The starting shot of the new YA fantasy series of Sara Wolf that tells us that girls wearing petticoats with swords should never be underestimated ever again. A witty, savagely sweet and thrilling story that takes us into an enchanting world full of female powerhouses.
She is young. She is terrified. She is playing dress-up. She is playing a very dangerous game. – She is Heartless.
Title: Bring Me Their Hearts
Series: Bring Me Their Hearts (#1)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Author: Sara Wolf
Publish Date: 5th June 2018
Pages: 370
Personal Rating: 6/10
Another great and thrilling release of 2018 and above all a new series. Bring Me Their Hearts is definitely the book you’d buy just for the breath-taking cover and if not for that then definitely because of the promising Title. I mean Bring Me Their Hearts?! If that doesn’t sound like a total badass book (in combination with the blonde gorgeous on the book cover holding a wickedly looking sword) then I am at my wit’s end.
Quite honestly, the book popped up in one of the 2018 releases list and I simply couldn’t resist the book cover’s charm. The story about the ominously looking woman swinging her sword on the book cover combined with the savaging title definitely lives up to one’s expectations. Action-packed, sassy, savagely sweet, witty and thrilling. Bring Me Their Hearts is definitely one of those books you ravish in one sitting.
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.
It continues quite literally as well. If the cover, the title and the synopsis haven’t been good enough for your selective liking attitude, go for my three reasons why you should read this book and spend your money on it.
Female Badass
Sweet brutality
Dark wittiness
Please, tell me, at least these three reasons managed to change your mind from urg-what-the-hell-should-I-do-with-this-trash to hell-freaking-yes-I-wanna-read-it.
Thank you, and I’m sorry. – As sorry as a monster can be.
Bring Me Their Heart is set in a world full of sorcery, believes and inventions that keep you entertained and thrilled throughout the whole book. One strength of this book is surely the world building because it’s something you’ve never read (or should I say seen?) before and Sara Wolf definitely manages to turn on the imagination machinery that’s situated above your eyes. Whatever you read it seems so vibrant, lively and – very odd to write this – it feels as if you can grab the tension and smell the scents of the alleys of the city.
Set in this world we’re yet going to learn more and more about, is Zera, a Heartless. With a mission that could save the world and, more importantly, is the key to regain her heart, the sassy, sword-swinging girl infiltrates a world that isn’t meant for her. And let me tell you one thing, she’s hell of a powerhouse. Never backs down, stands up for herself, clever and definitely smug that makes her such a great, strong female protagonist. Among other characters she’s the reason why Bring Me Their Heart never loses its thrill and fun, and I can guarantee you there will be entertainment and out-loud laughter.
Not only provides Sara a new magical word we desperately want to move to but also does she weaves fantasy perfectly together with comedy and romance. Romance of course, guys! A YA book just wouldn’t be a YA book if it wasn’t for the dark-haired, sharp-cheekboned and mysterious dude whose voice sounds like music in our ears and has serious issues among an asshole attitude. What’s there left to say? Ah yes, he has a great name, duh.
And on the opposite side we have your future king, the Black Eagle of the West, Prince Lucien Drevenis d’Malvane!
I really enjoyed reading it and was definitely amazed by the world building. For the characters I am looking forward to a great improvement in their individually since I had the feeling the once unique and very witty personalities started to skid towards the cliché ones at the end of the book. However, I wouldn’t worry too much about the loss of well-elaborate characters because Bring Me Their Hearts is the first installment of three. So, two to go and they’ll be great! I’m sure of that.
Bring Me Their Hearts is definitely worth your time and money. Go read it!
From here on, keep reading at your own risk because there might be some major spoilers under the divider. Bye unspoilt wannabes.
Bring Me Their Hearts aka Bring Me Their Food
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my single day at the royal court, it’s that the more names someone has, the less he actually does.
All I want to do for this book review – since I’ve been raising that bundle of 370 pages to heaven and further – is to discuss the slightly questionable and odd things.
Here goes the short note what I’m going to be up to and what you have to prepare yourself for.
