Review : Heart's Blood

Heart's Blood (Whistling Tor #1)
Juliet Marillier
Published October 2nd 2009 by Tor

I started reading this book because of Wildwood Dancing. These kind of stories are my favourite and Heart's Blood effectively captured my interest. Juliet Marillier has managed to put in every element of fantasy, love and logic in such a way that the story is successful and I really enjoyed it. Fantasy and romance with a little bit of action would be my cup of tea. When it's a little medieval though, I tend to fall in love with the book more. As such, her books are set in a time it feels really medieval so I can't help but find myself automatically drawn to the book. The book covers are gorgeous. People who are used to contemporary and modern fantasy wouldn't exactly find the covers likeable but I love that style of drawing. Wait, am I gushing? Let's get on with the review then.

The lead female, Caitrin, is a young woman who is running desperately to get away from the cruel people in her past. I was intrigued and Anluan's past was shrouded in mystery. As expected. I was, without doubt, pretty freaked out at some parts ( I shall not spoil it for you ).

I liked how the side, as well as the main characters were fleshed out. While Caitrin was reluctant to share her past ( come on, who wouldn't be? ), it wasn't kept in that much suspense. The reader would be able to roughly guess what had happened and that's fine. The more interesting thing that everyone would want to find out is Anluan's past and exactly what was going on right? If a story can keep just enough suspense, make sure it builds up and then revealed, it makes everything a whole lot more enjoyable. Instead of just exploding it in you face that makes you go "What?". And while building up this suspense, Marillier certainly made sure to build up the romance. It certainly wasn't "His smoky green eyes" or whatever talk about muscles at first sight. Neither was it crush/love at first sight.

To be honest, I actually wondered "Is this guy going to be the love interest?"

It's so rare to see romance like this ( please, compared to some books, I've seen better fanfiction ). Meaning? A romance that builds up, with the guy being kind of mean ( it's not cliché ) because there's a reason behind his mean-ness. And the only rival for love is the bad guy. Hell, he's not even after love. There. I spoiled it.

Either way, Caitrin is a really cool lead character and I like, no, love her relationship with Anluan ( um, duh? ). It develops so subtly yet you're so excited till the moment that they really confess their love.

Well that's pretty OOC for me but I guess that's what's in me when I'm high --"

The ending was like this ; it's like, I kind of seeing it coming, but not really yet when it did happen, it shocked surprised the hell out of me. And I cried. I cried.

I didn't know which fairytale it was from. But that doesn't really matter 'cause, as I mentioned, the side characters were just as awesome and, um, let's forget the bad guys. While some parts were slightly predictable, you certainly wouldn't be able to guess a huge part unless, maybe, you know the fairtyale.

Let me end off with, I loved this book for the above reasons and you should try reading it. It's not something that's so common to be found these days. That's why I love these books. Anyway, I'm off now. Thank you for reading this review up to this point.

WELL

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“How could you not know?" His voice was full of wonderment. "You changed me utterly. You were like a...like a bright, wonderful bloom in a garden full of weeds. Like a graceful capital on a page of plain script, a letter decorated with the deepest, finest colors in all Erin. Like a flame, Caitrin. Like a song.”

Rating : 5.00