After The Serpent and the Wings of Night, I was so excited for The Songbird and the Heart of Stone. While I didn’t enjoy the sequel to The Serpent and the Wings of Night as much, I had high hopes for this. And while I enjoyed it, my expectations were definitely challenged. Keep reading this book review of The Songbird and the Heart of Stone for my full thoughts.
Summary
Mische lost everything when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire – her home, her humanity, and most devastating of all, the love of the sun god to whom she had devoted her life. Now, sentenced to death for murdering the vampire prince who Turned her, redemption feels impossible.
But when Mische is saved by Asar, the bastard prince of the House of Shadow with a past as brutal as his scars, she’s forced into a mission worse than execution: a journey to the underworld to resurrect the god of death himself.
Yet, Mische’s punishment may be the key to her salvation. In a secret meeting, her sun god commands her to help Asar in his mission, only to betray him… by killing the very death god she’ll help resurrect.
Mische and Asar must travel the treacherous path to the underworld, facing trials, beasts, and the vengeful ghosts of their pasts. Yet, most dangerous of all is the alluring call of the darkness – and her forbidden attraction to Asar, a burgeoning bond that risks invoking the wrath of gods.
As her betrayal looms, the underworld closes in and angry gods are growing restless. Mische will be forced to choose between the redemption of the sun or the damnation of the darkness.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Songbird and the Heart of the Stone started off strong. Mische’s personality and character I have admired in the past two books. I wasn’t sure how she’d be on her own. I have to preface this review by saying that The Songbird and the Heart of Stone is a book that explores religious trauma. It’s about pouring all of our heart and soul into our faith and being burned. The ways devotion often requires unquestioning obedience, complicity, and silence. That has to be my favorite element which I was not expecting. That being said, it certainly wavers in terms of its presence throughout the story.
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At some times, I was kind of waiting for the world, the story, the action to go back to what I was most interested in. The relationship here is a slow burn. Mische has to explore her desperation for redemption. What would she do for a chance to change her fate, to be chosen, to be special? In The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, what will being chosen demand of us? It explores whether love with strings, conditions, and punishment can be love. For that theme alone, I enjoyed The Songbird and the Heart of Stone.
Overall?
As a whole though, this sequel or next duology starter felt separate in world building from the first two. I don’t even know how, it’s just an impression I had while reading. As I’ve said, I enjoyed how The Songbird and the Heart of Stone explores how loyalty which consumes is not love. Worship which consumes. I’ll definitely read the next one. This one took me in a different direction than I thought and in some ways that intrigued me and in others I was confused. Find The Songbird and the Heart of Stone on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.