A review by alilbitofmonica
Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf

fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

This book was confusing as hell by the end, like are we sure I didn't overload instead?

This started out so promising, it was fast paced, exciting, and the concept of jousting with giant machines was insanely cool. I was picturing the scene from Spy Kids 3 where they have the giant bot fights... yeah it was a great mental image. BUT then things started getting really confusing and the entire second half of the book lost me.

- FIRST. Romantasy? No. It is sci-fi with a pinch of attempted-romance. I truly do not understand the romance here, like they had NO chemistry and then all of a sudden he's all "i must protect you because i want to kiss you" LIKE WHAT?
- I am still so confused why the "spiders" chapters were necessary? Like it was trying to be too mysterious and didn't give me anything useful. I didn't care and honestly I didn't follow the story here at all.
- The alternating POV chapters was a fun way to get inside the different characters' heads, like Synali, Rax, and Mirelle all with very different approaches to things.
- I had a lot of trouble visualizing this book - as a visual reader, if I can't picture it in my head I will probably be lost... and that's exactly what happened.
- The concept here was so cool, but execution was MEH. It was trying too hard to be mysterious and I really just don't know what I was reading for a while. I DO like the final battle scene and I think that ushers us into an interesting sequel, but there's almost too many pieces at play here.
- Speaking of pieces at play, I love me a good chess analogy, but it seemed to randomly appear and then be thrown in at completely irrelevant moments?

ANYWAY. that's a lot of negatives, BUT I do still think the story itself was interesting and it made me not want to give up. I will probably try the sequel just to see where it goes.