A Heart of Blood and Ashes

Wow. I’m still trying to work through the book hangover on this one.

Heart of Blood and Ashes is brilliant. It’s barbarian romance (is that a new genre?), with a sexy, alpha hero working through his feelings of revenge, and an intelligent heroine who must rely on her wits to outage him and the brutal father she wants to overthrow.

Yvenne is one of my favourite heroines of all time. With a shattered knee and several lost fingers, she’s come from a tragic background. Locked away by her father for her entire life, as the family throne passes through the matrilineal bloodline, nobody even knows of her existence. But given a hint of freedom, she takes every chance to overthrow her father.

Marriage to Maddek will bring her that vengeance. But he blames her for the death of her parents and—warning—the start of their romance is very rocky. Epic grovel scene ahead.

I honestly couldn’t put this book down.The writing is beautiful—and thoughtful—and the characters are compelling. Definitely an author to watch!

Maddek is driven by revenge against those who murdered his parents, the beloved queen and king. He’s a strong, brooding warrior and has no qualms about fighting for his people and his land. But Maddek’s hatred and disgust towards Zhalen runs deep as Zhalen is a corrupt and selfish ruler of Syssian. Though Maddek believes the whole family line to be rotten to the core, he marries Zhalen’s daughter.

“But there is a daughter. An heir with moonstone eyes. It was she who sent the letter that brought your parents to their end.”

Yvenne, Zhalen’s daughter, is believed to have had a hand in the demise of Maddek’s father and mother, so Maddek does not trust her, and for a good portion of the story sees her as only a way for him to seek his revenge.

“As soon as Zhalen’s daughter was within his grasp, he would make her pay for her treachery. Vengeance would be his.”

At the 50% mark in the novel, Maddek’s thoughts and actions were very tedious and back and forth. One moment, he was having a hard time trusting Yvenne, then the next, he feels bad for not trusting her, only to say an hour later that he doesn’t trust her again and she’s just a vessel to get his revenge and plant his seed (his words not mine). Meanwhile, poor Yvenne has endured a lot but remains resilient and strong regardless of her weak state. She’s a fierce queen whose loyal to her people and she never stops showing readers these qualities.

The secondary characters and their relationships were intriguing and added a aspect to the story that I found captivating. Also, I really liked the world-building. This novel had a great premise and storyline but the romance was lacking and the chemistry unbelievable, you know, when they finally reach that level of intimacy.

A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane was that perfect clash of Vikings meets Game of Thrones. Though it was slow to me and the romance was not what I expected, I enjoyed the overall world that Milla has created. So, I do recommend giving this one a try. Who knows, it might just turn out to be a favorite of yours and then you can call me crazy 😉

After the Destroyer came and decimated the Western realms, its people had no choice but to form a tentative alliance against him. Now, decades later and growing a bit complacent, some of the Kingdoms have begun garnering for more power within the alliance.

Maddek, who has been away defending their boundaries against invasion, returns at the news of his parents’ deaths. Framed as an execution for wrongdoings, Maddek knows this to be a lie and that his parents were really murdered. Unfortunately, the alliance prevents Maddek from being able to openly retaliate, so he does the next best thing.

Maddek decides to take to wife the daughter of the King responsible for his parents’ deaths. Using her as a tool to gain power to the traitor’s Kingdom. Turns out, Yvenne is okay with this because she wants to see the downfall of her tyrant father just as much, if not more, than Maddek, but she also isn’t going to sit meekly by while Maddek’s plans take fruition. Challenging each other every step of the way, they’ll both need to discover what it takes to rule a Kingdom or die trying.

A Heart of Blood and Ashes marks the return of Milla Vane (aka Meljean Brook). There was no way I was not going to read this book. Many might remember the short story in the Night Shift anthology. If not, or if you haven’t read it yet, it’s not a problem. A Heart of Blood and Ashes takes on a whole new set of characters, although it is set in the same world.

This is a long, almost circuitous story that builds upon the world and mythology with each pass of the circle. Adding new information as we go. I enjoyed every word. It’s, at times, brutal, violent, tense, sexy, tangled and myriad other descriptors.

Mainly focusing on Maddek and Yvenne two opposites coming together with the same goal: to usurp her father King to thwart off the trouble he’s causing with his bid for more power and—more simply—revenge. I liked that in order to accomplish their goals they each much adopt the other’s strengths. Yvenne, a woman kept locked away for most of her life, must gain physical strength. She already possesses strength of mind and character, but she needs to learn to utilize her body’s capabilities however they present themselves. Probably most importantly, though, Maddek needs to learn how to really lead, how to rule, and one thing that Yvenne has done in all her years locked away is observe and learn. She knows what the people want, what they need, so she teaches Maddek about caring for a Kingdom with equal parts ruthlessness and compassion.

The story goes round-and-round reinforcing these edicts, building upon them and in the process, building upon the relationship between Maddek and Yvenne. Even though they are allies of a sort doesn’t mean they are not also enemies….at least at the beginning. Slowly they let their respective guards down and realize that they can have so much more than an alliance, they can be partners they can love each other, they can build something sold. It’s beautifully developed with such care, and a suspension of vulnerability on both their parts.

