Cover Image: Heartborn

Heartborn

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Member Reviews

An interesting read! The romance was swoon-worthy and I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Livvy and Keiron! Highly recommend to fans of fantasy and romance, with a paranormal plot.

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I loved this book so much! I loved the characters and the world! I would and have recommended this book to all my friends.

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Heartborn has very interesting premise. Keiron is an angel and his brother binds him and his wings and it is very interesting. I was enjoying the first chapters especially when Keiron and Livvy met but I lose my interest because of the alternating POVs. It is very confusing for me. Also, it lack character development and did not establish the world it is introducing. I only remember House Windhook but do not know anything about it. It is kind of disappointing because I usually enjoy reading books about angels and mundane. Apparently, this book is not for me.

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http://readdayandnight.blogspot.com/2018/02/books-i-read-in-2017-part-3.html

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I was a bit frustrated with Heartborn. It read pretty well, I genuinely enjoyed the authors writing style, but I didn’t really enjoy the second half of the book. I thought everything was going in one direction and then it went into another. It didn’t help that I was reading several books while I was also reading this one so I kept taking breaks because it was engaging me as much as those others. In all honesty, this book was a lot like a filler book to me, much like a lot of other fantasies I’ve already read. I don’t think I would recommend for you to spend time reading this one unless you want a more basic fantasy to fill the time.

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A very exciting read! I love anything and everything to do with angels so this was the perfect book for me!

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I have absolutely no idea what was going on with this.

Heartborn starts off confusing, and just went downhill form there. We have Keiron, and angel who was pushed down from the heavens and Livvy, a girl with half a heart. Although this story is about these two, Livvy and another girl called Cressa get POV chapters. Cressa is still up in heaven and we see the aftermath of what happened to Keiron through her eyes.

I just found this very hard to understand what was occurring, and even when everything was explained at the end, it found myself even more confused. I found what was going on in heaven more interesting than what was going on down here on Earth, but even then I was not fully able to grasp what the point of all this was.

I feel like that Heartborn would have greatly benefited if it had decided to concentrate on only the stuff that was occurring in heaven and leave the rest a mystery because as soon as we were down here on Earth, everything was just spelled out. The plot-twist was a plot-twist, but I did not find myself surprised as I just found it confusing, especially regarding everyones reaction to it.

I am sure that some people will love this book, but I would urge most people to not waste their time on it.

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While the descriptions were lovely, the writing was too whimsical and lacking in information. I couldn't work out whether we were in the past or the future, which relationships were important, which characters were important, or what on earth was happening half the time. I had to work hard to work out practically everything -the only thing the author gave away was that Keiron was pushed by his brother and his parents knew about it. Everything else was a slow eking, teasing reveal that left me wanting to throw my tablet at the wall. This book left me frustrated and ill-tempered. I wasn't even sad that Keiron had sacrificed himself - if h
that's what he did.
It had such promise, but now I wish I hadn't read it. I shan't leave an online review as it would be most unfavourable.

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Hey Guys!



I have been reading. As in more than I have been making. I thought I would start with something that I know I would like. After reading Wunderkids, I was really worried about having a slump. It was a great book that I could not go wrong with. Though I think I should have worried more about picking my next read. 



My next read was Heartborn by Terry Maggert. I really don't know what to say so I'll start with my summery. 



Summery: Her guardian angel was pushed.

Keiron was never meant to be anything other than a hero. Born high above in a place of war and deception, he is Heartborn, a being of purity and goodness in a place where violence and deceit are just around every corner.

His disappearance will spark a war he cannot see, for Keiron has pierced the light of days to save a girl he has never met, for reasons he cannot understand. Livvy Foster is seventeen, brave, and broken. With half a heart, she bears the scars of a lifetime of pain and little hope of survival.

Until Keiron arrives.

In the middle of a brewing war and Livvy’s failing heart, Keiron will risk everything for Livvy, because a Heartborn’s life can only end in one way: Sacrifice.

Fall with Livvy and Keiron as they seek the truth about her heart, and his power, and what it means to love someone who will give their very life to save you.



I'll start with the positives. How could I not when you look at the cover. It's such a beautiful cover that screams effort and heaven. The presentation was very well done and in a weird way the description of things within the story could be good. Things are very well described. 



