Kristine's Reviews > The Songbird & the Heart of Stone

4.5 Stars ⭐️

Wow. This series is so unbelievably different, yet so enthralling, that it is in a league of its own.

I have LOVED the first several books in this world (2 full length books and 2 novellas) so I was eager to see what this book was going to give us. In this book, we move away from Oraya and Raihn and we are now focused on Mische -who fled their court after killing a Prince of the House of Shadow, he was the vampire who turned her.

This book takes us completely into the world of the House of Shadow after Mische is captured and going to be put to death for her crime. She is about to be offered as a gift to the King of this House (in other words, the King would be given the privilege of killing her) when the unexpected happens. Asar - the bastard 2nd heir - ends up saving her by telling the court that it would be stupid to kill her when she can be of use - and what do you know...he has a use for her. And that is where the story begins.

This book is told in many different timelines. We get to learn, slowly....about Mische's life as a "Chosen" of the Sun god. The book takes us back and forth in Mische's life, starting from when she was 8 years old and selected as a "Chosen" and then also through her lifetime living in the "convent" with the other followers of this god..

While I will admit that the whole journey into the underworld was EXTREMELY confusing at times and really hard to picture (at least for me) I did have the gist of what the goals were so I was able to follow along and understand.

The other focus of the book is their journey into the Underworld - the entire reason that she was saved by Asar. He has been given a quest by his god (the god that created the vampires) and has tasked Mische and two others with joining him. Unfortunately, Mische has also been secretly tasked by her god (the Sun god) to join in this quest, but her task is completely different and not going to help in the way Asar is expecting.

Where this book excels - as with every other book in this series - is in the character development and the character growth of our main MC's. It becomes quite obvious (to everyone else but the main two) early on that Mische and Asar have some type of attraction going on. Yes, they are both two of the most stubborn people in the world when it comes to admitting it but then again, that is what created so much UST.

As always, once this book starts, I was immediately invested. I was curious, because as a reader, we are only given snippets of information as the journey unfolds. So, we were learning important information as they were descending into the "descent."

I honestly fell in love with Asar. He is a truly layered individual and I enjoyed every minute with him. *sigh*

Mische, well she took me a little longer to understand, but I finally did as we began to learn more and more about her life and I was rooting for her in the end as well.

This was not a complete story line/arc and it totally set up the next book. Yep, that is called a cliffhanger....But honestly, at this point, I would read ANYTHING by Ms. Broadbent.

I am truly looking forward to the next book in this series.....