With Hearts of Flame (Deluxe Limited Edition) A Dark Academia Romantasy Novel of Vampires and Dragons Featuring Stenciled Edges and Illustrated Endpapers

A devastating continuation with higher stakes, painful losses, and just enough dragons and fluffins to keep me emotionally functional. Starting right where book three left off, Blake is gone, Medra is desperate, and Florence… well, I definitely wasn’t expecting that. Regan is back, and her redemption arc is beautiful. And somehow, Neville is still the secret star of the whole thing. I have a crush on Blake Drakharrow, with his mint leaves mixed with the sweet tang of green apple scent and, of course, his slutty little glasses. Yes, glasses are one of my favorite microtropes nowadays and Briar Boleyn delivered. These characters have all grown so close to my heart by now, which made everything that followed hit considerably harder. The stakes are higher than ever, and is there any depravity Victor isn’t capable of? Apparently not. I wished him and every single one of his henchmen the most gruesome death imaginable, which felt entirely justified. And then there is Nyxarios. My heart bled for him. I cried repeatedly, and that bittersweet ending absolutely killed me. No, I did not throw anything. I simply sat there desperately searching for tissues, which is obviously the more civilized response to emotional devastation. Losing some of these characters was genuinely hard. I am, after all, a happily-ever-after kind of reader, and this series clearly enjoys testing that particular preference. Thankfully, there were dragons. And fluffins. Because when a book has emotionally destroyed you, treatment is an abundance of adorable creatures. Hopefully we are not done yet with Blake and Medra, some minor issues are not resolved in my opinion.