The blurb of A Harvest of Hearts on Net Galley compares this dark fairy tale-style novel to Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle. And I can definitely see it. We’ve got the weird house, we got the sensible/exasperated heroine with powers she isn’t aware of. We have the talking magical creature. The style however is more comparable to T. Kingfisher. (Not to say that Diana Wynne Jones wasn’t capable of being dark–Dogsbody was extremely unsettling and dark, from what I remember when I first read it when I was kid. I just feel that the tone is closer to some of T. Kingfisher’s work rather than Jones.)
Our Heroine Foss is the daughter of a butcher, who lives in a kingdom supposedly protected by sorceresses whose powers are powered by hearts. The sorceresses visit towns on the outskirts of the kings, and charm people into giving up their hearts or pieces of their hearts (which is somehow both a physical and metaphorical process) to them. The sorceresses are all supernaturally beautiful, and no one seems to mind about it, but under the glamor, there is a sense of dread and horror. (Which is very effectively written.)
Foss has spent most of her life being bullied for being unattractive, so it’s a surprise to our heroine when the only sorcerer (rather than sorceress) Foss has ever seen “snags” her heart. The love spell draws her yearning after the sorcerer and eventually becoming extremely ill. When she realizes that the illness is because of the sorcerer having snagged her heart, Foss rather boldly decides to find a way to regain her heart by finding the sorcerer and (hopefully) stealing it back. This leads to her becoming the sorcerer’s housekeeper–and getting in over her head when she draws the attention of the sorcerer’s sisters and father.
Foss is an engaging character, with a lot of determination and tenacity–while having also having the kind of lack of confidence that comes from having been bullied. The sorcerer–whose name is Sylvester–hovers somewhere between terrifyingly eldritch and disturbing and strangely sympathetic. The various revelations about the rot (literal rot) lying at the center of the kingdom are well paced and the plot is engaging. It does however get slightly bogged down by Foss’ hesitance to act at critical moments. (They do feel natural to the character, and most of the twists and pitfalls of the plot are well worked.)
My only–very mild–objection is that the romantic aspects of the plot are not as well paced as the overall plot. I would have liked more interaction between Foss and Sylvester. The romance worked, and they definitely have chemistry, but I would have liked more development of the relationship. There was also a point near the end where the romantic subplot got in the way of the main plot. Despite this point, I enjoyed reading this book.
This review is based on a galley received from Net Galley.
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