Customer Reviews

Heart Readers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the back of the book: "Long had the King's line been sursed by fate with one prince too many. In each generation, twin boys were born, heris to a throne only one could hold. But Kind Pardu decreed that when the time was right, he would abide by the old magic, would call in heart readers, magic-bound pairs who could see into a person's very sould and read the nature of his or her heart. But the King could not foresee the future, a future in which his cruel, ambitious chief advisor would try to coerce the heart readers into championing the prince he was certain he could make his puppet. And only time would tell whether heart readers could trimuph over fear, the lust for vengence, and an all to personal betrayal to read the true path for king and kingdom..."

The book centers around the heart readers Stashie and Dasis. Stashie was raped and tramatuzed by Tarne, a commander on a campaign to conquer peaceful villages through fear and brute force. Dasis found Stashie half-dead, unable and unwilling to speak of what happened to her. They grew closer and found they had the talent for heart reading, where they avoid Leanda until the need for money forced Stashie to face the place she feared to return to. Once there, Stashie had to face her fears, and Dasis learned why she should be fearful.

This book is a powerful, stand-alone novel full of detail of thier world and plight. However, if violence disturbs you, I wouldn't recommend this book--it certainly isn't a book for children. Though, the violence isn't merely a device sued to attract readers; it shows how the characters are changed by it. Overall, a good read if you can find it :)

i picked this book off the dollar pile at the outlet bookstore, thinking it looked decent, and i was pleasantly surprised to find an involving novel. another bonus for me was the fact that the main characters are female lovers, and this was treated as completely normal. it really pleases me to find this kind of thing, and to happen upon it by accident. i recently reread this book for the second time, and i love it even more. i did have trouble getting involved the first time, because i found the character names annoying, but that's just a quirk of me. either i'm sympathetic with fantasy names, or i'm not.

This book is stunning. It is the tale of a woman who get's raped, and then has to learn to continue living. She and her partner (another woman) travel the land reading hearts. She can only draw what she sees in somebody's heart, and her partner can only interpret the drawings. In order to do this they have to have complete trust in each other, a bond that joins them body, spirit and soul. When this bond is threatened, the entire future of the country's monarchy could be in danger...

I was looking forward to this, from reading the "back of the book" stuff, but it didn't take long to become disillusioned. The badguy is *so bad*, almost from page one. He basically does everything except kick puppies for fun. I couldn't take him seriously as a real person. His notion of his own influence is also overlarge; a couple of times later in the book he executes some cunning plan (which isn't very cunning) only to have it fail, and he has no backup.

I was disappointed by the heart reading, because it didn't seem to be particularly insightful. I mean, the heart readers weren't telling the people anything they didn't already know. It didn't feel like magic, it felt like pop psychology. Also, the prince who wasn't "pure of heart" was described by the heart readers basically as unable to know love, but that really doesn't fit with the novel's end.

To me, it just felt like there was some gratuitous violence and no real character development. I'd skip this one.