A Heart So Fierce and Broken (The Cursebreaker Series) Hardcover – January 7, 2020

Another 5-star rating for this amazing series. I love a well done re-telling. And Beauty & the Beast is one of my all-time favorite stories.Sequel to A Curse So Dark and Lonely, A Heart so Fierce and Broken follows the journey of Grey and Lia Mara.This second installment of the Cursebreakers series was unexpectedly amazing. I'm so glad this book did not, in my opinion, suffer from the dreaded middle-book trap.Knowing that we would no longer have Rhen and Harper's POV (except the prologue and epilogue), I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this book. I loved Rhen so much, and respected him for the hard choices he made during his curse. He may not have always made what we, as the outside reader, would have deemed as the best choice, but he has always done what he thought was right to protect his country and Harper. Losing his POV, and later seeing the choices he made against the missing heir/Grey as an outside POV, really hurt. I wish we could have known the turmoil he was struggling with internally and what was going on at Ironrose while Grey was regrouping in Syhl Shallow.But it all came together in the end. I love Lia Mara as much as I love Harper. And the epilogue from Rhen answered so many questions while also making me cry and scream for the final installment to be released ASAP!The following is a summary and review which will contain spoilers. Continue reading at your own risk.We learned at the end of ACSDAL that Grey is the lost heir to Emberfall and a half-blood magesmith. AHSFAB follows Grey as he goes from being in hiding from Rhen's guards looking for the lost heir and magesmith, to a reluctant Prince seeking an alliance and ending a war with Syhl Shallow while just trying to reunite his country.Tycho is a young man (about 15 years old) who starts out indebted to the same person that Grey works for. Grey trains Tycho to fight while he's in hiding, and eventually shares his secret about being the missing heir to Emberfall. Tycho follows Grey to Ironrose Castle, and is later used by Rhen as a pawn to try to force Grey to tell him what he knows about the heir. Although Tycho is young, and has no blood ties to Grey, he becomes fiercely loyal and the first person to swear fealty to Grey as the true ruler of Emberfall.We also meet Princess Lia Mara of Syhl Shallow. She had become a political hostage by Rhen, but met a captured Grey during an escape attempt. Together, they escape Emberfall and retreat to Syhl Shallow to find sanctuary and an alliance for Emberfall. Lia Mara is the eldest daughter of Queen Karis Luran, however she is not the named heir of her mother's crown. Lia Mara is brave, fierce and believes in peace over violence. Over the course of their travels together, Lia Mara and Grey begin to fall in love. She helps him believe in himself, his magic, and his right to the crown of Emberfall.Another hidden gem of a character we meet is Iisak, a fierce magical creature called a Scraver. Iisak follows Grey as the last Magesmith, to help him get back to his own lands and find "something of great importance" to him that forced him to leave his ice forests and break a treaty with Syhl Shallow. While Iisak could rip out the throats of any opponent, the group of travelers become fiercely loyal to him.Jake and Noah of course follow Grey on the journey, in hope that eventually he will be able to return them to their own world in D.C. Jake's development arch is absolutely everything I hoped it would be. After finishing ACSDAL my biggest question was what was going to happen with Jake and Noah. They didn't want to be trapped, they had nothing to tie them to Emberfall. What would they do? This second book answers all of those questions, and really gives so much depth to Jake. I know that Harper doesn't wish any ill will toward Grey, even with the way he comes back to Ironrose at the end. However I'm still concerned about what the loyalty between Jake and Grey will mean for Harper and Rhen. (We know Rhen and Jake never really got along anyway, but they do both love Harper, so that will be interesting)All in all, I'm so glad this book didn't suffer from middle-book-itis. It wasn't just a means to get from the beginning to the end. It was well developed, carried its own weight in relation to propelling the overall story toward the conclusion. I can't wait to see what happens next, how all of our characters come together to battle the real villain. I am living for the moment when Harper and Lia Mara become BFF's.Can Rhen and Grey work together to reunite Emberfall? How will they defeat Lilith once and for all? Will either Rhen or Grey be killed in the end as a means to resolve the conflict between the line of succession and/or to defeat the enchantress? I just... I need the next book right now and I know we have at least a year before it'll be released! But on the plus side, it means I have a year to forget all of the finer points so I can re-read the whole series again next year when the final book is released!

