DNF Review ♛ A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer

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Let me just start this out by saying that A Curse So Dark and Lonely was one of my top reads of 2019 and made it to my favorites list. As expected, I was extremely excited for this one but was sad to know that Harper would no longer have a POV. However I was eager to see Grey’s perspective because he’s my favorite, and interested in the new character. So I’d been buddy “reading” an ARC of this book…for almost two months. This put me in an awful slump and I just finally decided to DNF at 180 pages/40%.

The first and most glaringly obvious problem is the fact that A Heart So Fierce and Broken erases the entirety of the first book. All of the character development that happened? That suddenly doesn’t exist. Remember how the entire purpose of ACSDAL was Rhen showing that he wasn’t a villain and that he deserved the trust and respect of his kingdom and people? Poof! That’s all gone! Suddenly Rhen truly is enemy #1. And Harper being a fierce and lovable MC that I lived for? Well apparently that Harper also no longer exists. In this book she gets little to no page time, and when she does she’s timid and submissive. Not at all the character that we’d gotten to know. Even Grey was different than his previous self. It’s like I was reading about completely different characters.

“I had almost forgotten he could be like this. Prince Rhen is a brilliant strategist and a consummate gentleman, but he can also be petty in the most creative of ways. The curse changed him – in truth, it changed us both – but it did not lessen his ability to be vindictive.”

Speaking of characters, let’s discuss the new main character, Lia Mara. She truly is the perfect embodiment of “I’m not like other girls”. Little miss annoying Lia Mara is the eldest daughter of the queen of Syhl Shallow, but not the daughter that’s in line for the throne. Nope, that’s her younger sister. Because Lia Mara is essentially “not like other royals” and has little care for strategies and the overall running of a kingdom. Are her mom and sister pretty evil? Yeah they are. So I get it. But c’mon. Looking down on Harper because she’s not royalty? Not understanding how her mom would want her sister (whom actually cares about ruling) to be the future queen? Thinking that she’s the only one capable of solving political problems that she knows nothing about? News flash Lia Mara: you need to get off of your pedestal. And even if we ignored all of these problems, she’s also just really freaking annoying and loves to have pity parties.

The one positive thing that I’ve seen everyone mentioning about this book is the pacing, but I sure didn’t experience anything positive about it. Now it could have gotten better further along in the book, but considering that I was at the 40% mark and it was still slow, I don’t have high hopes. Pretty much nothing but talking was going on for a vast majority of that. And let’s not forget the usual addition for bad YA, a lack of communication! Because that’s always so fun!

So one of my friends that read and loved this book spoiled me to everything else that happens. Whew chile. I am SO glad that I DNFed. It definitely would have been a 1 star read and ruined my enjoyment of the first book. Instead of character development and plot buildup this just has character regression and plot erasure.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely is a standalone and you can’t change my mind. I mean yes, the first book was a typical Beauty and the Beast retelling, but it had cerebral palsy rep and was just amazing. This was just a huge combination of old YA tropes and it was a hot mess.

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Have you read this book or do you plan on reading it? What were your thoughts? I’d love to here them. If you did enjoy this book, your opinion is perfectly valid! It just wasn’t for me.

Until next time!

Sail.xx