This was a sequel I had high hopes for. As I adored The Isles of the Gods. And was way too excited and nervous to know how it would all end. I was lucky to trade for an early copy of this book and am so glad that I was able to read it early. As I loved it. Five stars for me. It was a most exciting final book in a great duology.
I'm going to try my best not to spoil this second book. And also not write way too much this time. Ha. I always fail at that. The writing was, again, stunning. And I love the world that this book is set in. Mostly I loved reading more about Selly and Leander and them figuring out their story and how they will survive it all.
I loved that we got to see more of all of the characters. Though, honestly, I wanted most to just read about Selly and Leander, ha. But I did like them all. And their stories were so interesting. This book is more about the gods. Leander is now the messenger of Barrica. She wants him to create a door for her to enter the world again. And Laskia is the same for Macean. The two gods want to return to start a war. Which would end up with so, so many dead. And that is mostly what this is about. Selly and Leander does not want this war to come. While pretty much everyone else around them wants it. I did find it a little boring at times, with too much focus on the gods and the war part. I wanted more characters, more romance, more exciting times, haha. But I did like the plot as well. But I also honestly loved Selly and Leander most of all.
And we do get a whole lot of Selly and Leander in this book. We get to see their romance finally happen, after they spent all of the previous book being obviously in love. And this romance was all kinds of cute. Sigh. I do wish it had been a little bit more, yet I adored it so much. They were the cutest together. And they are bound together in a different way too, which I liked learning more about. But honestly, just them being together was enough. And they spent pretty much the whole book being close together. I loved it.
There is so much going on with the plot of this sequel. I'm not going to mention too much about it. But a little. They have just returned from the Isles of the Gods. With Leander now being a messenger for their goddess, Barrica. He is not himself. And I loved how Selly had to bring him out again. I did like reading about his new powers. I wish he had gotten to actually use them more, though. And missed seeing more of the magic of book one. But I loved how close Selly and Leander had to be in this one. It was the best.
I'm not going to say much more about the plot. Selly and Leander is trying to figure out how to survive. As other messengers in the past did not live long. They do not accept that Leander might die. I loved all that they learned. The good and bad. I loved how they were connected, even with the pain. I loved how Selly would do anything for him. Their romance was the cutest and it just healed my heart how very much they cared for each other. Sigh. No drama in this book, thankfully. But yeah. The plot was exciting and good.
There was a lot of Laskia in this book. What happened to her once she became the new messenger of Macean. Which was no easy thing for her. As she is in constant pain. Different from Leander, since she was not a magician. But she had a strong will. Although she was all kinds of crazy. And hurt a bunch of people. Yet I kind of liked her too. Somewhat. I liked her ending, at least. We see her sister, Ruby, more as well. And I honestly hated her. More than Laskia. She was not a nice sister at all. Hmph. So very rude.
We got to see more of Jude. While I did not fully love him, I did somewhat like him. He took part in some bad things in book one. But he did not actually kill someone. The book starts with his mother dying, while he was not there. Which breaks him even more. We get to see more of his boyfriend, Tom. And he was truly the cutest man. I adored them together and wanted to see more of him. But Jude is conflicted. He does not want to serve Laskia anymore. But he isn't sure what else he should do. I liked reading all of it.
We also see more of Keegan. Although, I must confess, I found his chapters to be most boring. Oops. I love him, of course I do. But more as a side character. I do love that he was a bookworm. That he loved reading. We get to meet his fiancée, Kiki. Whom he ran away from. And she was the actual cutest. I liked her. Wish we had gotten to know her a little more. But she was fun and kind and sweet. I wish they could have been together, but Keegan was not meant to be with anyone, which I also found to be a good thing.
There were only a couple of things I did not fully like about this book. First there is the cover. I'm not a big fan of it, ack. Or of the first book. They are pretty, yes, but they are not that good. Possibly because of the face closeups. Would have liked them more, if there had been more than just a face to see. Anyway. This second book was more telling than showing. And that annoyed me a bit. So little was actually happening. There was a little too much thinking for my taste, haha. But I obviously did not mind that much, of course.
For the most part, The Heart of the World was an excellent second and final book. I loved the ending a whole lot. How it ended for all of the characters, how we got to see them all. But I do wish it had been a little longer. I wish there had been a bit more of the romance. And a bit more of the world too. But I also found this book to be so good and interesting and I honestly loved it. I liked how everything fit together. I loved the characters. And I'm so happy to have read this wonderful duology. Now you must read this too.
