Review--The Heartless One by Emma Hamm

 

Princess Jessamine and Elric’s story continues after she has brought him back to full physical form in this second book in a romantasy trilogy from USA TODAY bestselling author Emma Hamm, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas.

She won the heart of Death…now she must fight for the hearts of her people.

Jessamine never expected to be on the Deathless One’s side—let alone be in love with him. But now that Elric has returned to his corporeal form and Jessamine has joined the coven of witches that sustain his power, the two are stronger than ever.

But the kingdom is still in turmoil. Jessamine and Elric must prepare their coven of witches to meet the kingdom’s forces in battle—before the man who’s usurped her throne learns how to harness the power of Elric’s fellow gods. How can Jessamine accept that to fight for her kingdom, she might have to fight against it?

The Heartless One by Emma Hamm picks up right where we left off in The Deathless One and was a whirlwind of plans, deception, secrets, and more! This book gave off the vibes of feeling sort of "middle" like but ultimately became so much more and I cannot wait to see how things will conclude in the next installment.

Elric is now in corporeal form and has helped Jessamine build a small coven of witches. He knows the more that they can gather, the more powerful Jessamine will be, but still fears his past fears becoming a reality where the witches just want to continually use him for the power he has and leaving him dead again and again. But that's a problem for later perusal as the next step in helping Jessamine gain back her kingdom is finding her cousin, Fortuna who seems to have an idea of what Leon's ultimate plan was for taking over her kingdom after murdering everyone, including Jessamine herself.

At times, it felt like the plot was a little simplistic, but that's not so much of a complaint as more observation. Reading so many different novels there's always puzzle pieces to the plot going from one point to another and then following a different point to three more sets...it gets overwhelming at times. So having Jessamine with a shorter list of goals was almost a relief. Yes, she does have a more detailed plan overall to getting her kingdom back, but her path feels a little easier in first she is trying to add a few more witches to her growing coven and then she must find her cousin.

The way Hamm draws all this out though is remarkable. It feels like a longer scheme of events than it is, but is told through a remarkable set of pacing. It's not slow, it's not abrupt, it's just the right pace for the events at large and I enjoyed it massively. It's nice to be able to stay in the fantasy romance genre and not have it swell into something overly complicated where excessive notes are needed. This is easily followable and feels like a good movement from point A to point B with very little a.1-a.26 involved before point B!

There was still plenty of conflict and secrets to arise in this one that will threaten the growing romance between Jessamine and Elric. That is to be expected from a second book in a trilogy to be honest! Lol. I was happy that they were more of the external and internal problems versus another love interest, so that was refreshing. The romance was still just the right amount of spice for me without being overwhelming and constantly on the page. There's a lot going on so the moments that Jessamine and Elric could steal together were even more special.

The ending to this one was ideal. We are on the precipice of the finale and a great battle to overcome is looming. There will be even more challenges to face before we can get to the hopefully HEA ending, but at the rate this series has gone so far, I do believe Hamm won't let us down in that regard. Whether how much heartbreak will be put through the ringer before that happens remains to be seen. Lol. I always fear the worst but hope for the best, especially with fantasy. Great things are expected to come out of this last book and I cannot wait for it to happen! If you're looking for yet another amazing fantasy romance series to dive into, be sure to check out The Gravesinger trilogy!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars