In the land of Barracks, the economy thrives on the barter of their citizens’ most precious commodity—a human heart. Each year, the Heart Reign festival is thrown for those who have become of age to trade their heart for their deepest desires. And this year is Adelaide Tye’s year to trade.After despising Heart Reign for years, Addie endures her Extraction and discovers that her heart isn’t gray … isn’t gray and dying, like all other hearts in Barracks, but bright red, alive, and teeming with power.
With a warning from the extractor of hearts, Addie rushes through Heart Reign to make her choice—trade her heart to Schism, the monster who took her brother years before, or go in search of the Mender—a mythical man said to purify hearts and save her own heart. Either decision will rip her away from the one man who has always been by her side.
Knowing there is only one real choice to make, Addie jumps through Schism’s red door and is thrust into a dark and dangerous realm where she is faced with making a trade she may not survive.
For fans of Stephanie Garber’s Caraval and ABC’s Once Upon a Time.
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What a beautifully written book.. I absolutely loved going on Addie’s journeys with her through this story. This story was an amazing read! Can’t Wait to dive into HeartBreaker!
I loved the nearly lyrical quality of writing in this book. It’s beautiful. It’s clear, concise, and paints a fantastic picture of a bleak world where people trade their hearts for the thing they think they want most. Our courageous heroine, Addie, has spent the past seven years isolated, fearful, and waiting for the chance to enter her own Heart Reign in hopes of finding something precious she lost. When it’s time for her heart extraction, things are not as she expects and she finds herself on a quest.
The journey takes Addie through several doors where trials and Evil await. As does the Mender.
I loved the allegory portrayed in this book. It’s deep, relatable and done well.
I would have liked to have seen more interaction with some of the side characters. I understand why Addie needed to be solitary for a chunk of the book, and she does interact with other characters, personally, I just would have preferred more.
Overall, a lovely read that I’d recommend.
“Love is a gift, isn’t it?…Something that can’t be traded or pawned away. it is never earned, only given and received” This book is a gift.
HEARTMENDER is a fantasy story that moves so fast in and around the story, I read it breathlessly racing along as fast as the main character did. I am very surprised that this is the author’s first book, it is so well written. I was also surprised by the “author’s note” at the end. It kind of changed the whole “feel” of the book for me. It is certainly an interesting twist.
“Knowledge is but true belief”
I absolutely recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.
Adelaide Tye is of age to trade her heart for what she most desires, so she is attending Heart Reign. But it isn’t the first time she’s been. She was there seven years ago when Schism took her brother Lyle, and her plans are clear. This year, she will do whatever she can to find her brother and rescue him from a fate worse than any that could come. But taking on this frightening and harrowing journey means leaving behind her grandmother and Silas, the only man who ever cared about her besides her brother. Still, if she doesn’t beat Schism, it could have untold consequences in not only her life but the lives of everyone she knows.
As she is led through her adventure by the choices she makes, she meets a woman who is as stuck in the void as she is, a man who knows there’s more to his life than the path he’s chosen, and the chance to meet a mythical man called the Mender. The experiences she goes through teach her more about her living heart and what she is willing to sacrifice for others.
This is not the story I expected. It was so much more. I could see the immediate correlations between Adelaide’s actions and those who believe in Jesus Christ, along with the truth of what that belief means to someone who is willing to go forward, fight against the things that tend to draw us from the path, and what Christ does for us all in the end. It was frightening and beautiful, a tale of the war between good and evil and our parts in the fight. In a word, it was wonderful. And I look forward to reading more of Adelaide’s adventures with her new friends.