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Synopsis:

Zera is a Heartless – the immortal, unageing soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly.

Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a Prince’s heart in exchange for her own, with one addendum; if she’s discovered infiltrating the court, Nightsinger will destroy her heart rather than see her tortured by the witch-hating nobles.

Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him – every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his darkly handsome side. No one can challenge him – until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, carefree, and out for his blood. The Prince’s honor has him quickly aiming for her throat.

So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all.

Winner takes the loser’s heart.

Literally.

 
I want nothing more than to stay in this moment, my hand in his. But that’s an impossibility. A weakness. I am a monster, and he’s a human. I want his heart, and I want his other heart. His affection, his blood. I want it all.
But if I take one, I can’t have the other.

Ahhh what a conundrum. This book was just…silly. I’m sorry, but a story that obviously was in capable hands of being well-written (it was, but it wasn’t) was so repetitive and confused in it’s tone that I couldn’t fall head over heels for it-even though it contained everything I love in a fantasy.

Was this a fantasy, though? I guess it was…It just felt more paranormal to me, and I am NOT a fan of paranormal-at least, not anymore. There’s just something so tacky, to me, about it. But, I don’t want to start off on the negative-let’s talk about what worked here. For one, Prince Lucien. He was, in full truth, the reason I pushed (And I do mean, pushed) through to the end and didn’t DNF. And I, like, never DNF a book.

He just had some of the most tortuous moments, the most endearing personality, even though I think he fell too quick and too easily, in my opinion. I mean, he starts off so guarded and then begins flirting with her awfully easy. But that’s neither here nor there, because he was literally the shining light of this identity crisis of a book. I’ll admit that I was drawn in by the perilous edge to it all, but it fell short in tone and what it was trying to be.

Right here, right now, even if it hurts—I can pretend to be perfect, human, free. Whole.

One minute they are all bantering and laughing and joking with JLA type conversations, then the next, someone is dead or being killed. It’s just so effing weird. And I know this happens in real life but-like-what? She and he would be dancing, then there’s a stampede, a little girl is being trampled, and her eye being torn from its socket. Again-what?

They can belittle me, they can mock me, they can tear me apart. But they can’t kill me. Only my own mistakes can do that.
Only I can do that.

One minute the prince doesn’t trust her-yet his bodyguard sure seems to like her???-and then he meets her in the streets and they are buddy buddy because of a hidden secret. But, again, I implore-how could a crown prince, after years of these types of marriage hand-offs, be so easily fooled by a pretty face, someone trying to kill him?

It was so easy a week ago. But now he has a face. Now he has a story. Now he stands here, looking at me as if I’m the greatest mystery in the world, his eyes both sad and hungry—starving for something he’s never known the name of.
Challenge. An equal. A friend. He’s starving for it all.
Starving for me.

And yes, I’ll admit it, the end was pretty good-but also it made me laugh. And it made me mad, the things she said to him, even though it was legit and I normally love it. It made me flinch and, frankly, hate her a little, in that moment. I just-he was my favorite person in this story and for him to be hurt in any way-it stings and it really rubbed me the wrong way- even though, again, I eat that up normally.

I suppose the biggest problem with this story, for me, stems from her monster. I think it literally killed this book. She’ll be falling for the prince (duh) and then it’s like KILL HIM RIP HIS FLESH FROM HIS BONES and it just does. Not. Fit. It’s on every other page. And how many times does she have to reiterate:

But I am a heartless, and this is my job.
But soon, he will be dead by my hand
He doesn’t know it’s his last night
I am a monster
He doesn’t understand the monster lurking beneath

And so on and so forth and what have you. Legit-You hear this All. The. Time. And it makes me so sad because subtlety would have made this so beyond epic I wouldn’t be able to stand it. If she had reiterated less. If the Prince wouldn’t have fallen so easy (though, it wasn’t insta-love in any fashion). If her monster would have (I’m sorry, I swore not to cuss anymore in reviews but) STFU. Do you understand how chilling it could have been if the monster appeared every once in a while, just creepily lurking under the surface, us all knowing it’s laying in wait? And if she would have-maybe-mentioned twice that she had a job to do instead of every other page? This book would have truly been excellent-well, aside from the identity crisis. But, honestly, getting rid of the monster inside her would have cleaned up the silliness a bit.

I don’t know. I really don’t. The villain was actually great-very evil, indeed. Though, I’ll say this, too (view spoiler)[ he [the villian] murmurs, at some point, that she’s not afraid to die because she stands in front of some citizens and all of a sudden he knows she’s heartless (hide spoiler)]???? I’m sorry-LOTS of people would do this and it’s silly that that struck a chord in him-It’s called having a heart, buddy. Oh. Wait. Lmao. Whatever. Pun not intended but it’s well-received, I think.

I am no flower to be ravaged at your whim, angry wolf—I am your hunter, bow cocked and ready. I am a Heartless, one of the creatures your people fled from in terror thirty years ago.
I let the smallest, hungriest smirk of mine loose on him.
If you were smart, you’d start running, too.

Every other character was so overly dramatized that it became unbelievable and comical. I liked the guard, and he was good intended comic relief, but too trusting in my opinion. Prince Lucien was the best character overall, but I feel like he deserved to be a part of literally any other book in the world because this one was kind of a stinker, our main character annoyed the crap out of me ( I really liked her sometimes, but joke joke joke joke joke and they started to become reminiscent of my all time least favorite- Oh holy alien babies), and the girl that helps them? My LORD she is so overly dramatic I wanted to punch her every time she entered the book.

So, all in all this wasn’t a win for me. I had just gotten surgery and I felt tired ALL THE TIME, especially when I picked this up. Which could be a side effect but…how in the world did I finish Outlander all bright-eyed and bushy tailed? Seems fishy, to me. And it just had so much potential…wasted. And yet..I gave it a 3. Welp…2 would really suffice BUT… that end was JUST good enough to rope me in (DAMN YOU, PERIL I AM A SLAVE TO THEE) besides that twist that was predictable and eyeroll worthy and Prince Lucien deserves my support. Ha-whadya guna do??

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My God why? Just…no. This was…cringeworthy, at best.

BUT. I will read the next-I mean…Prince Lucien.

RTC.

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