Daughter of No Worlds (The War of Lost Hearts Book 1)

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And I loved how slowly their friendship developed into love. It was such a beautiful thing because they never forced their feelings on each other but were just going with the flow until they both realised they were in love. I love them so much 💘 When Tisaanah wakes up, Max has returned, having realized that he can’t bring himself to leave Tisaanah to do this alone. Okay that was S T U N N I N G 😍😍😍 I expected to enjoy it but nobody told me it was this good??!! 🤭🤭 I'm obsessed!! 💗💗 Nura takes Tisaanah to a cottage in the middle of a sprawling garden, where she meets Maxantarius Farlione– or Max, please and thank you. Max is a Solarie, not a Valtain – a different type of Magic Wielder who tend to work more externally and have an affinity for external energy, fire, and earth. Max absolutely outright refusesto train Tisaanah, but Nura tells him he doesn’t have a choice and leaves Tisaanah there anyway.

The whole cast starting from the barely present Serel to the adorable machine of destruction that is young Moth, are beautifully done with each one of them having a vital role and just the enough depth that they could easily make their own books. As tensions rise, Nura asks Tisaanah to fight against a rebellious Lord. Tisaanah agrees, which makes Max furious. The battle is brutal, and Tisaanah witnesses the horror of warfare firsthand, but her bond with Max strengthens significantly.My favourite characters are Tisaanah, Max, Reshaye, Nura and Sammerin with my favourite overall being Tisaanah as she's just a very well-written character, though I do have a soft spot for Reshaye. Like I said, Tisaanah escapes captivity, bearing marks of what she went through, and this aftermath of the premise is where Broadbent’s skills truly shine. Tisaanah now must learn to use her magic and she throws herself at it with all the stubbornness (determination?) that allowed her to survive the “Look at me” chapter. And truly, the magic in this world is gorgeous. Fascinating and engrossing and at times terrifying. She’s being taught by her reluctant teacher Maxantarius (I love me a grumpy reluctant/positive sunshine dynamic) who is bitingly hilarious. Most of the passages I highlighted were because I laughed literally out loud at Max’s dialogue, or Tisaanah’s impression of him. For example:

To my bestie Ri, babes I had sososo much fun reading this with you! And even though this book wasn't 5/5 stars for me ur company definitely was 1929473937392091028/5. I love our over-dramatic reactions to practically anything that happens and also our fan-girling sessions over Max and the way we were actually plotting murder for *ahem* someone(s) *ahem* ilyy and can't wait to complete this series and br more amazing, chaotic books together 💕🥺🫂 It has been honed as a super ruthless weapon and is almost hilariously psychotic at times, which I can also appreciate. now with the issues i did have…the world-building felt nonexistent. this series is called war of lost hearts but like why are there so many wars? who what when where why how?! although i did get some of my answers i felt like i was missing something the entire time. it also didn’t help there was no map 😒 I gave this a shot, largely on the very lovely cover (though the blurb didn't hurt, either). I made it nearly two-fifths through before putting it down and now I just don't feel like continuing. I was very ready to like Tisaanah and heaven knows that her situation invokes every sympathy I have, not to mention the inner paladin that cries out to right the wrongs done her. The fact that Tisaanah couldn’t speak Max’s language very well at first also created some funny and lighter moments that counterbalanced the more serious tone of their discussions.You all don't know how much it physically pains me to rate a book by the queen of authors Carissa herself anything less than four stars but oh well. Also I apologize in advance for how confusing this review is because I have.... feelings about this book 🥲🔫 The world-building and storytelling were well-written. The characters all felt real and different from each other. The high fantasy with a little bit of romance was great.

The romance that develops between them was wonderful. It wasn’t build just on sexual attraction like many of these books tend to do(though this novel does have heat 🔥 in the romance department). The romance developed as they grew to trust, to learn each other, and to open up to one another. It was very well done and there wasn’t any stupid miscommunications or “protecting you for your own good” kinds of annoying interferences like there always tends to be. Don't like the arch-commander, definitely a villain and you know he's written well when you dislike him haha. i think personally i like the whole politics of fantasies but if you don’t care about that this book is really easy to go along with! it’s def entertaining i found myself not wanting to put it down at times 🤭

I love it when protagonist have to endure shit and pull themselves together to crawl out of it. Even if it costs their sanity. I’m glad the rape part isn’t described. It would have pushed the story even farther into the dark. But be warned of slavery and fighting and their bloody results.