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make_believer's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Medical trauma and Medical content
dododenise's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Beautiful enemies-to-lovers (or rather enemies-to-lovers-to-betrayal-to-lovers) and beautiful world that made me want to discover more. The world building was so good and I loved the magic system.
But the characters are the highlight of this book. They’re all so interesting and I was fascinated by both main characters and the side characters.
But the characters are the highlight of this book. They’re all so interesting and I was fascinated by both main characters and the side characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Confinement
cameronreads's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Funnily enough, in my review of Crier's War I said that the fact I wasn't attached to the characters brought it down to a four star. In Iron Heart, the characters were what brought it up to a four star. Our main characters lived up to my hope of developing further in this book, and I especially loved Crier. There were also some amazing new side characters (shout out to Hook and Erren, who definitely deserved more page time and were my favourite characters). I also loved the romance - it was present throughout the book without being the forefront and still being an amazing slow burn.
I did enjoy the plot, and again I really love the concept behind this duology, but it could have been done a little better and I had some issues with the pacing - I didn't really get into it until about half way through. Again, there were certain characters and side plots that definitely deserved more attention (Hook! and! Erren!). A pet peeve of mine is when massive plot moments happen off page, and this book definitely fell into that, and could have really used more POVs (Benjy or Storme for example would have been interesting and helpful to hear from).
I also really appreciated the representation, both the main sapphic relationship, but also the two side characters using they/them pronouns etc. I loved how casual it was, and that whilst Crier and Ayla's relationship was taboo it wasn't because it was an f/f romance, and I really appreciate that.
Overall, I really enjoyed this duology. It wasn't perfect, and didn't quite live up to the hype, but I had a great time reading it and would definitely recommend.
I did enjoy the plot, and again I really love the concept behind this duology, but it could have been done a little better and I had some issues with the pacing - I didn't really get into it until about half way through. Again, there were certain characters and side plots that definitely deserved more attention (Hook! and! Erren!). A pet peeve of mine is when massive plot moments happen off page, and this book definitely fell into that, and could have really used more POVs (Benjy or Storme for example would have been interesting and helpful to hear from).
I also really appreciated the representation, both the main sapphic relationship, but also the two side characters using they/them pronouns etc. I loved how casual it was, and that whilst Crier and Ayla's relationship was taboo it wasn't because it was an f/f romance, and I really appreciate that.
Overall, I really enjoyed this duology. It wasn't perfect, and didn't quite live up to the hype, but I had a great time reading it and would definitely recommend.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death and Panic attacks/disorders
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