The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. The Heart Forger is a sequel to The Bone Witch. You can find my review for The Bone Witch here. The Heart Forger picks up where The Bone Witch left off: There is a war looming over the kingdoms, and Tea wants revenge after the love of her life is taken and she is exiled. The first book, The Bone Witch, ended on a cliffhanger. I would highly recommend re-reading or skimming The Bone Witch before starting The Heart Forger if the plot is foggy for you. Tea is still an amazing character. She matured over The Bone Witch, and this book continues to show her growth. She isnt perfect, and she knows that she has made mistakes and has to come to terms with them. She has her demons, and she is strong in her belief that what she is doing is right. She is such a grey character. She could easily be a villain as she could be a hero. I love that about her. I found myself constantly wanting to know what was happening and why Tea was reacting in the violent and ruthless ways that she was. That struggle between hero and villain kept me engaged with the story. The chapters follow the same style of The Bone Witch, alternating between past and present to show how Tea ended up where she is in the modern chapters. I really appreciate learning about whats going on in that manner because the past events chapters directly correspond to whats happening in the present and shed light on why Tea is doing what shes doing. The ending in The Heart Forger, compared to The Bone Witch was much more appreciated. It wasnt a direct cliffhanger, and ended in a way that I will be okay with waiting for the next book. I highly recommend this book for those that loved The Bone Witch.

Bear with me as I struggle through this review. I am not entirely positive that I have good enough words to describe how I felt about this book. The Heart Forger is told in the same way as The Bone Witch was. There is the present day point of view of the bard who is following Tea around while she takes care of business. And then the flashback portions where Tea is telling her story to the bard. I was so enthralled by this book. I think that this one might be better than the first one. If only because it felt to me like it had more action. The story takes place over a shorter amount of time and focuses less on lessons and parties and learning the basics of being an asha. Tea has now taken over Lady Mykaela\’s job of putting down daeva because she has grown far too weak to do it herself. She can\’t even leave Odalia because the nearness to her still missing heartsglass is what is keeping her going at all. The plot of this book surrounds the Faceless going after the the direct descendants of the Five Great Heroes with their sleeping sickness. Prince Kance is the last to fall to the sleeping sickness and the old heart forger has figured out a cure, but has also mysteriously gone off the radar after going to Daanoris. So the part of this book that is Tea\’s story basically is their journey to Daanoris to find the heart forger and save Prince Kance. And the present part of this story, if you recall from the end of the last book what she was off to do, was to overthrow Daanoris. So what did I love about this book? First of all, the characters. This book definitely contains squad goals. Tea, Kalen, Fox, Zoya, Shadi, Inessa, Likh, and Khalad all go to Daanoris to find the old heart forger. I really liked this whole little group! I liked how they worked together and trusted each other. They were all just so fun to read about! I love them. I loved the romance in this book as well. I love Tea and Kalen together. This book kinda tells you where in the first book they started falling for each other and now I want to go read The Bone Witch AGAIN just so I can see if I can tell. This is a book where pretty much everyone ends up kind of paired up, but I liked all the pairings! There is an m/m pairing and also an f/f one. I need the conclusion to this series SO BADLY (I\’m assuming it\’s a trilogy??) to find out what Tea did to find herself in the situation she is in. Because whatever it is, I\’m positive that she is being framed or something because I feel like she hasn\’t done anything bad so far that wasn\’t called for or justified or somehow excusable. Ooh! I loved the azi too! I thought the connection that Tea had with it was so cool. I thought the other daeva were cool too in the bard\’s point of view, but the azi was definitely the coolest. This book is faster than the first one, it has more action, it has squad goals, it\’s got a little bit of heartbreak thrown in at the end, and this book ends in much the same way as the first one. Basically, Tea is leading her daeva on to another kingdom that she\’s got beef with and we still don\’t know what happened to Kalen. I would definitely recommend this series if you\’re looking for books with necromancy, politics, magic, and did I mention SQUAD GOALS?!

WOW! I did not realize how amazing this book was going to be! It really amped up the action from book 1! Things I loved: -Tea is a ferocious MC, bursting with love and loyalty for her companions, love so strong she will literally do the impossible to shield them all from the evils of the world. She brings my black heart such joy. -Tea\’s love life. All I can say is FI-NA-LLY!!! -Fox\’s love life. ADORBS. Zombie-love goals. I can\’t. -Khalad is the book\’s MVP, because even when everyone is all against Tea, all Khalad has to do is bat those pretty eyes, and everyone just concedes. -Lihk was the most demure and shy and adorable Lady ever and every moment of Lihk was *chef\’s kiss* -All the daeva scampering around Tea like gigantic puppies needing cuddles and treats <3 -All the crazy double crossing that I totally did not anticipate and OMG I\’m reeling! Things I did not like: -Yo, why you gotta do my girl Mykkie like that? -Kance, like, WTH bro? -Okay, I really didn\’t have anything to dislike about this book, this is all pure lies, and my heart screaming in pain I give this book 9 and a half stars. Leave me be, I need a moment to recuperate before starting Shadowglass…

The Heart Forger picks up where The Bone Witch ends and leads us on more of Tea\’s current, and past, path. There are so many thing\’s that we thought to be true in \”The Bone Witch\” that we find aren\’t what they appeared to be. This book is full of more beauty and ugliness set in this masterful world Rin has created for us. These first two books have put me through so many intense emotions that I know that I\’m not yet ready to face the final book. Although this is only the 2nd book of Rin\’s I\’ve ever read…I can honestly say she\’s one of my favorite author\’s and I can\’t wait to meet the other world\’s she created in her other books.

The pace in this book has definitely picked up, highlighting for me that Bone Witch is a set up / world building book and Heart forger is jam packed full of plot, romance and twists and turns (that I *GASP* did not see coming!!). Some questions from the first book are answered but of course more are raised! One of this series big bonuses is the amazing settings, filled with various Asian inspirations, which is refreshing in a sea of Medieval Europe Fantasy books. Its the same format as before with the main story as flashbacks with chapter dividers back to the present with tea talking to the Bard. I love these ominous flashforwards with the Bard, I want to know what happened, who died, why why why?! I really think they help build the anticipation and intrigue. The characters are fantastic buts its the various relationships that really stand out, I love the sibling dynamic between Fox and Tea, the sort-of forbidden love between Fox and Inessa, Tea and Kalens slow burn romance, Likhs crush, finding out about Khalans relationship with his father Omg all the feels! Also THANK YOU Rin Chupeco for showing characters can just have crushes on other characters (and getting over them) without having to get together, declaring undying love etc etc Nit picky points to attempt to give a balanced review: Im still a little confused with how the magic system/heart glasses works and I wish that the author had chosen names for 3 of the main male characters that were slightly more distinctive than Kance, Kalen and Khalad, oh and I could really do with sketches of the Daeva and Im struggling to remember them except for 3 head dragon and toad like one! Overall I loved this book and just torn between wanting to binge the third book right this minute and wanting to delay finishing this series too quickly! Im not sure this review does this book justice,its difficult to say why but I loved it, I can agree with comments that the first book may have been a bit slow because of all the background/world building going on (I didnt have a problem with it) but this book had none of that . P.S I dont usually read acknowledgments but Rin thanks Idris Elba (because hes perfection) and now I love her twice as much!!!

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