Review: The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco

The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be released on March 20th, but I've seen people post that its already out in some stores. 

This sequel picks up where The Bone Witch left off. However, I struggled with past material. There isn't much mention of past events. A sentence or two about what the daeva look like or what they are, who some of the characters are would have been helpful. Most readers including myself read The Bone Witch over a year ago, so unless you just read it and continued onto The Heart Forger with the information fresh in your mind you'd be asking yourself who and what they are talking about. The author does not give many context clues and I found myself going back to my copy of the first book to look up information. I also struggled with the dialog, some of that was the formatting of the ARC, I can't hold that against the book because that will get fixed in editing. While the final ebook and the print copies won't have this issue, I often lost track of which character was speaking. There are alot of characters involved and the author often leaves out mention of who is talking. Overall, those complaints are very minor and I really enjoyed this. I actually liked it more than the first book. I found the first book's pace to be very slow, you can check out my review here.  The first book set up alot of the world, the magic system, and the characters, while this one gets more to the plot.  Chupeco's pacing is slower in this book as well, but that is not a bad thing.  I enjoyed the writing and the magic. 

The Heart Forger has much more action than The Bone Witch. We get most of the back story on why Tea was exiled, but we don't get all of it.  Some of the story is left for the next installment. We get enough to understand her motivations. The story is told like it was in the first book, alternating chapters between Tea's perspective in the past and the current perspective of the Bard who she's brought along to chronicle the truth of what she's doing to right the wrongs of the past. In the present, Tea along with her deava, or demon like creatures, she intends to take revenge on those who betrayed her and sent her into exile. We learn that all is not what it seems through the telling of the story. Tea is portrayed as an anti-hero through most of the Bard's scenes, and you truly believe she has given over to the dark side of her magic until the end. In the past, we see Tea as a young asha, a kind of Geisha and witch, who is impulsive and strong willed. She acts before she thinks and pays the consequences later. She is also possesses dark powers and her mentor has taken ill, which is a plot point in the story, and hasn't had much training on her powers. She is powerful and the lure of the dark calls to her and threatens to change her and turn her into something sinister.

As the story unfolds both in the past and the present, Tea is accompanied by familiar faces. She has many friends who are trying to keep her from going dark, and many enemies who would love her to join the dark. The group of asha that accompany Tea on her mission save her mentor and the mystery of the sleeping sickness that has infected the beloved Prince each have their own parts to play in Tea's story. As the group travel they uncover many political plots and fight some pretty good battles. There are plenty of twists and turns that keep you guessing. There are even some pretty good romances that develop among the group.

Overall, I think this was a great fantasy. I can't wait to see where it goes in the next book. Based on where it leaves off it is shaping up to be a fairly epic conclusion. I really think this is a great sequel and I highly recommend the series.

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