anne
Written on Jun 1, 2021
In the sequel to New York Times bestselling A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer returns to the world of Emberfall in a lush fantasy where friends become foes and love blooms in the darkest of places.
Find the heir, win the crown.
The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers.
Win the crown, save the kingdom.
Grey may be the heir, but he doesn't want anyone to know his secret. On the run since he destroyed Lilith, he has no desire to challenge Rhen--until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother's violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall?
The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.
- ISBN10 1681195119
- ISBN13 9781681195117
- Publish Date 7 January 2020
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Bloomsbury YA
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 464
- Language English
Reviews
alisoninbookland
Written on Feb 29, 2020
I felt an instant connection when I first read A Curse So Dark and Lonely. Heart-eyes were made and a bond was forged. While I ultimately enjoyed A Heart So Fierce and Broken, I didn’t feel that love and instant connection.
The biggest thing that threw me off was we were dealing with ‘new’ characters. Okay, technically one new character and Grey. In Curse, Grey was the surly guardsman of my dreams. I did enjoy getting to know him more and feeling his pain. I almost preferred the mystery from the previous book.
Lia Mara started off as weak point but like Harper grew into her own. I always enjoy story arcs that follow a character who grows on their own terms. Lia Mara was never going to be ruthless like her mother or sister. They might have seen that as a negative but it was anything but that. She finds strength in doing things her way.
The cliffhanger that we pick up with was a dozy. Kemmerer certainly knows how to build the tension and continually raise the stakes.
Rhen kind of took a dive off the deep end. I’m not sure if it was insecurity or fear but his relentless actions after he figured out Grey felt so out of place. Doesn’t a lifetime of service and loyalty earn someone a bit of leeway and the right to share their story without being attacked?
The story was enjoyable but I didn’t adore it like I was hoping to. I can’t wait for the final installment.
Kat @ Novels & Waffles
Written on Feb 19, 2020
A Heart So Fierce and Broken took my expectations, set them on fire, and then danced around them like a drunken lunatic under a full moon. It overturned all that is usually associated with the second novel in a YA trilogy, and instead fed its readers an emotional story about finding yourself and overcoming fear.
WHAT I LIKED:
🤭 It's Unconventional and Surprising! This was not the sequel I was expecting, and while it threw me for a loop at first, I ultimately came to appreciate the daring and stereotype-smashing choices that Kemmerer made here. A Curse So Dark and Lonely was not your average Beauty and the Beast retelling, and A Heart So Fierce and Broken continues to plow forward in that same unique storytelling vein. As somebody who highly values ingenuity in literature, I found the unexpected narrative direction to be one of the largest selling points of the novel, though I'm sure it will be just the opposite for some readers.
💭The Emotional Complexity! Poorly-written fictional characters can have, as Hermione Granger once put it, "the emotional range of a teaspoon." The opposite is true here; Grey, Rhen, Harper, and Lia Mara have such a vast emotional range, I sometimes struggled to understand them and their complex motivations. Kemmerer doesn't shy away from digging deep into the dark recesses of her characters' psyches, and what she unearths there is both humanizing and horrifying. More than anything, A Heart So Fierce and Broken is an exploration of how the events of the first book mentally affected the characters, and largely focuses on their respective emotional journeys. This brings a messy rawness to the story that I found beautifully refreshing and all too realistic.
🏃💨The Pacing! In the "Acknowledgements Section" of this book, the author admits that A Heart So Fierce and Broken is her eleventh published novel, and it shows. Kemmerer knows exactly where to place all the right story beats, and moves the plot forward in a flawlessly engaging way. The last third had me gripping the sides of my eReader so hard, I was in danger of snapping it clean in half. I JUST HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!
👥 The Supporting Cast! In video games, NPCs are bland, non-playable characters who just stand around twiddling their thumbs. They do nothing but act as plot devices. Sometimes, a book's minor characters can feel like NPCs; bland, flat, and included in the story merely as a way to check off all the necessary boxes. NOT IN THIS BOOK, FOLKS. I loved each character (both new and returning) with a heart so fierce it nearly broke me. They were well-fleshed out, lovable to a fault, and endearingly flawed in a way that made me just want to wrap them all up in a big, breath-stealing hug. (Yes, even Iisak with his flesh-ripping claws.)
