*I received a free copy of [title] from [publisher] via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *The Heart Forger is an amazing fantasy story, and I have to say I'm surprised by how much I loved it!
Story:
I was so curious about The Heart Forger, even if I didn't fall in love with The Bone Witch, I was very curious as to what would happen in this second installment. And I was wowed! Tea has grown so much as a character, and the pace was much better. There was a lot of action, through flashbacks, and the tale the Bard told as it was shown to him by Tea. There were many surprises, and the ending left me completely out of breath! I need more, and I need it now.
In The Heart Forger, Tea lives a solitary life - surrounded by Aza and Daeva, she is a scary sight to see. She is also immensely powerful. And strong. Her inner strength is one of the things that surprised me the most, as she seemed more immature in the first book in the series. Also, now that I have read the second book, I realize that the first book needed to set up the world and the characters correctly, so I have totally forgiven it for the slower pace now.
In the flashbacks, Tea, Fox, Kalen and others are followed by dark trouble, and it seems that everywhere they go, more trouble arises. This kept me on my toes for the entire story, even through the present time, where Tea shared little tidbits with the Bard.
The intricate political system of the kingdoms, the way some rulers wanted more power than they had, and were willing to do anything to get it made for some great action scenes. And it was so good to see that Tea more often than not relied on her logic rather than on any kind of fighting skills to get herself and her cohorts out of trouble. There were still fight scenes, though, and they were good! Both between human characters, and with various creatures involved, everything happened in ways that seemed plausible to me.
Characters:
Tea is the main character still, and she has definitely grown into her role. Both as a strong bone witch, and as someone who can fight to keep people safe in the face of those who only thirst for power.
The Bard narrates part of the story, as it is told to him by Tea. And this brought a nice external view to her story.
Fox shows up in Tea's flashbacks, and his relationship to her, and to Inessa made so much more sense with more background knowledge.
Writing style :
The flashbacks are in past tense, mostly in first person from Tea's perspective. The dialogues made it easy to get to know the other characters as well, and I felt close to the action. The present time is also written in past tense, but in third person perspective, even if it is in the Bard's point of view. Also, the present time narration is in italics, and this made it very easy to know when in the story I was at.
Feels :
Excitement! Exhilaration! Need! Hope and fear were present, too, but not as much as the first three.
She wore the corpses for show. They trailed behind her, grotesque fabrics of writhing flesh and bone, spreading across the plain for miles around us.
It was not the first time I had deceived myself in this manner. Neither was this the first time I had raised King Vanor from the grave. But if I repeated that mantra enough times, I thought I could finally believe my words.