Will Rhonwyn free her heart and her people, or become the pawn of the most dangerous man ever seen?When her skill at a complex strategy game gives her a way into the palace, Rhonwyn becomes the eyes and ears of the Resistance.She’s there to help bring down the evil King Risick – the man who seized control and forced her people into his mines. The man who killed Rhonwyn’s father before her eyes, … Rhonwyn’s father before her eyes, breaking her heart and fracturing her sanity.
Everything changes when she meets a vibrant man who’s also trapped in the palace. Rhonwyn’s not so alone now and her soul begins to heal. But his dangerous secret forces Rhonwyn to choose between the freedom of her people and the love she’s finally found.
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“Susan Holt’s new release had me hooked from the first page. A perfect read for those who want to dip their toes into fantasy and be transported to another world, one that is both familiar and mysterious, with complexities of character, place and possibilities that’ll have you craving a sequel before you’re even half way through.” VANESSA EVETTS, author of Out of the Ashes
“More twists and turns than a game of Gymbal, and you won’t see them coming.” PHILIPPA WERRY, author of The Telegram
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Book Review by Pauline Reid The Heart Casts No Shadow by Susan Holt
Genre – Fantasy/Sci Fiction/Mystery/Romance/Dystopian/YA
First of all I would like to thank Susan Holt for gifting me her book in exchange for an honest review. Susan Holt is a New Zealand author, who lives in Porirua, Wellington, Wellington being New Zealand’s capital city. Susan Holts writing is very visual – like a movie.
The world building in The Heart Casts No Shadow, is phenomenal. Susan was inspired by a building she showed me on Facebook, here is the link
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1374805889374697&id=100005358964222
Shown was the audience hall, Mysore Palace, India. The colours of the inside of that palace are amazing, especially the lime coloured green, the rose round celings with the golden twirls were so magical, it certainly made my reading experience so much special. The Palace itself was just out of this world, with its domed topped red roofs, with a grass floor that made the Palace stand out more.
Now getting back to the actual book itself. I loved how this was set in a different time, for example the characters say, I’m 20 summers, instead of saying, I’m 20 years old. Their greetings were different too, instead of saying hello, or good morning, it seemed to be … “well met” and the reply being “Peace to you”.
Susan Holt is an expert at holding you in captivity, slowly enticing with bits and pieces, nudging here, a teaser there, all the while you are trying to figure out what was coming up next, no luck, Susan appears to twist these plots with very surprising results.
I enjoyed the character, Rhonwyn, who doesn’t know what a clock is and is kept up most of the night by something I can’t mention and I felt so sorry for the character, Kymra, who was having a real bad time, at the start she was fine, Rhonwyn and Kymra used to giggle like two hyenas and then just like that Kymra is as sad as a door mouse, you could tell her energy flagged, but why? We as readers are left wondering throughout the whole book.
Quote I enjoyed
Rhonwyn pulled it open. A jumble of objects lay inside: a pair of scissors, more papyrus sheets, a ball of string, and a screwed-up piece of papyrus shoved into the back right corner. Rhonwyn picked up the crumpled papyrus. Something made it heavier than she expected. Her breathing became shallow as she unwrapped it.
Rating System
5 Stars
Recommendation
This book is highly entertaining and comes highly recommended by me and will suit anyone interested in fantasy fiction, dystopian, science fiction (although not too heavily so) who likes alot of suspense, twists and turns, who likes romance and young adult genre and finally anyone who likes strong female characters.
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The Heart Casts No Shadow is in a genre that I do not typically read, but I thought I’d branch out a little bit, and try some dystopian/fantasy. Though I still can’t say that I am a big fan of this genre, I did surprisingly enjoy this book.
The mystery and suspense was spot on, and I was actually surprised by certain plot twists, which was quite enjoyable. I do feel like it did start to get a little repetitive, which really drew out the story, when I felt like it could’ve been shortened a bit and still had the same effect.
I did finish this book feeling strange, mostly due to the paranormal aspect, which like I said before is something I’m really not into, but luckily the author didn’t go into too much detail as far as that goes, and that helped a lot. What I really enjoyed was the characters, especially Kymra, who I could totally identify with. The writing is also wonderful, transporting the reader into an incredible new world that I was surprised to enjoy as much as I did.
I’m so glad I took a chance on The Heart Casts No Shadow and, even though this genre is still not a favorite of mine, Susan Holt did an amazing job of opening up a new world to me, full of complex characters, and page-turning suspense.
*I have voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book which I received from the author. All views and opinions are completely honest, and my own.