WHAT I LIKED...LESS:
👑 The Character Arcs! In A Curse So Dark and Lonely, I met, fell in love with, and basically would sacrifice my left pinky toe for both Rhen and Harper (though why they would be in dire need of my left pinky toe is an utter mystery). In any case, they were undoubtably the heart and soul of the first Cursebreakers installment. But their character development in this book was...perplexing. To say the least. I'm interested to see where the series finale will take us, especially when it comes to Rhen, who continued to be as much a beast as he ever was.
🌎 The World-building! The author doesn't spend much time fleshing out the cultures or histories of Emberfall and Syhl Shallow. Nor does she present the reader with a uniquely structured magic system, choosing instead to stick to basic and superficial explanations. This book is not high fantasy, but it knows it and doesn't pretend to be.
vagasker
Written on Feb 18, 2020
Emma (SCR)
Written on Feb 12, 2020
The last book was told almost exclusively from the POV of Rhen and Harper. This book is told mostly from the POV of Grey and Lia Maria. In the first book, I loved Rhen. I loved him so damn much but his fears, his fears, they just take over. It makes him very difficult to like.
Grey and Lia are fantastic characters. Both grow so much throughout this book. Grey goes from loyal Guardsman to the rightful heir. But he does it so reluctantly and naturally that it doesn't feel like a betrayal. Lia has always been strong and a natural leader but she doesn't realise it. Her sister has been chosen as the heir and that's the end of it for her.
It was clear from early on how this story was going to progress. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the journey very much. I also enjoyed the whole host of side characters that we got to meet.
I am not very excited for book 3 which cannot come soon enough!
girlinthepages
Written on Feb 9, 2020
I enjoyed this book much more than it's predecessor. It's not that I disliked A Curse So Dark and Lonely, but I was ultimately underwhelmed and didn't love the romance between Harper and Rhen. This book, however focuses on my (and many other's) favorite characters of the series, Captain Grey who's on the run and trying to hide his identity after the events of the previous novel. The other main POV character is surprisingly Lia Mara, one of the daughters of the Karis Luran who tried to overthrow Emberfall in the first book. These two unlikely narrators wove together a story that captured my emotions and my empathy much more than its predecessor.
First off, who doesn't love Grey? He has the compassion and loyalty that Rhen quite frankly lacks, and he is always focused on doing anything he can to protect his friend and monarch (even fleeing his castle and position in the guard when he realizes that his existence is a threat to Rhen's claim to the throne). He's OK living a modest life of modest means and just keeping to himself, until Rhen sends his soldiers to scour the country looking for him, in typical spoiled, ungrateful Rhen fashion.
Meanwhile, Lia Mara is the oldest daughter of Karis Luran, however she is too compassionate and bookish to be her heir of Syl Shallow- that title is bestowed on her little sister. Yet instead of being intense rivals, Lia Mara and her sister are the closest of friends and admire the different traits and qualities that they each possess. Through Lia Mara's character, we see a different side to the events that happened in Emberfall, and see Syl Shallow as a successful kingdom that loves and respects their queen.
Through a series of events (which I won't go into too much detail about to avoid spoilers!) Grey and Lia Mara end up traveling together along with an unlikely band of heroes that ends up turning into a mini court of sorts: Tycho, a young stable boy who worked with Grey when he was undercover, Harper's brother and his boyfriend who are sick of Rhen's shenanigans, and Iisak (a magical creature from an entirely different kingdom). They became a sort of rag-tag group that learns to trust and depend on each other for survival, a common trope in YA fantasy but one that I nevertheless feel was executed well in this story. They all eventually end up backing Grey and his claim to the Emberfall throne, reluctant as he may be to take it.
I really enjoyed seeing both Grey and Lia Mara, two very humble, loyal people, both struggle with their royal destinies and come to grasp their power on their own terms and in their own time. Grey, who's spent much of his life in service to Rhen, slowly starts to realize that Rhen's desperation to keep control of his kingdom is leading him to make poor, violent choices and maybe, just maybe Grey could be a better leader (which IMO he obviously would, and we all know Rhen is not going to let Grey live since he is the rightful heir and Grey doesn't want to die and who can blame him?) Lia Mara, on the other hand, is willing to support her mother's wishes and expectations whole- heartedly, even giving up Grey to her sister despite her feelings for him, until her mother crosses the line of daring to hurt those she cares most about. Grey and Lia Mara are both deeply caring and principled leaders and I am so excited to see them claim their thrones in the next book.
