I decided to pick up Heart of Mist on Shealea from That Bookshelf Bitch’s recommendation and I absolutely fell in love with it. I have it on both Kindle and Audible and I absolutely made use of the Whispersync function.

I have absolutely no idea where to start but this book is so good! I listened to a bit on audiobook and it was engrossing but I had to put it aside for a while because I needed to focus on other things. When I finally got around to going back to it, I devoured it in a single day. It was that good. I couldn’t put it down- I just had to know what happens next.

The world-building was done really well. It’s not sparse, but it’s not dense either. It’s basically just what it needs to be for this particular story. I got a sense of how the world works, but a sense of mystery is retained which I assume will be explored in latter books. I also love the description of Valia in particular. I love their forest keep and I enjoyed the description of how their kindred lived. They’re basically a society of female warriors and I loved how they were described.

Heart of Mist has several POV characters, but most will be in the main character’s- Bleak. I love Bleak. She’s such a messy protagonist and there’s actually a reason for that. She’s a drunkard, she’s selfish, she’s such a flawed but compelling protagonist. She’s also very self-aware, which helps. At the beginning, we do see glimpses of her past and by the end, I was left hungering for more. She’s an Ashai, specifically a mind whisperer in a world where only royalty are allowed to have magic. Her growth was absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Another POV character is Henri, the queen of the Valian people. Henri is a real stickler for rules and tradition, but she also has a soft spot underneath all that steel. She’s such a wonderful character, full of snark and emotion, and you know there’s a lot of pain underneath.

There are also Commander Swinton and Dash. I can’t reveal too much about the commander without going into spoiler territory, but you will probably hate him at first. I did. When I reached his POV chapters though- I was so surprised. There’s a lot of layers beneath this character and I love how the author peels through the layers as the story goes on. Basically, he has a lot of secrets.

Dash is a young boy who is friends the princess. At first, it wasn’t clear what purpose he serves in the overall story, but it does become apparent later on. He’s also a very precocious boy and he’s also very precious.

The plot is fast-paced and I didn’t have any moments where I felt like the plot dragged on or I was getting bored. Helen Scheuerer crafted a complex story to go with an interesting world and it shows. I love how layered and twisty the story was. It doesn’t hold your hand and it moves at a breakneck pace. I loved it.

One of the things I also love here are the character relationships. There are a lot of wonderful friendships here. There aren’t any romantic relationships, but there are implied ones. This book is heavy on female friendships and I love it. I love how there’s an entire society of women warriors but also a possible future discussion on the way non-warriors are treated. It’s all so fantastic and I couldn’t get enough.

I read this on my iPad’s Kindle app and I also listened to the audiobook on Whispersync. And yes, at some point I did pause the audiobook because I was flying through it. However, if you like listening to audiobooks, I highly recommend you pick this one up. The narration was fantastic and I loved the way Angele Masters brought these characters to life. She does voices very well and her narration is just very good overall.

Overall, Heart of Mist is an amazing book you should all pick up. It’s very underrated but it’s very good and I think more people should try it.

This review is also on The Bookworm Daydreamer