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cozysabie 's review for:
A Harvest of Hearts
by Andrea Eames
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"We are amazingly adaptable, it turns out. We have all the jars of hearts that the king took in a big shed behind our house, and we work daily to see if there is a way to return them fully to their owners across the kingdom."
GENRE: Cottagecore fantasy
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25/5
FORMAT: eBook Arc from netgalley
Would I recommend to others?: YESS! You legit get to go on two different adventures in this cottagecore fantasy and the ending is so beautiful!
Long Review:
Okay where do I start? Where do I stop? A Harvest of Hearts is advertised as whimsical and unforgetttable and I have to agree with that. I quite enjoyed it, I related to Foss so much and I think this book had enough of "cottagecore fantasy" elements with a little bit of romantasy in it that it was a perfect balance.
A Harvest of Hearts in summary is about Foss Butcher and how she gets snagged by a magic user. Foss Butcher is from a world where there are magic users (13 to be exact) that take bits of people's hearts and use the magic to keep their villages and city floating and the world moving forward.
Foss goes off as a average, plain. looking girl (or as she describes herself: Ugly). This does not seem to be just linked to physical looks but more to the fact that (view spoiler)
However, Foss, no matter how unspecial she thinks she is, gets snagged by a Sorcerer, Sylvester. Sylvester is the only sorcerer amongst the other, more famous sorceress and when Foss is snagged, it comes like an illness, in which she cannot remain so far away from him. Due to this, she makes her adventure to the city and becomes the housekeeper of his enchanted house and meets a talking cat.
We then go on an adventure with Foss, Sylvester, the talking cat and the magical house. Once sylvester starts to get to know Foss, and she learns more about him. She learns that he is the only male sorcerer because the others have failed. She learns he does not enjoy harvesting hearts and did not mean to snag her. She also learns that there is no way to undo the snagging and then we see their relationship begin to build:
"My mind was in a muddle. He had harvested a heart, but not mine. He had refused to harvest mine, in fact. He had left me but cast a spell to protect me while he was gone, as best as he could. And when he found I had left the house, he had created a thousand plates to smash."
The main issue in here is that Foss has no way to knowing which part of her feelings for Slyvester are real and which arent due to being snagged. She knew she would sacrifice a lot to be around him and to do whatever he wants, only due to the fact that she was snagged. And so the adventures continue, we see their relationship build for each other and Foss gets entwined in the magical world.
And about half way through the story, we are going on a second adventure. It definitely feels like the first half was a medium paced adventure and one that is needed to get to know the characters so well. The second half of the book is an adventure to right all the wrongs and to get Foss back where she needs to be.
Foss has been and will always be about survival throughout the book and her & Sylvester make it out of the margins of the city and discover the life outside that the king has spent years telling them he is protecting them against.
Perhaps the people here didn't have the kind of power the king and the magic workers wielded, but that seemed like a fair trade to me in exchange for a life without fear. It looked to be. a good life."
Foss learns why her heart is so unique and different from others as well and it is during these moments that she and Sylvester can finally explore their relationship as she is safe from his snagged magic when they finally flourish and we see them at the next stage of their relationship:
"We had been bound together for weeks now, the sorcerer and I, closer than any two sweethearts before. Who else could say that their beloved had their heart and really, truly mean it? A piece of my heart had lived in him, somehow, and had changed him. And he had changed me."
The ending of A Harvest of Hearts was SO satisfying, ending in a way that gave every character their appropriate ending and allowed them to build a new foundation and village again. I'd recommend this book for anyone looking to go on an adventure that has a little of magic, romance and cottagecore fantasy!
Thank you to NetGalley for the eArc copy in exchange for my honest review.