Whisper
Too-many-names Lucien
Meme Déjà-Vu
The ending
“You,” he hisses.
“M-me!” I exclaim, fully out of breath. “Now that the introductions are out of the way, maybe you can stop the whole being a criminal thing and return what you stole.”
Whisper. To be completely blatant, I don’t know the fuck why that non-sense of a whisper had to be introduced. He seriously served no purpose at all. My two objectives with the existence of whispery-doodle-bug. Firstly, I am really flustered about the encounter of Zera and Whisper in chapter four. It was the first and only meeting between them because afterwards – as if no-freaking-body would have guessed it – whispery-doodle-bug turned out to be – shocker – Lucien. And from then on, goodbye Whisper, till never ever again!
Secondly, please, can someone explain to me what exactly Zera finds so appealing about him? I may have missed it but it appears to be a little bit odd when she refers to Whisper as if she knows that guy and Lucien seems so different from him. I beg your pardon, it’s the same guy, bruh, and you don’t know either of them. – News flash!
Lucien letting out a frustrated breath and pulling his shirt off in one swift movement.
*sigh*Geez, he just had to do it. *head-shaking and other disapproving gestures*
The dude with the too many names. Something Eagle, Whisper-doodle-bug, Lucien, future king, Archduke of chocolate fudge and candy, Fireborn and the list goes on and on. It’s mind-blowingly long but don’t worry, no need to recite them. Lucien simply has too many fucking names and I don’t know how to pronounce his “official” name. Drevenis d’Malvane. Trust me, Google Translate, had a hard time as well, and let’s not forget about Y’shennria and all the other weird named folks.
You may ask yourself, “What the heck is her problem with that hot piece?” and I might respond, “Leaving aside the whole Whisper thing, that he has to take off his shirt for no reasonable reason, gets soft the instance Zera starts blackmailing him and is a little wimp – all good. Really, all good.” Jokes aside, I was really disappointed that Lucien lost the asshole attitude and at the end of the book he is simply a naïve dreamer who makes you shake your head – in an eye-rolling way.
On to the next topic. The so-called Meme Déjà-Vu.
ThIs iS iT, the hunger sneers. It’S fInaLLy tIme.
dO iT nOw
ThEy’LL aLL diE sCreAming iN the enD
My guess? – Sara Wolf just had too much fun with hammering onto her keypad and may or may not have been influenced by a certain meme that was going around those days. (The Spongebob meme, is something ringing inside of your head?) At some point the seriously disturbed voice of Zera’s hunger just turned hilarious and went nuts without a shadow of a doubt. Sara Wolf keeps that crazy writing up for almost one hundred pages! That’s nuts! No wonder Zera couldn’t stop herself from trying to slice up Lucien any longer.
HE MAKES YOU WEAK. BE RID OF HIM.
Major spoiler alert.
The Ending. Frankly, it wasn’t the surprise of the century that Zera didn’t manage to slice Lucien’s allegedly toned chest with the tatt and rip out his heart. Quite the shocker she didn’t even made him bleed in the slightest. My opinion on that outcome? – Not unexpected and it was kinda a buzzkill. But that’s the miracle of falling in love with a dude – though you don’t even have a heart – within few days whilst having constantly screaming hunger in your head and the sole motivation of getting your heart back. I mean… Zera! You had ONE job! Only one simple, damn job! Pierce through his heart and rip that organ out of his ribcage. He wouldn’t even Done. Simple as that. Not quite. She kills several guards without remorse and functioning brain and when it comes to Lucien she’s all, “hell nah”. But no, she stalls and the goddamn sister who’s supposed to be dead pops up from behind. What a mess.
“Is this the part where we all start stripping wantonly?” Malachite asks, utterly unaffected by the smell. “Because that’s really the only reason I’m here.”
What is your opinion on Bring Me Their Hearts?
The sequel and second installment of the Bring Me Their Hearts Series is going to be published on 4th June 2019. And we’ve got a title, Find Me Their Bones!
Read my 4-star review of Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf on Goodreads and follow me there to check out the books I've read and are on my to-do list.
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