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Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara WolfBring Me Their Hearts #1
Published by Entangled: Teen on June 5, 2018
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
Zera is a Heartless – the immortal, unageing soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly.
Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a Prince’s heart in exchange for her own, with one addendum; if she’s discovered infiltrating the court, Nightsinger will destroy her heart rather than see her tortured by the witch-hating nobles.
Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him – every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his darkly handsome side. No one can challenge him – until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, carefree, and out for his blood. The Prince’s honor has him quickly aiming for her throat.
So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all.
Winner takes the loser’s heart.
Literally.
A copy of the book was provided for review purposes - thank you! Receiving a copy does not guarantee a positive review and therefore does not affect the opinion or content of the review.
Bring Me Their Hearts has plenty of sass, snark and humor laced throughout, which is no surprise considering one of the biggest reasons why I loved Sara Wolf’s debut novel is the sass and humor (I can now officially count on Wolf to make me laugh). This book literally starts with Zera comparing the king’s worth to a potato.
Potatoes aside, let’s talk about Sara Wolf’s dive from contemporary into fantasy, aka how did Bring Me Their Hearts do???
Because that is the most important question: is the book good? Is it as bloodeh as the title? Let me give you the 411.
If you’re looking for a good dose of sass, snark and humor, count on it.
Zera has a comeback for everything. Of course, she says she can’t help herself because it’s how she deals with it since she became Heartless, which is essentially a witch’s pet monster. If you can’t deal with her comebacks, then suck it up an drop off a cliff is what she’ll likely tell you. But the amount of sass is 👌👌👌 and #100percentapproved.
But let’s be a little honest here: sometimes Isis Blake appears too much in Zera.
Isis Blake is the main character of Wolf’s Lovely Vicious series and sometimes she appears way too much in Zera. Think two people stuck in one body = identity crisis much?
Maybe I am complaining too much here because regardless of how Isis seems to appear occasionally in Zera, I still enjoyed Zera’s voice. And I still approve of snarkcisms used. So I’ll just sit in a corner and hush up.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate a side character (really, we should appreciate most side characters).
Meet Malachite, who is officially one of my favorite characters of Bring Me Their Hearts simply because he was wonderful and had no filter for being a royal bodyguard. 11/10 would adopt.
But we all know, Ms. Wolf, that you’re going to kill Malachite later on, right? And kill my feels along with it?
There is this weird issue of the beginning being kind of out of place but used as a lovely hook.
Bring Me Their Hearts starts us in a court before backtracking a few weeks and then continuing. Please note I am a very forgetful person but we’re in Zera’s world of Heartless and witches and then Training101 for 30% of the book. I completely forgot everything by that point aside from a potato being involved.
But it’s used as a lovely hook, so I’m not exactly complaining too much (someone fix my memory please and thank you).
Common Fantasy Plot #2927: Got ’em!
Eventually, you get to the point where you see the most common plotlines aka royalty is secretly venturing out in the world of plebians to be a badass and accidentally meets potential love interest aka the main character.
I was expecting this to be more bloody? I did not get more bloody.
I got a lot of court intrigue, sass, humor, but I was expecting more blood for some reason. I got more near the end though, because Heartless are monsters after all.
Hold up, this is the first novel?
I was expecting this to be a standalone but hahaha no nice try, Sophia. Come back in the future to satiate your curiosities in book two.
Bring Me Their Hearts wasn’t horrible if you enjoy a snarky little monster who really just wants everything to be all good and dandy (but hahaha, life isn’t going to be that nice) and a nice little note tacked on the end that says, “come back soon for more!”
While I wanted a little more blood because I’m smol and evil thoughts run through my brain sometimes, this was fun to read, and I have hopes for the second novel.
Sophia started blogging in February 2012 for the hell of it and is surprisingly still around. She has a GIF for nearly everything, probably listens to too much K-Pop and is generally in an existential crisis of sorts (she's trying her best). More of her bookish reviews and K-Pop Roundups can be found at The Arts STL.
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This was my first novel by the author but I really enjoyed it. Now you have me wanting to check out her previous books too!
You should check it out when you get the chance! It may be triggering though, so I’d be careful and see what could be involved before getting into the series.
This sounds like a fun read. I love characters with sass and humor. My typical fantasies tend to keep it to smaller doses, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes with this book! It’s also great when the side character stands out. (Hopefully he doesn’t die!!)
This sounds so great! I’ve been reading lots of reviews of this one and everyone seems to agree.
Most reviews have been positive! I hope you’ll get the chance to read it and enjoy it. ^_^