Title: A Heart So Fierce and Broken
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
Series: Cursebreaker #2
Previous Reviews: A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Format: Edelweiss eARC

I’ve been sitting here trying to think of how to word this, but I’m not going to lie so I’ll just approach this like ripping off a Band-Aid: I didn’t love it.

Considering the fact that I absolutely devoured A Curse So Dark and Lonely and ended up absolutely loving it, I had high hopes for this book and was so looking forward to it. In the end, it just wasn’t what I had hoped for. There’s nothing worse than highly anticipating a book and having it fall flat, but there you have it.

A Heart So Fierce and Broken expands the fantasy world introduced in the first book to add new creatures, conflicts, and an exciting glimpse at magic, with some more sinister overtones of war and rebellion.

I was excited when I realized this was going to be Grey’s book, but I suppose I didn’t realize quite what that would mean. Turns out, I don’t like Grey nearly as much as I thought I did in the first book. That was probably my biggest disappointment.

This review will contain spoilers for the first book, A Curse So Dark and Lonely.

❧ The world is bigger than you think, and this book really expands the borders and the conflict, even introducing a new species named scravers.

In particular, this book introduces a scraver named Iisak, and he was a lovely addition to the cast. Scravers are a race that also has magic, so that’s interesting and fun. Iisak doesn’t have just magic, but also an attitude, and I do so love that in characters. I thought he brought an interesting dynamic, and while there’s not much I can go into about him without giving away anything spoilerish, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how his role grows and changes in the third book.

The focus of this book, though, isn’t just on Emberfell, but here, we journey both through Emberfell, meet some minor characters, learn some more background, and get a sense that the world is bigger than the first book lets on, which I love. Yes, please, give me more of this gorgeous world to explore.

❧ Speaking of magic … there’s magic! Huzzah!

All this talk of magesmiths and secret heirs in the first book got me excited, and it does pay off here. We get a little taste of just how magic works and the different types of things it can do, which I quite appreciated. The world is expanded a bit in this book, and it makes me really eager to see what the third book will bring. It’s already hinting at even bigger and better magic, and I am all in for that!

❧ Noah and Jacob play a bigger role in this book, and I sort of love their addition to the cast.

I mean, I don’t love that they were just ditched in Emberfall and Grey apparently has absolutely no concern or guilt or barely even any thought about how he ripped them from their world against their will and stranded them there, even though it would’ve taken him two seconds to bring them back. But sure, I guess that’s cool because Grey is still the good guy in this.

Anywho, I love that they’re thriving in this book. Oh, and thriving they are. They’re taking this little Medieval world and teaching it a thing or two about medicine. They’ve made the best out of a bad situation and they’re killing it. No pun intended. Jake, in particular, really comes into his own in this book, and I enjoyed the little arc he takes that allows him to find himself.

❧ I will forever and always love books that display sibling love, and there’s some pretty strong sisterly vibes here.

Despite being so vastly different, it’s obvious that Lia Mara and Nolla Verin care for each other. There are some really touching scenes, as they struggle not only with their affection for each other, but what their future roles will mean to that, as Lia Mara is cast aside and Nolla Verin becomes their mother’s heir.

That being said, it’s not all love and roses between them, so this maybe isn’t the quintessential sisterly love story … but I’m going to give them credit for some of the touching scenes, just the same.

❧ Where the first book was Harper and Rhen’s story, this one is clearly Grey and Lia Mara’s. And whether that’s good or bad is really going to depend on how you feel about these characters.

I fell in love with Harper from the moment she wielded a tire iron at her kidnappers, okay? I clearly don’t have her same reservations over falling in love. I also really liked Grey, and I was super excited that this story would be more about him. I’m a sucker for the quiet, super stoic, loyal guy. What can I say? I mean, who wouldn’t be? 

But Lia Mara? Lia Mara is a wet blanket. Her character only exists to contradict the brutality of her mother and sister. I found her point of view bland and boring and a bit of a one-note Nancy. I don’t know who this Nancy is or why she only has one note, but still. We should start a Kickstarter to get Nancy more notes. Lia Mara spends the whole book in self-deprecation mode, and it just got really old after a while.

As much as I enjoyed Grey in the first one and I was interested to learn more about him … I was wrong. There wasn’t enough personality there to keep me interested, and since the majority of the book is from Grey and Lia Mara’s points of views, it was a little bit of a slog to read. There just wasn’t enough depth and nuance to their personalities for an interesting sequel to me. The entire thing was a constant tirade of, I don’t want to be king. I don’t want to be queen. Well, good. I want neither of these things for you two, as well, so we’re in agreement.

❧ This book ends on a hella strong note that has me dying to read the third book already.

The only real problem with it? You have to slog through 450 pages scratching your head and wondering why the characters are behaving the way they do before you get any sort of answer, and that answer essentially undermines the majority of the book.

Do I love the fact that the ending comes out of left field and was so dark and unexpected that I ended up shouting, “Oh snap,” and earning myself funny looks from my family? Yes, of course. Who wouldn’t? It’s the sort of high note I wish every book ended on that wraps up this episode, yet has you eager for more. But I felt like it was almost too out of left field and came a little too late to save this book for me, personally.

❧ Rhen and Harper barely appear in this book, and when they do grace the pages, they’re barely recognizable compared to their first-book counterparts.