If you can’t tell, I loved this book. I want to spend a week just reading in this world, I want the next book NOW! While Maddek and Yvenne’s personal conflict is contained within Blood and Ashes, the return of the Destroyer is on the horizon and I think it’s fair to say that overarching storyline will impact how the series proceeds. And, luckily, it seems like we won’t have long to wait for the second book.

This book is bloody and sexy, and I loved it. Multiple nights in a row I stayed up far past a reasonable hour because I could not stop following Yvenne and Maddek’s journey. The world is brutal, but the love is still tender. I cannot wait to read every other book by this author. Fan for life.

Great and fast-paced romantic fantasy.

I’ve been putting this book off for a while since fantasy romance is a genre that can be tough for me to read. But towards the end of 2020, I made it a goal to push through fantasy romance reads. And it has remained a goal for the new year in 2021. A lot of my fellow bookish friends loved this one and despite my hot and cold feelings towards Maddek, I truly enjoyed this one.

I will say that Yvenne totally stole the show for me, I loved her character so much. The first few chapters were a little slow to get into, but that’s where a bulk of the world-building begins. But once Yvenne and Maddek, that’s when the story picks up and you’re just eager to get through every chapter.

Slow burn romance hasn’t been something that I’ve gravitated towards lately, but I just needed to know what would come of these two. Yvenne is a survivor and such a strong heroine, it felt like every time you get through any of her chapters, you feel the impact of what she’s been through. And send all the glares to Maddek because he simply doesn’t understand.

Maddek … I have a love/hate relationship with him. He was quite the rollercoaster with sooooo many ups and downs. Although I understood a bit about why he was the way he was towards Yvenne, I was just surprised by how long he kept it up. We’d make progress and then he’d say something to set it all back.

This book was a bit longer than it should have been but really thought this was a decent start to this series.

This book presents an entertaining medieval world that is capable of magic, has god/goddess involvement, and is full of barbarians. As readers we see first hand how lies and assumptions can guide ones mind and actions. We see how those assumptions evolve into truths and lead to the development of a true relationship rather than one of convenience.

I really enjoyed this book and thought the author did an excellent job of transporting readers to a new world filled with mystical creatures and beings.

I REALLY loved this book. It’s an epic read that I found really hard to put down.

Firstly, the genre. Epic steamy fantasy romance is a tiny niche, and I don’t understand why we don’t have more of it. Vane does some extraordinary world-building and at one point you have an ah-ha moment about all the reptiles running around…

Yvette is an awesome heroine. She provides the political machinations that I love so much in epic fantasy. The distinction between being a king in name and a king in truth is beautifully done.

Maddek is a warrior first and foremost. Our introduction to him is that he’s been mostly celibate, waiting for his chosen bride. And that holds true throughout the book; Maddek doesn’t understand women. He quickly sees the value in Yvette though.

The steam. WHOA NELLY. The book is super steamy, and in the beginning it’s reluctant, but also not full out PIV until the very end.

Favorite line:

“There are enemies, and there are monsters. Always slay the monsters first, because enemies may one day become allies – but monsters never will.”

I can’t wait to read the rest of the series, which it looks like the are standalone reads.

Oh man. I have feelings. I’m not a huge fantasy fan and almost never read it. Then one of my favorite podcasts, Fated Mates, announced they were doing a read of it and I thought why not. And there went my weekend. I got sucked in almost right away. This is an epic story of Maddek and Yvenne. Maddek is the son of king and queen of Parsathe and learns that his parents met an untimely death. Yvenne is to blame. Yvenne is a secret daughter of the ruler of Syssia and is sent off to marry another ruler to form alliances when Maddek intercepts her carriage and kidnaps her.

The world building and descriptions in this book are faultless. Vane is a master storyteller for sure. She blends adventure, family, friendship and romance and keeps you turning the pages. I was on the edge of my seat at several points and truly wasn’t sure how it would end until the very last few pages. Nothing is held back in the description of both gore and sex in this book, so be forewarned if you are squeamish or one to blush. The fact that she goes full throttle in her writing is what really builds the scenes and keeps you fully engaged.

This books is a solid 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for me. I truly did not think I would be a fan of this type of book but Vane has somehow pulled off what I thought impossible. I already have the next in the series on my TBR list.

I throughly enjoyed this book, though I will say, there are not actually any Dragons as I had assumed from the series title, but let’s just remember what assuming makes me, lol.

The story, the world building, the romance, the emotions…they are all there! If you like high-fantasy reads this should be on the top of your list. Why on,y 4 stars you ask then? Well, this one’s a little difficult because I don’t know if I should allow it to affect my rating and perhaps after a few hours post reading I may change my mind, but it simply co es down to the world being SO big, so full of differing peoples and characters that I could never gain a clear grasp of who the people’s all were or the true scope of the world. That could just simply be a first in a new series problem. High Fantasy first books are notorious for being info dumps and while Milla Vane does a great job, it’s just so much and there are so many pieces that have to fit together it becomes over done while not truly giving me a clear view of what I’m seeing. It’s much like seeing it from atop a wall a great distance away.

I was also often thrown off by the names of animals, some are animals we know and have/had in the ‘real word’ and some are completely made of species. It threw me off to have characters talking about a new to me species and then all the sudden someone talks about mammoth furs, lol.

So all in all this is a great book and I am highly anticipating the next in the series.