The Lightning-Struck Heart (Tales From Verania)

5+++++ StarsBR w/ Carleen.'“You’re my lightning-struck heart, Sam of Wilds. I love you more than I could ever say.”And then he kissed me.'A half-giant, a sorcerer's apprentice and a hornless, gay, unicorn.No, it's not a bad joke, they're the best three musketeers you ever did meet and the beginning of a brilliant adventure.Add in villains that love bad monologue.A dark Forrest that seems to be a place for three musketeers to be kidnapped by villains that torture the musketeers with said bad monologue.A grumpy wizard who pretends he doesn't love the musketeers and their shenanigans.A prince who's a D***. (*Gives all the side eyes*)A swoony Knight.Two painfully clueless guys who are in love but continue to torture themselves through denial, and in turn, everyone else.A mostly vegetarian, Randy, dragon named Kevin.A king of the dark woods fairies that wants to get gay fairy married.A bard that sings about wonderfully strange things,A cult that initiates a very awkward truth lunch,A hilarious, brilliant adventure.And so much more.'I glanced back at my merry little band of travelers. A hornless gay unicorn. A half-giant. A knight who was a jerk but that I wanted to have for breakfast.“And let the adventure begin!”'This book is absolutely the funniest I have ever read. I have not laughed so much ever reading a book. And just when you think it couldn't possibly still be funny, that it's going to get old, I laugh harder. I can't even tell you how much I laughed at the shenanigans in this book, the characters.Every single one of these characters were brilliant in their own way, (except Justin cause he's a D*** forever.) I truly adore them and never want to stop reading about them but I love Tiggy so damn much. I want to hug him and never leave him.“What they doing?” Tiggy asked.“Well,” Gary said. “When a knight finally pulls his head out of his a.. at the last possible moment obviously staged for dramatic purposes and admits that he loves a wizard’s apprentice, they go into their room and do a special hug that—”“Butt s..,” Tiggy said.“Yes, Tiggy. Butt s..”“Go, Sam!”“Thank you, Tiggy.”Each character stands out in their own way, shines on their own and together and that just shows the brilliance that is TJ Klune.I would also like to add how much I love Sam's parents. They're so freaking bada*s and hilarious at the best times. At the beginning it may feel like there's a lot of characters but soon it won't feel like enough.“You are like the sun and the moon combined to make a creature so astoundingly beautiful that the world can’t even contain its—”“Oh my gods,” I groaned as I lay on my bed. “Gary, make him stop.” “Never,” Gary said. “This is probably as close as I will ever get to looking like a princess so I expect to be treated as such.”I'm going to be honest, I was so afraid of reading this book, especially after the epicnesss that was Wolfsong. How can you beat that? What if it's a fluke? So I braced myself. There was no need, this was epic in its own way and definitely was not a fluke. Because damn, I never wanted this book to end. Even though it's a pretty long book. This is an all round book. The character development, world building, the arc of the story. While I would've loved more romance between Knight Delicious face and Sam, there was so much more to this book than just one thing.“I knew it wasn’t meant to be. But I allowed myself to think such thoughts. Because no one else could hear them. They were my own. Like a wish upon stars held in secret hearts. We danced. And we danced. And we danced.”I highlighted 200+ times so it's safe to say I liked this book. I loved it. So much. I'm not sure a book will ever come close to being as funny as this one. I don't think another book will ever torture be with slow burn as much as this did. It's impossible. I'm not sure I could love another friendship more than that of the friendships within these pages.I loved every part of this book and I cannot wait for the next book in the series!

Enjoyable read. Fun, light, and a little silly. Good pace. Thought more action, but good start to character and world building

I really don’t know where to start with this book, I finished it last night (read: early hours this morning) and I can’t get over how AMAZING it was. I don’t even have the right words to sum up how amazing this book is, I’m still so overwhelmed by it all, so I hope this review makes some sense.From the moment I started reading, I fell in love with Sam, his friends and his world, and I was never once bored along the way. I was fully immersed in the world of Verania and its colourful characters from the very first page.Sam is an incredible narrator, he’s sweet, caring, loyal to a fault, sincere, good, helplessly naïve and hysterically funny. Oh, he also does some pretty cool magic!Even amongst all the sass, I found myself tearing up in certain parts for my beautiful, sweet Sam.I love that this book isn’t a regular historical romance. It’s an epic fantasy adventure filled with magic, wizards (both good and bad), castles, knights, giants and dragons. It has literally everything you could want from an epic fantasy whilst also featuring a slow-burn, sizzling, pining M/M romance and more LGBT characters than I’ve ever seen in a single book.There’s even a fairy drag mother, yeah, you heard me!“Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Verania, there was a kickass boy born in the slums of the City of Lockes. His parents were hardworking, and at times, life could be difficult, but they were alive and had all their teeth. Which was important.”Even more so, beneath all of that, this is a story with emotional depth spanning friendships, family bonds and true love.Reading ‘The Lightning Struck Heart’ was no easy feat since I was reading mostly at night and having to smother my laughter at the sheer amount of sass and bitching from all the characters.Sam of Wilds is such a fantastic protagonist. His inner monologue is perfect and from the very beginning, all I wanted was for him to succeed, to get what he wants, especially since he always puts everyone else first. He wears his heart on his sleeve and hides behind his words and I have everything crossed that he’s just as amazing in book two!

This book is so freakin’ funny!I wasn’t sure about The Lightning-Struck Heart for the first couple of pages. I don’t think I actually read that many humorous books and I thought this might have a bit… over the top or ‘thinks it’s so clever’ for me.I was soon proven wrong.I actually laughed until I cried at more than one line. That said, the sense of humor here — very dry, sarcastic and incredibly sex-driven — isn’t going to be for everyone.Aside from the humor, I loved how unapologetically queer The Lightning-Struck Heart is. For one thing, all (I think?) the main characters bar the king and Sam’s parents — who actually get to live with him in the castle when he’s taken on as a wizard’s apprentice, not just one but both of them, we have a non-orphan hero OMG — are queer. Plus, queer relationships are a total non-thing in this world. The Prince is getting married and will have a same-sex Royal Consort and no-one’s batting an eyelash. There’s a fabulous queer found family Sam’s built around himself (in addition to the miraculously living and supportive parents).Another thing I loved, sort of related to the queerness, was how The Lightning-Struck Heart uses so many of the tried and true high fantasy tropes, sometimes with a bit of a twist, but rather shamelessly. I’m a huge believer in the idea that a trope’s not over until everyone’s had a shot at it. Gay chosen ones, asexual wizards, kidnapper dragons, and rainbow farting unicorns are everything I’ve ever wanted.I bought the rest of the series — the remaining three books — the second I finished The Lightning-Struck Heart and immediately started A Destiny of Dragons.