Rhen is distant, obsessed, callous, and vicious. I definitely understand the need for some of his choices (because ruling a kingdom is hard, yo), but he’s obviously become the villain, and that narrative is pushed hard. It’s only been a couple of months since the last book ended, but already, his character has done a massive 180. Rhen didn’t need to be the villain in order for Grey to be the hero. This is explained eventually in the book, but the explanation just makes me hate the other characters more. I’m 100% Team Rhen at this point.

The book reeeeally pushes this narrative of what a monster Rhen has become, with very little to actually support it, while atrocities are committed elsewhere and just … forgiven or glossed over or defended for … reasons. Which really just made me hate all these characters.

I’m not saying I support everything Rhen does in this book … because I don’t. All I’m saying is that if you’re going to condemn one person for doing X, you should condemn everyone else that does X, and that just doesn’t happen here. Which means that as it got further and further along in the book and I’m beaten over the head with how horrible Rhen is, I’m annoyingly gesturing to this path of dead bodies behind other characters that’s just glossed over and not made a big deal of … and now all I can think is how hypocritical these characters are and I’m mad. Especially since I feel the need to defend Rhen and I shouldn’t have to because that’s not my job.

And as for Harper? She shows up in a few scenes, but mostly, she just sort of lives in the background, alternating between supporting her man and crying over his decisions. For a character who had so much strength and gumption in the first book? This was a huge disappointment for me. Harper deserves better.

❧ Lia Mara is the new Harper of this book, except she’s the dollar store knockoff version.

The parallel was a bit too obvious, and where I was quick to fall in love with Harper, I will not be fooled, you hear me? You can’t just take the same personality and slap a different name on it and expect me to fall head over heels. *pouts*

I should have liked Lia Mara. I do, in some aspects. But her personality and arc are too similar to Harper, to the point where she felt like a cheap knock-off rather than her own character with her own strengths and draws.

But also, here’s my big problem with Lia: she immediately condemns Rhen as evil and vile for silly, nonsensical reasons, but is constantly making excuses for and sticking up for her mother and sister, despite knowing that what they’re doing is wrong. With absolutely no thought of hypocrisy and no consideration that her mother might just, in fact, be evil.

Her arc also felt really cheap and unearned. Harper’s arc was brilliant, as she struggled with a chronic condition that is often seen as a weakness and she refuses to let it be, as she realizes she’s not helpless. Lia’s struggle? She’s not mean enough. It’s presented in her first point of view chapter. She’s constantly portrayed as “different” because she’s not slender and as feminine and as ruthless as her mother and sister, and her niceness is a weakness, but … let’s be real here. We all know where this is going. Her entire arc was so painfully obvious from the minute I met her that it was really hard to just enjoy the journey, because there were pretty much no surprises.

❧ The romance felt so cheap and unearned that I just couldn’t really appreciate it.

Listen, regardless of whether you liked Rhen and Harper or not, you can’t admit that their romance wasn’t at least earned. Heck, by the end of the first book, Harper even said, well, I might love you, but … we’ll see. That’s brilliant. That’s honest. That’s sort of how love (not infatuation) works, especially in a situation like that. I absolutely freaking loved that outcome.

The romance in A Heart So Fierce and Broken, though, was obvious from the first chapters. I saw it coming from a mile away, and there was never really any doubt in my mind that it would happen. The barriers to them getting together were mostly non-existent.

❧ Rhen is the villain in this. Not Karis Luran and Syhl Shallow. Not any number of obvious and rational creations that could be spawned from such a world. Rhen. And he deserved better than this.

Reading the blurb for the book, I had an inkling that this would be the case, given that the blurb focuses on Grey and Lia Mara working against Rhen. I hoped I had just misunderstood it. I apparently did not.

Listen, running a kingdom is hard. This is where reading books about other worlds is also hard. Does Rhen do a lot of messed up things? Sure. I feel like we can all agree, looking from our worldly perspective, that yeah, he done messed up. But were the things he did necessary? Ehhhh. Arguably, possibly? Even approaching this from a strategist’s perceptive, can I think of a better way to save his kingdom, given what he knew and the situation he was facing? Not particularly.

Unfortunately, apparently, everyone else can, because the whole book is filled with a lot of Rhen is evil and wrong, but no suggestions on what he should be doing. Just … not whatever it is he’s doing. I loved his arc in A Curse So Dark and Lonely, and the way he placed his people above everything, the way he was gentle yet fierce, stoic yet vulnerable. But apparently, it only takes a handful of months for things to go sideways and he becomes a big, massive jerkface.

❧ Listen. Telling me a character is XYZ trait isn’t enough. It needs to be shown. This book felt like it suffered from a lack of showing what characters were like and instead just tells me how I’m supposed to perceive them.

But I’m a rebel, and you can’t tell me anything. Just ask my mother.

You can’t tell me someone is super observant and cunning and resourceful and then have them miss obvious signs that I pick up. I’m nobody. I didn’t even realize my brother-in-law came home the other day until I accidentally bumped into him, and he’d been home for half an hour. I shouldn’t figure out stuff before the smart, observant characters, okay? Otherwise, they’re not all that observant. Sorry, that’s just how it is.

You also can’t tell me how cunning a character is and have them do really stupid things all the time. Maybe it’s just me, but cunning and naive are two traits that are at odds with one another, so if you constantly tell me how cunning a character is and they do really silly, naive things … I’m gonna stop believing you.

If you read this book, what did you think about it? Have you read the first one yet? If not, what are you waiting for?! Shoo. Go read it.