Going into this book, I didn't know a whole lot besides the fact that it was a sci-fi retelling of Anastasia. I've always been fascinated by the story of Anastasia Romanov so that was more than enough to entice me to read it, plus the purple stained pages on the Owlcrate exclusive edition I got were so gorgeous! First things first, this book was queer as FRIG and I am here for it. I didn't expect any LGBTQ+ rep in this book and was pleasantly surprised! I'll be honest though, I was unsure of how I felt about this book for a solid 80% of it, but man if that ending didn't blow me away and totally change how I felt! Wonderfully unpredictable and incredibly heart wrenching, Heart of Iron has officially stolen my heart and I am eagerly anticipating the sequel, Soul of Stars! So let's break it all down!

The Plot: Being a retelling, it's easy to fall into the trap of just retelling a story we already know in a new setting, but Ashley Poston exceeded all expectations with this story. While it does for the most part stick to the general story of Anastasia, there is so much new and unpredictable content! I thought I had the end all figured out, but it ended going in the exact OPPOSITE direction of what I thought and I loved that. Many of the character reveals in regards to the plot were wholly unexpected but added so much depth to the story. My only complaint in this regard was in the beginning of the story there was a ton of exposition regarding the stories of all the royal families that threw me off. I had to reread that couple pages a few times to truly felt that I understood the dynamics since it was so much at once.

The Writing: I think this is where I struggled the most with the book. It felt to me like it took a good half of the book for Ashley Poston to find her rhythm. With four different POV's constantly switching back and forth it was overwhelming at the start, but as each character established themselves and their own individual voice, I found myself looking forward to reading from everyone's perspective. The way loss was written in this book was so impactful and nearly brought me to tears. Once she found her stride, I was kept on my toes and blown away!

The Characters: I love Jax and Robb so much it probably isn't healthy. Now, we're not quite to the Rhy Maresh and Rhysand level of love, but we got closer than I expected! Robb develops as a character so much throughout the novel and man, he quickly became my favorite. Ana toes the line between fiesty and a five year old throwing a temper tantrum more than a few times, but never fully crosses over into the realm of an annoying main character. I'll be honest though, for the most part I was NOT on board with the D09/Ana romance. This does change, but this stems from the fact that I'm just overall not a fan of robot/human romances. Like I said, my mind is changed as the plot develops and I become a bigger fan of D09, but I started off really hating it. There is a character (that will remain unnamed as to avoid spoilers) that I wish we had more information on. We are introduced to them, but I felt like I never really learned anything about them, which is unfortunate since they play quite a large role later on in the book.

Miscellaneous Issues: I only had a few minor issues that didn't really fall into any of the above categories. The first of which was that for probably the first 75 pages, it felt like every time Jax was mentioned, so was his long silver ponytail. I got so annoyed about hearing about his hair whether he was fiddling with it or Robb was noticing it glinting in the light. I GET IT. HE'S GOT LONG SILVER HAIR. I almost wished that I could climb into the book and shave it off just to not have to hear about it again, but thankfully it is barely mentioned in the rest of the book. The only other issue was that there were a few details included that seemed significant at the time but then never went anywhere. Again, not major but just annoyed me during my read.