Warning: "A Heart So Fierce and Broken" is, at first, very hard to get into. I would recommend marathoning the first half of the book as soon as possible, just to sort of get it out of the way. By no means is the first 50% terrible, but around that mark the novels gains speed. I went from only reading a few pages every so often to devouring the rest of the book in one night--and staying up rather late to do so!"A Heart So Fierce and Broken" is the sequel to "A Curse So Dark and Lonely," which was an amazing, thoughtful, unique retelling of the "Beauty and the Beast" story. Perhaps retelling is the wrong word, as there was so much in that book that certainly wasn't in the original fairy tale--and it's sequel is so much so the same. I am not entirely sure, but I believe Brigid Kemmerer may have been going for a loose retelling of the Rapunzel fable this time around. There was so much happening politically and between the characters though that it was hard to pinpoint until a very specific scene within the pages of the book.Grey--former guard to Prince Rhen of the fantastical land of Emberfall--has discovered that he is the rightful heir to the throne, shortly after helping to break Rhen of his curse as a horrible monster. To protect the crown and his newly realized brother, Grey takes up the name Hawk and disappears, trying to live a normal, uneventful life.Soon enough, Emberfall is threatened by the bordering country of Syhl Shallow, whose queen is desperate to have waterways open to her people; she attempts to force an alliance upon Rhen by having him wed her younger daughter and the heir to her crown. Rhen refuses, sending the royal family away.In an attempt to keep peace between the two countries, the eldest daughter, Lia Mara, escapes from her mother's watchful gaze to try to talk sense into Rhen. Her pleas fall upon deaf ears. At the same time, Grey is discovered and brought to the castle to be questioned, as Rhen does not yet know that they are brothers.What follows is a very politically driven fantasy with large helping of believable romance and amazing character development.Honestly, Grey was my favorite character from the first book. He was mostly level-headed, providing a voice of reason throughout most of the narrative. While Harper and Rhen were interesting leads, I don't remember being quiet as obsessed with them as I became with Grey and Lia Mara. Both Grey and Lia Mara were so unsure of themselves, so passionate about their countries. They are good people who had power thrust upon them--power that they didn't necessarily want or know how to navigate.Though the last half of the novel left me wanting so much more...the first half left me bored at times. I understand the need for a build up, but I just felt like it was running a bit too slow. Would I read it again? Yes. Am I waiting for the third book in the series? Hell yes.

Me gusto bastante el primer libro, y no mentiré, me decepcionó bastante el giro que tomaron las cosas. Para los fans de ACOTAR, siento que la autora quiso aplicar con Rhen lo mismo que pasó con Tamlin. Hacerlo ver como un hombre cruel. Grey es un personaje interesante, pero la otra protagonista es otro caso. Honestamente, luego de leer este, murieron mis ganas de leer el último. Al menos vino bien protegido y tiene una presentación preciosa

“Choices are never easy. There are good and bad options, but the most dangerous is not to make any choice at all”.Omg that ending I just can’t at the moment. I’ve been sitting here silently just staring at nothing and trying to process what I read. This was one of my most anticipated reads for the year and it did not disappoint.This took me awhile to read because I was savouring every word and didn’t want it to end. I loved it just as much as the first book. I am slightly upset though that we didn’t get chapters from Rhen and Harper but also understand it.I liked reading more from Grey’s point of view and loved the inclusion of Lia Mara. If I had to choose I’d say that I still loved Harper and Rhen more. Can we also just give a brief shout out to the craziness that was Karis Luran. Damn that woman was crazy with a capital C.Now begins the long wait for the third book and what a book it’s going to be. If you haven’t already started this series you must. I’m ordering it!

Where do I begin? Book two takes us on journeys away from Emberfall, where we discover just what happened to Grey, and just what is going on with enemy Queen, Karis Luran, through the eyes of her eldest daughter, Lia Mara, who wishes for peace among the lands. Filled with adventure, royal intrigue, and a forbidden budding love, A Heart so Fierce and Broken is a must read, but make sure you read A Curse so Dark and Lonely, first!

A fun adventure with plenty of surprises for the patient and loyal fan.

“Fear makes people act in ways we'd never expect.”I wasn’t sure what direction this book was going to go in, I certainly didn’t think I was going to love it as much as A Curse so Dark and Lonely but I ended up loving it even more…This book follows my all time favourite literary characters – Grey. That man has been through so much, and he tries to keep it all hidden. I honestly don’t know how he remained so strong throughout the curse, and then with everything that followed. My heart goes out to him. I love him so much.Lia Mara was a pleasant surprise. I was charmed almost immediately. She doesn’t see herself the way others do, and I love that she has people around her trying to make her see her strengths.Iisak and Tycho became instant favourites for me. I swore when reading it if anything happened to Tycho leading up to Grey's questioning I would never forgive Rhen.. And I won’t. I don’t care what is being done to him in secret. I will never get past what happened.This story was emotional and intense. I didn’t know who to trust. I wasn’t expecting everything to unfold the way it did. I suspected the ending but everything else was a rollercoaster. I want to reread it right now."The most dangerous person at the party is always the girl sitting alone with a book.”