Bring Me Their Hearts

After getting through the first several chapters, I really enjoyed this book. I'm not a fan of the cover--it makes Zera look too snarky and self-confident. She needs a little vulnerability in there somewhere, in my opinion.

Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book for me. I had a bit of a hard time getting through the first several chapters, because the main character, Zera, was a little annoying in the beginning. But soon the action picked up and Zera's attitude seemed to tone down. Then I really began to enjoy this book.
Zera is what is known as a Heartless. She was "rescued" from death three years earlier by a witch who keeps Zera's heart in a jar in her cottage hidden deep in the woods. The Heartless have several interesting characteristics, but the most important is that they cannot be killed. This makes Zera the perfect candidate to send on a dangerous mission: the witches want Zera to pose as a potential bride for the human Prince Lucien.
They want her to take his heart and bring it to the witches so they can turn him into a Heartless and use him as a bargaining chi to stave off war between the witches and humans. Zera agrees because she is offered the one thing she wants more than anything if she can take the prince's heart--her own will be restored to her.
As I mentioned earlier, Zera comes off as very sarcastic in the beginning and I was not sure if I was going to be able to root for her. Once Zera began her mission and was immersed in the court politics and society of Cavanos she seemed to soften and lost that tendency to snap at everyone. While she did not lose her edge and kept offering up smart-aleck remarks (often at the worst times), her character became less prickly and more relatable. Her attempts to earn the trust of Lucien and become the prospective bride offered by the outcast family of Y'Shennria became a journey for her to remember what it was like to be human.
The book was a bit predictable and had many YA tropes, and I could smell at least a sequel if not full-fledged trilogy coming at least half-way through the book. This did not make this a less-enjoyable read, though. Zera grew into a great character, and Lucien was a good match for her. The author also created a great cast of supporting characters, including Zera's "aunt" and Lucien's personal bodyguard. The world that was created by the author perfectly walked the line of being just developed enough for the reader to get an idea of what was going on without getting so specific and overwhelming to be boring or confusing.
I did question just a bit the author's choice to jump right in to the "meeting" of Zera and Lucien at the Spring Bride ceremony, and then going back to the more conventional beginning of the story. I don't think it really served any purpose and in my opinion the story would have been just fine moving in chronological order.
The ending was quite the cliff-hanger, but it did leave me wanting to read the next installment. I would recommend this book to fans of Fantasy, YA, and Romance.


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