Reviews with content warning for Blood - A Heart So Fierce and Broken

This book flirts a little too closely to Game of Thrones territory for me at times, with brutal consequences for kindness or naïveté.

In developing Grey’s character, I feel like Harper’s character dulled greatly.

I find it really hard to believe that she would want to stay with Rhen when she is aware of his brutal actions against his subjects, despite not knowing that Lilith is still alive and doing something to manipulate his actions. Her family suffered trauma caused by her father’s actions and saw her brother turned into a puppet forced to threaten and possibly commit violent acts against people. It doesn’t make sense that she would stand by Rhen’s side as he- from her point of view- tries to rally his people by allowing some to be brutalized or murdered because he’s afraid of magic.

Lia Mara is the kind of protagonist I can’t help but like- she’s kind, clever and pragmatic despite her upbringing. Her mother makes too perfect a villain. It’s borderline offensive how one dimensional she is.

Despite it all, I did enjoy this and it was worth the couple hours I spent reading it and I care just enough to read the next one also.

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nexusgoblin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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scarlett_f's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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le3713's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Enjoyable second book, offering more development of Grey's character and setting. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first, but am still hooked to see where the third goes. These books are quite dark, and there is description of violence that is very graphic. On audio, I almost skipped forward through it.

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