"Bring Me Their Hearts" by Sara Wolf | Book Review

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 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.

OH. MY. GOSH. Look at that cover! It's so freakin' gorgeous! I am obsessed with that smirk on Zera's face and also her dress.

My feelings about the cover aside, I was really conflicted about the story. On one hand, the premise is so cool and I love the idea of the witches, Heartless, and magic. It's a really fabulous idea for a twisted fairy tale and I certainly got some twisted fairy tale vibes from this. But it wasn't quite as badass as I had hoped it would be.

Everything starts off so cool and I love the world building that Sara Wolf puts in about the purges and government corruption. Plus the cool scientific advances, even if they're basic and the world is still has major medieval era vibes. I love worlds where science and magic are both present.

However, once the romance between Zera and Lucien starts to develop is where I lost some interest. The closer they got, the more I felt like she turned more into a meek lovestruck girl that she totally would have mocked in the beginning of the book.

Why don't female characters get to stay strong and fall in love? Ugh, I'm so over this.

I do have hope that she'll become more interesting again in the sequel.

While this book fizzled out at the end for me, I feel like there were little nuggets of plot that could be so cool in the next book. Like the fact that the d'Malvanes are a witch family but they haven't had a witch in a while or that I feel like I got some queer vibes from Fione. Plus, that twist at the end!

If you hate cliffhangers and big plot twists, stay away. Because this book ends on the mother of all surprise cliffhangers! It shocked me, but I'm also the worst at predicting plot twists so maybe other people guessed what would happen.

While I'm a little on the fence about this book, I do plan on reading the sequel partially because I'm curious about what happens next and also because I think it could be a good series.

Rating: 3