I think one of things I most enjoyed about A Heart So Fierce and Broken is that it turned a LOT of what happened in A Curse So Dark and Lonely on its head. We come out of the first book thinking Rhen is the "hero" for defeating the curse finally with Harper's help and if the protagonist can love him, it must mean he's redeemable, right? Yet in this second installment, we come to slowly realize that Rhen may actually in fact be the villain of the series in some ways and perhaps he didn't learn as much as we assumed at the end of book one from his time being cursed. A Heart So Fierce and Broken really challenges a lot of the takeaways from the typical YA fantasy genre and I really appreciated that during my reading experience!
Overall: A Heart So Fierce and Broken was a engaging and improved installment in the Cursebreakers series that offers new POV characters who are easy to root for. I'm really excited to see the direction the next book in the series takes!
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
blackbibliophile
Written on Feb 6, 2020
This one took me a while to finish because the first 5-6 chapters were not what I was expecting. With it being a sequel, I was anticipating the continuation of the waltz of Rhen/Harper and when it wasn't......I slowed down.....actually, I came to a complete stop. Thank goodness I picked it back up and finished because it was AH.MAZE.ING. The character development of Grey from hardened soldier to.....something else, was a treat to experience. We didn't hear much from Harper but it honestly didn't take away from the story. Lia Mara's quiet strength wasn't as bold as Harper's however, she was a force to be reckoned with on her own.
And guess who's back?!?! #boom!
I'm ready for #3.
alindstadtcorbeax
Written on Feb 5, 2020
I had such disdain for this at the beginning... but A Heart so Fierce & Broken was FANTASTIC.
I am so... so many things right now. My feelings are all over the place... sigh.
I feel awful for certain characters, though, my goodness. So very sad. A huge surprise as well. Ay yiy yiy.
Cannot wait until book 3!
___________________
WTF, Brigid Kemmerer?!
Kelly
Written on Jan 12, 2020
Grey is cloaked by the unswept streets of Rillisk under an alias, posing as a stablehand for a local charlatan. Revelations surrounding the mysterious magesmith and heir have inflamed disloyalty within the kingdom, Rhen's reign is being challenged by his constitutes and believing that Grey is aware of the identity of the heir, is determined to return his once friend and guard commander back to Emberfall. To appease her kingdom, Karis Luran must secure a secure trade route through any means necessary. Aware the Washington alliance is a farce, Karis Luran begins preparing her forces to conquer Emberfall.
Pursued by the royal guard, captured and held within the Ironrose castle, Grey discovers a young woman being held as leverage. Lia Mara is the eldest daughter of Karis Luran, a ruthless woman and Queen of Syhl Shallow. Lia Mara is a peacemaker, defying her mother and appealing to Emberfall for unity between the two kingdoms when she is captured and accused of espionage. Lia Mara is quiet young woman, intelligent and compassionate and although with aspirations of becoming Queen, her sister is appointed as heir to the Syhl Shallow throne.
Escaping Ironrose with barely his life, Lia Mara and Grey journey to Syhl Shallow, the first Princess offering refuge and protection on behalf of her mother and kingdom. Ruthless and calculating, Karis Luran believes Grey is the heir and offers to secure his place on the throne in exchange for an alliance, offering her daughter Nolla Verin's hand in marriage. Selflessly, Lia Mara disregards her blossoming attraction to Grey and encourages her sister to pursue the legitimate Emberfall heir. Nolla Verin is an interesting character. The youngest daughter of Karis Luran and heir to the throne, Lia Mara and sister Nolla Verin are contrasting siblings, Nolla Verin is seemingly cutthroat and unforgiving but beneath the impassive facade lies a young girl desperately seeking her the approval of her mother.
Grey is a character who endears readers, his quiet and gentle temperament a contrast to his position as Commander of the royal guard. To ensure the preservation of Rhen reigning over Emberfall, Grey abandoned his country, his friend and the girl who held his affections. On the journey from Ironrose to Syhl Shallow, Grey and Lia Mara's tentative companionship blossomed, sharing the vision of a unified country of affluence and harmony. Grey is enchanted by his travelling companion, Lia Mara's resilience and ferocity surprising the former Commander, himself who endured season after season of the curse that befell his beloved Emberfall. A beautifully tender romance.
Rhen is monstrous. Refusing a mutual treaty with Karis Luran, Rhen imprisons Lia Mara and mercilessly orders violent assaults against those who oppose him. Harper enables his violent behaviour, exonerating him of responsibility. I'm reserving judgement and eagerly awaiting the finale installment of this spectacular series.
Enchanting and atmospheric, A Heart So Fierce and Broken is a beautifully written and compelling installment.
That epilogue.
Dead.
cornerfolds
Written on May 29, 2019
*Review to come!*