My Five Word TL:DR Review : Mixed Feelings With This One

Tales of a Monstrous Heart has so many things that I was looking forward to and usually love in a novel.  A gothic tale with hints of Jane Eyre and a brooding love interest.  A world divided where the fae are treated as second class citizens and a return of darkness that brings with it a mystery to be solved before more fae are kidnapped and killed.

Katherine Woodrow is a fey student at the Institute of Magic.  Unfortunately she’s usually in trouble with the mortal council who will pounce upon any excuse to try and expel her before she can complete her studies.  As the story begins Katherine is once again in trouble and is only saved expulsion by a Mage Partnership offer by the elusive  Lord Blackthorn (Emrys).  Accepting this offer Katherine and her companion (and shape shifter) Alma take up residence at Blackthorn Manor.  Soon enough these two central characters become embroiled in a mystery that both need to solve quickly before the encroaching darkness threatens their way of life.

What I really enjoyed about this.  The writing is really good, it kept me hooked.  This isn’t a short and snappy style but given the type of story I really liked the attention to detail and I loved all the details about the house.

I really liked the side characters.  The house is practically a character itself.   And I also have to give a shout out to Thean who is a deliciously wicked character.  I liked Alma, Katherine’s constant companion since childhood although I felt she was a little under used and often seemed to appear simply at opportune moments to stage a rescue.

I think the author does a really good job of creating chemistry and tension between Katherine and Emrys, sly glances, hands brushing against each other all clearly leading to forbidden desires.

I found myself a little bit puzzled with the plot and the direction it took and this is an element to the book that I struggled with a little.  In one respect I feel like I missed something and perhaps I did and need to go back and have a reread.  In the earlier stages there’s quite a bit of history between mortals and fey to take on board and some of this felt a little clunky at times.  On top of that I wasn’t always clear about the motivations of all the characters, other than the thirst for power – at any cost.  The plot sometimes had  a feeling of being simply too much.  I would also say that Katherine is quite often placed in very difficult and upsetting circumstances and I didn’t really get a feel that Emrys helped very much – part of me thinks good for Katherine, she’s very capable and doesn’t need rescuing but at the same time I think it would be nice to feel that Emrys would at least speak up for her, which you would expect given he’s her mentor.  Perhaps that’s a little wrong of me, clearly the two were playing roles in order to covertly investigate – but even so, it irritated me slightly.

Also, I would just mention that this ends on a cliffhanger which is not something I’m very fond of to be honest.

Overall, I enjoyed this because it’s well written and the characters were quite easy to like but I didn’t feel totally enamoured with it which is what I’d expected and I think the plot in some ways feels a bit convoluted.  So, I have mixed feelings.  I really like certain elements but others didn’t quite wow me.  I can see why this would be popular though so don’t take my little niggles too seriously.

I received a copy though Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3 of 5 stars