, I thought everything was great. I loved that we got to understand a few more secondary characters such a Elliot and Kade a bit more. I also loved seeing Sev's point of view and how he's helping the Riders. I loved that the book took us into a lot of different parts of the world (the empire, the eyrie, all of the small villages) without having the locations overpower the plotline of the book. We could be introduced to a place, without having to dive too deep into the place itself.
I also loved that certain plot points were introduced to the audience but not necessarily each character, which made for an exciting read since we were finding out motives prior to the characters.
I'm hoping in the next installment for higher stakes and obviously more romance between Tristan and Veronyka!
We start the book off with the age old troupe of "I don't want people to know of this gift I have because it can hurt people. So instead of practicing to enhance it, I will make the decision for everybody to hide the fact I have this gift." Which of course, never turns out great. I hate this troupe because all it does is add tension and a plot line where it otherwise does not need to be. If the main character feels she can share every aspect of her life, then why would she hide this? It doesn't make sense.
Otherwise, I thought everything was great. I loved that we got to understand a few more secondary characters such a Elliot and Kade a bit more. I also loved seeing Sev's point of view and how he's helping the Riders. I loved that the book took us into a lot of different parts of the world (the empire, the eyrie, all of the small villages) without having the locations overpower the plotline of the book. We could be introduced to a place, without having to dive too deep into the place itself.
I also loved that certain plot points were introduced to the audience but not necessarily each character, which made for an exciting read since we were finding out motives prior to the characters.
I'm hoping in the next installment for higher stakes and obviously more romance between Tristan and Veronyka!
beasleysbooks's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
wordsareweapons's review against another edition
4.0
This book was long...and it felt long. I did enjoy it. I think it was a decent balance between action and character development. However, I also think there were maybe too many POVs and the pacing between them was a bit abrupt at times. The ending was pretty epic though! I am honestly really excited to see how this wraps up.
marymary91's review
5.0
I fell in love with the characters in this story~ the way that they develop individually and new relationships that grow! Cannot wait for the next book!
bookcub's review
4.0
I'm really totally into this series!!! My main complaint is there are way too many pov changes. I enjoy the perspectives, mostly, although I have favorites, but it messes up the flow of the story. I get distracted, I forget who knows what, I forget what characters are introduced. It's incredibly frustrating, and the added historical documents exasperate that. Maybe if it were just an exchange of letters between two people and not a hodge podge of relevant information scattered about I could enjoy it more.
However, my attachment to Veronyka, Tristan, Sev, and Kade far outweighed any complaints I had. I loved how the history informed the present day, the politics were relatively easy to follow, the morality of all the characters was complicated and differed for each of them. Everyone has distinct voices and motivations and I loved that I could understand them all.
I suppose this might be slight spoilers. Oh, and I love to hate Val cause she is terrible. The worst. I was worried she would be redeemed for a while but the end made it pretty clear she is completely evil. And her love for Veronyka makes it so much worse because she is capable of loving people but chooses to close herself off and to manipulate and it's terrible because yes, she's scared but she chooses to bad things because she wants power.
Anyways, this series is one I am truly invested in fantasy that is currently being published right now. I will be reading the rest of the series and following it and I think they are worth checking out.
However, my attachment to Veronyka, Tristan, Sev, and Kade far outweighed any complaints I had. I loved how the history informed the present day, the politics were relatively easy to follow, the morality of all the characters was complicated and differed for each of them. Everyone has distinct voices and motivations and I loved that I could understand them all.
I suppose this might be slight spoilers. Oh, and I love to hate Val cause she is terrible. The worst. I was worried she would be redeemed for a while but the end made it pretty clear she is completely evil. And her love for Veronyka makes it so much worse because she is capable of loving people but chooses to close herself off and to manipulate and it's terrible because yes, she's scared but she chooses to bad things because she wants power.
Anyways, this series is one I am truly invested in fantasy that is currently being published right now. I will be reading the rest of the series and following it and I think they are worth checking out.
dragonbunni's review
3.0
I liked it, but I agree with a lot of other reviewers in that it could have used a bit more editing. A lot of repetition and past tense exposition. I am invested in the characters, so I enjoyed hearing more of their stories. I'm hoping for more show, less tell. The most exciting parts of the book were towards the end where there was less passive reminiscing and more active action.
healingtothemax's review
2.0
Second installment in (was it planned?) trilogy offers more phoenixes yet the writing/editing challenges remain the same. Those flaming giant birds are the horses in the sky, full of personality and feisty battle partners, creating cinematic action sequences and brightening the very repetitive mediocre story. If you love phoenixes then you can endure this tome. The multiple performers for the audio version are very good and made this experience do-able. The writing... "rolling hills and tall trees" is the description of the landscape for a character's emotional homecoming (sighs). The human characters are more inconsistent yet less interesting than in vol.1: Veronica (our heroine) and Val (our villain) toxic sisterhood dynamic erupts in powderkeg results; previously strong Tristan goes weepy, falling down as a leader when his codependency takes over, while his father suddenly goes full-on vigilante; fumbling hero Sev drops more weapons at crucial moments yet picks up more swoony moments with handsome pal Cade. There's more characters, politics, battles as war heats up on several fronts - many people are fighting for... a throne? a seat at the council table? a viable phoenix egg to hatch? All of it. Author Preto and her stalwart editor have stacked up a huge epic... 600+ pages in volume 2 with vol.3, the finale!, due in 2021. The lackluster writing clips these flaming birds' wings. Repeating a scene from different perspectives without adding any insight or detail only adds word/page count, it doesn't stoke the reader's passion.