Reviews with content warning for Gore - Iron Heart

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Iron Heart by Nina Varela

14 reviews

josb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Series 4*
This was everything I hoped would be bundled into Criers War. It really redeemed the series for me.

At the end of book 1 I did not ship the two mains at all, but Varela turned it around and actually sold me on it. There was a lot more attention to the emotional growth between the two mains and there was no miscommunication/no communication trope in this one. I was relieved to actually watch Crier and Ayla have a conversation, sure there was a big reliance on subtext and reading between the lines but both characters were able to put it together without excessive angst.

The writing also improved since the first book, I found that it was easier to understand what was going on despite reading Crier's War over a year ago.

There was one part about 100ish pages near the end that seemed to slow down unnecessarily. But overall an almost perfect effort that completely flipped my perception and enjoyment of the series.

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some_random_person_hi's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is so YA Fantasy, in all the good and not so good ways. This includes being full of tropes and this book is packed to the brim with tropes.

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chubbypug21's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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cinnamonandpancakes's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

It took me a while to read this, though this is more a reflection of how busy I am at the moment and less of the quality of the story. Once I finally managed to pick it up for a decent length of time, I devoured it.

Ayla's journey towards accepting her feelings was so good and I loved how Varela didn't shy away from describing the physical desire Ayla and Crier have for each other. A lot of f/f books seem to shy away from that so it was really satisfying to read this (and the previous book).

I'm especially pleased that this book managed to knock down all the dominos of the last book without feeling too neat. Open endings are my favourite, so this was very satisfying to read.

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