A review by wuxien
Heart Fate by Robin D. Owens

1.0

I liked the story, I liked the characters, I liked the writing, the book should've had an higher rating but I just cannot get over the ending. It coloured the whole experience and my sense of fairness just plain screamed at the end.

I mean, I invested emotionally in Lahsin and, at the end, I wanted her to really kick some ass but the writer plain screwed her. Here we have an heroine that overcomes abuse - major abuse that lasted for three years and finally started to believe in herself and became strong - and what happens? She "accidentally" kills her abuser? I mean, for real, "accidentally"? She seems to be bright and quite smart all the way until her "estranged" brother wants to meet her and she goes without a qualm, never even suspecting anything? Did she suffer a lobotomy at the end? What happened there?

Another thing that annoyed me to hell and beyond - this family from where she escapes, that stood aside and were accomplices to the abuse she sustained, suffered no consequences at the end, there was no mention of anything happening to them. Also, that Taxa character continued to live and became head of the family, even though she was an active accomplice.

Other things weird and wrong in the story:
- her Family which sold her again suffered no consequences under their laws.
- There were mentions in the book that other Families knew what was happening - and in other books as well-in Heart Dance, the main character knows what's happening there yet he does nothing- and he's a main character/"hero". He and the heroine go merry in their happy ending and do nothing for a 14 years old sold in marriage - he's supposedly one of the good guys.
- The so called Judge which is supposed to be impartial does nothing to punish the two families involved in this.
- Her HeartMate aka her soulmate knew she was sold in marriage and did nothing, he just went and married another woman and convinced himself that she's ok.
- There is a ball in Heart Dance where everyone knows that something is wrong with that marriage, all 25 First Families, the strongest and the best of Celta, where some of them have been the wonderful heroes/heroines of other love stories, where they are amazingly wise and honorable yet in this book no one does anything for that poor girl.

So this book presents a society where it is legal to sell your daughter in marriage to an abuser and that's ok - one can do that again & again -and there will be no consequences to either family involved -thank God the heroine "accidentally" killed her abuser- otherwise it would have been too bad for her- there are no laws there to protect children from abuse-which is why this book represents everything that is wrong, and the reason my sense of justice woke up and said "Why are you reading this?"