Synopsis
The world is blood and pain, but still there’s love.
All Kvisti has ever wanted is to protect her desert village in a way that would make the Mother Tree proud. Unfortunately, an old injury has left her once-potent dryad powers broken, and she can’t even stop the ruthless magic poachers that invade her village for the scraps of magic she still holds.
Snake shifter Iason is bound to a criminal snake den for the sake of his rare healing magic. But the magic poachers want his magic, too. When the poachers throw Kvisti in the same magic-proof cell as Iason, the two are inexorably drawn together, bonding over past traumas. In their isolation, they begin to heal each other, finding a connection deeper than they imagined possible.
But when disaster strikes the poachers, Kvisti and Iason are abandoned in their cell with no hope for freedom.
In a world that thrives on cruelty and despair, love may be their only salvation. Can Kvisti and Iason break free of their prison and the pasts that haunt them before their connection is torn apart? Will the delicate new feelings taking root in their hearts bloom, or will the desert bury them? When blood and pain are a constant, love is a fragile thing—but one worth fighting for.
Review
Hearts of Bark and Scale by Nicole Leland is the shortest book in my SPFBO lineup this round and what stood out immediately were the gorgeous chapter headers. I know, I know, looks aren’t everything. But it doesn’t hurt to start out with something eye-catching!
This book starts and ends with high stakes scenes and is filled with emotional turmoil in between. You like trauma babies? This is the book for you! Though the story doesn’t span a very long amount of time for characters to develop feelings for each other, the situation they find themselves in creates the perfect setting for emotions to go haywire as they have to learn how to rely on each other.
I love a story that’s high on emotions, that really delves deep into its characters, and Leland did a great job with that here. Despite that, I sometimes struggled to pick it back up due to the slow pace for most of the book. While I really enjoyed the characters exploring their feelings and working through them together with patience and care, I also learned that I do need more action to mix things up for me, though I understand that’s difficult to get in the small setting this played out in.
This is the kind of book you should read when you want a little break with sweet characters, a slow pace that really allows them to get to know each other, and a focus on emotions rather than actions. While this isn’t the kind of book I could read multiple of back-to-back, I definitely think it has its place for those moments when you just need to slow down sometimes.
*I read this book as a judge for Fanfiaddict for SPFBO XI. These are my personal thoughts and do not represent the thoughts of the whole team!*
Leave a Reply