Winner Takes the Loser’s Heart

Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf

Publication Date: June 5, 2018

Summary from NetGalley:

Zera is a Heartless—the immortal, unaging soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly.

Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a prince’s heart in exchange for her own, with one addendum: if she’s discovered infiltrating the court, Nightsinger will destroy Zera’s heart rather than see her tortured by the witch-hating nobles.

Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him—every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his darkly handsome side. No one can challenge him—until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, carefree, and out for his blood. The prince’s honor has him quickly aiming for her throat.

So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all.

Winner takes the loser’s heart.

Literally.

ARC provided by Entangled:Teen via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

If you like a light fantasy with a snarky female lead, who literally has no heart, but is capable of falling in love, then you will enjoy this.  I liked it, for the most part.  I did find it a little predictable and the romance moved a bit fast, but it was fun and I really was wondering up until the end whether or not Zera would take the Prince’s heart. 

Zera was an interesting young lady.  The whole concept of a Heartless was something that kept me interested in the story.  Her attitude and opinions are definitely shaped by what she is.  I loved some of her comebacks and comments throughout the story.  Some of her inner dialogue was interesting as well, especially when she was fighting the monster within herself.  

I liked the Prince as well.  Although his character was typical of this type of story, he was still likable and I could see why he would fall for someone like Zera.  He does want to make things better for his subjects and will work against the evil Archduke Gavik for them.  His body guard Malachite was probably my favorite character though.  He was just so irreverent and wouldn’t let either Lucien or Zera get away with much.  

There was also a nice blend of the magical and the scientific in this world.  The polymaths inventions both help life and destroy it.  In fact, there are lots of contradictions between life and death in this book.  The pace of the story was ok, there were some lags in the middle, but the descriptions of the food and gowns was sumptuous and added to the story.  The last 50 or so pages were well done, and like I said before, I could not predict whether or not Zera was going to go through with her mission.  Although not a complete surprise there is quite the cliffhanger at the end.  If you struggle with those you might want to wait till the next book comes out before reading this one. 

A solid fantasy with a feisty and strong female voice.