{ARC} Review: The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco || This cliffhanger did me dirty

The Heart Forger

The Bone Witch #2

Rin Chupeco

In The Bone Witch, Tea mastered resurrection―now she’s after revenge…

No one knows death like Tea. A bone witch who can resurrect the dead, she has the power to take life…and return it. And she is done with her self-imposed exile. Her heart is set on vengeance, and she now possesses all she needs to command the mighty daeva. With the help of these terrifying beasts, she can finally enact revenge against the royals who wronged her―and took the life of her one true love.

But there are those who plot against her, those who would use Tea’s dark power for their own nefarious ends. Because you can’t kill someone who can never die…

War is brewing among the kingdoms, and when dark magic is at play, no one is safe.

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Published: March 20th 2018

 

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Possible Spoilers For: The Bone Witch

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This… was… amazing. The diversity, LGBTQIAP+ side characters who actually further the plot and aren’t just there for looks… No, this didn’t suffer from second book syndrome. No, I’m not happy with that cliffhanger— why did you do this to me?

There’s a sleeping sickness in The Eight Kingdoms that has showed up with no origin, Tea navigates being a dark asha, and she struggles to separate what’s true as she interrogates the imprisoned Faceless, Aenah. When the Heart Forger disappears during his trip to Daanoris to examine a princess who has fallen under the sleeping sickness, Tea and Co. must find the Heart Forger… before it’s too late.

For this ARC being over 500 pages, I flew through this. It finally expands on the world building, we go to different countries to find The Heart Forger and everything was so vivid. I usually have an issue focusing on the world, but in here I got the layout of where everything was and I got a clear view of what everything looked like.

The stakes felt higher in this one and again, maybe this can be accosted to all of the travel we go through, we’re not stuck in this safe bubble and lives are on the line. And maybe there’s also the fact that the past/present narrative is starting to line up and we’re getting closer to villainous Tea… but I’m nervous.

And despite the focus on world building, we really get to see Tea straddle the line between hero and villain and how this affects the people around her. Her character development was so interesting as I still don’t know if she has crossed a line yet.

Yes, she does some brutal things, but she has a cause, a purpose. And I’m rooting for her 100% of the way. She selfish, passionate, headstrong and fully acknowledges it— not changing in anyway.

I think my favorite part of this book— besides Tea, is the relationships. Tea and her brother, her fellow asha, Kalen ❤ . Fox and Tea’s love and loyalty for each other even when they were dealing with their own issues… it was nice to see some good in Tea’s decent to darkness.

And the romance in this book took flight and captured my heart with it. I don’t say I ship things often, but guys. I SHIP IT. I AM THE #1 STAN FOR THIS SHIP. I’M HERE FOR IT. The hate-to-love, the loyalty, the steam, the devastation damn you cliffhanger I loved it a lot, okay?

 

There’s still a lot of questions as Tea’s present and past POV’s take place; her present day POV still is’t complete, but that’s what the final book is for, so it wasn’t too much of a problem.

And the Bard’s place in the story, though he does have a more prominent presence as an outsider looking in, is appreciated but kind of confusing. But this book was amazing, book three can not come sooner, I have to wait a year for the finale? WHY?!