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A review by ariel937
A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane
4.0
this was, like, REALLY really good. this is a really gritty, powerful, and wonderfully told romance that it a sloooow burn. like up there with mariana zapata except with like...hella fantasy and gore lol. and while i don't normally talk about trigger warnings, i will say this has a LOT in here, and you can find a full list of them here: http://millavane.com/books/content-warning/ as someone who is comfortable reading most things, it didn't bother me and actually made this world even more interesting. i really commend milla vane for creating this super complex and detailed world - you can really feel the love and care she has for this series.
honestly, the reason why this is a 4 star books and not 5 is that i felt kind of...stupid reading this book, lol. i'd say i was confused and skimmed about a fifth of it. while i found the politics and world SUPER fascinating, i couldn't retain a lot of it and i felt slightly overwhelmed by it all - especially if i set it down for a few days and had to just go along with whatever was happening bc i couldn't remember it all lmao. this isn't a fault of the author at all, but if you're like me and don't read a lot of hard fantasy (is this hard fantasy?? idk but it felt like it lol. maybe medium fantasy?) then be prepared to be just a little bit confused for most of the journey. (and that's probably why it took me so long to read this.) the writing was also a little much sometimes - this is a *barbarian* fantasy romance, so some of the language can be expected but i couldn't keep myself from laughing at some of the, um, words chosen for the sex scenes. but y'know. horny warriors and such.
BUT the relationship between yvenne and maddek really made it worth it. yvenne especially is such a wonderful and strong character. not that maddek wasn't, but i was always kind of bored when it came to his chapters and every time i found out something new about yvenne, she grew to be even more interesting. i'd honestly read a whole series about these two, and i'm kinda bummed this is one of those series where each book is a different relationship lol. i'm not that interested in the sequel, but might read it anyways because even though the overarching plot of the series was difficult to follow, it was super interesting and i want to see what will happen next!
honestly, the reason why this is a 4 star books and not 5 is that i felt kind of...stupid reading this book, lol. i'd say i was confused and skimmed about a fifth of it. while i found the politics and world SUPER fascinating, i couldn't retain a lot of it and i felt slightly overwhelmed by it all - especially if i set it down for a few days and had to just go along with whatever was happening bc i couldn't remember it all lmao. this isn't a fault of the author at all, but if you're like me and don't read a lot of hard fantasy (is this hard fantasy?? idk but it felt like it lol. maybe medium fantasy?) then be prepared to be just a little bit confused for most of the journey. (and that's probably why it took me so long to read this.) the writing was also a little much sometimes - this is a *barbarian* fantasy romance, so some of the language can be expected but i couldn't keep myself from laughing at some of the, um, words chosen for the sex scenes. but y'know. horny warriors and such.
BUT the relationship between yvenne and maddek really made it worth it. yvenne especially is such a wonderful and strong character. not that maddek wasn't, but i was always kind of bored when it came to his chapters and every time i found out something new about yvenne, she grew to be even more interesting. i'd honestly read a whole series about these two, and i'm kinda bummed this is one of those series where each book is a different relationship lol. i'm not that interested in the sequel, but might read it anyways because even though the overarching plot of the series was difficult to follow, it was super interesting and i want to see what will happen next!