3.73 AVERAGE

dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mandy_cakes's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 55%

Boring. Spicy spicy but weak story and little to no character development 
dark emotional funny tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No

โ€œ๐–๐ก๐ฒ ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐ ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ž๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ, ๐ก๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐œ๐ข๐๐š๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐š๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ž ๐›๐จ๐ฒ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐ž๐ง ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐œ๐š๐ง ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ?โ€

I love when a book catches me by surprise and Bride of Brutal Hearts did just that.

There is a lot to love within these pages - 
๐ŸฉธCheeky FMC
๐ŸฉธUnhinged MMC
๐ŸฉธEndometriosis rep 
๐ŸฉธUnique magic system

The magic system was probably one of my favorite things about this story. I really loved the rune magic and how it was incorporated. 

Although this is a why choose romance, I really preferred Jules to Luc. And at times I felt like the why choose was actually more for Jules (with Luc and Nessa) rather than for Nessa (with Jules and Luc). 

Iโ€™m often critical of books being overly long - and this one definitely couldโ€™ve cut down on the page count a bit - but for how long it was, I never felt like it lost my attention. The smut was a bit cyclical at one point, but it didnโ€™t stop the momentum of the story imo. 

Iโ€™m definitely looking forward to continuing this series. 
dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The cliffhanger is a killer with this book and I wish I had found it after the second book is out. I will admit the plot stalled after about 40-50% of the book, and basically went strictly to spice. I love a good spicy book, but I guess I was expecting more plot mixed in since the book was over 700 pages. I hope that book 2 gives some resolution without disappointment, because this cliffhanger was built up a lot.
dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Humhum I have a conflict with this book, the idea in general is good, but I think the story got stuck with the spice and I feel like couldn't go further, let's hope the part II develops more efficiently.  

Giving it a 2 bc I liked the first 40-50%. 

๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

That was a lot of pages, 760, only for no plot to really happen. The main character is still in the same situation just slightly different with no real world influence from her actions. Things would have happened anyway, and she doesnโ€™t impact or even witness any of it. The book loving heroine never picks up a book, she only thinks about books occasionally, and learned applicable political knowledge through one historic romance (fiction)??? The morally grey MMCโ€™s donโ€™t actually fall for her. She doesnโ€™t have any development, the smut was fun but everything seemed like set up for the next sex scene. The world building was cool in the first 20% but never continues to build anything, it feels like it stalled out.