The description, though things are well described, I feel that it is very over described. I feel like there are more adjectives than there are any other words. It felt more like a list or a screen play. I felt that each object and person had one whole paragraph to describe them at that point. Some people may like this as it tells them exactly what's going on, what someone looks like. However I like to be shown not told. 



One other problem I had with the description was that I wasn't sure what exactly was being described at some points. For instant, "A light smell of disinfectant curled through the air, and it was cold. Unusually cold for a library." To me this sounds like the smell of disinfectant is being described as cold, up until the next sentence when its talking about the Library. Is the room being described or is the smell of the disinfectant being described compared to the library. If it is the latter, why would a library smell of disinfectant as it would smell of books.

Another thing I would like to address. What happened at the start of chapter 19? I know this was explained later in the last chapter but I felt that there was such a jump that I got vertigo, theoretically. I felt that there should have been a better way to make a transition of the chapters. This would have drawn it out a bit more but it would have also described what happened in the mean time.



In the time that she is in the library world with Keiron, where was she really. He, though an angel, does not have the power to change the whole world or to stop time. So where was she and how did she end up outside the hospital. I fell like so much has been left out when more could have been used create the connection between Livvy and Keiron. It would have made the loss of Keiron more real, more affecting. Though there was a good connection between the two of them, I felt there could have been a lot more. 



The last thing I would like to comment about is the fact that I didn't really need to read the book as everything was explained on the Blurb. In all honestly I did not enjoy the book and unfortunately I can only give the book 2 stars.

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Really enjoyed reading this book!! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

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I’ve been intrigued with the idea behind Heartborn for quite awhile. The beautiful cover and intriguing synopsis pulled me in. I just had to know more and when I found the book on NetGalley, I decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, Heartborn fell short for me. Just be warned, that in order to explain WHY the book fell short of me, there may be spoilers in this review.

Heartborn is told from two different points of view: 1) Livvy’s point of view on “Earth” and 2) Keiron’s family’s point of view in Sliver which I kept reading as silver.

My favorite part of the book is Sliver. The world is beautifully imagined. I could see myself among the clouds with Vasa, Saiinov, Cressa and Habira. Everything from the clothes that the angels wore to the hierarchy of the angels is well thought out. The power of the angels seeped through my iPad and I wanted more time in Sliver each time I came to one of these chapters.

My least favorite part of Heartborn is Livvy, our main character. These chapters read like a young adult contemporary romance novel—my least favorite genre. Any chapters from Livvy’s point of view are syrupy sweet especially after Keiron shows up because, despite Livvy’s hesitance to do anything that might risk her health, there is this instant connection that doesn’t fit with her character.

The chapters on “Earth” also seem to be choppier as if something is missing. Perhaps because Livvy’s chapters take place in the reader’s “known” world not enough time is spent describing the people, places and things that exist. I did not feel part of Livvy’s world. This leads to a disappointing reveal towards the end of the book regarding Livvy’s world. As a result, the reveal is jarring and confusing. Keeping the reader at arms length and assuming they know everything about Livvy’s world is a mistake. There needs to MORE subtle connections shared throughout the novel for the reader to buy the reveal.

While I had high hopes for Heartborn, ultimately, in the end, I was left disappointed and disconnected and I do not have plans to read book 2, Moonborn, in this series.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Her guardian angel was pushed.

Keiron was never meant to be anything other than a hero. Born high above in a place of war and deception, he is Heartborn, a being of purity and goodness in a place where there violence and deceit are just around every corner. His disappearance will spark a war he cannot see, for Keiron has pierced the light of days to save a girl he has never met, for reasons he cannot understand. Livvy Foster is seventeen, brave, and broken.

With half a heart, she bears the scars of a lifetime of pain and little hope of survival. Until Keiron arrives. In the middle of a brewing war and Livvy’s failing heart, Keiron will risk everything for Livvy, because a Heartborn’s life can only end in one way: Sacrifice. Fall with Livvy and Keiron as they seek the truth about her heart, and his power, and what it means to love someone who will give their very life to save you."

This book had so much potential and I was really hopeful after the opening scene but am left feeling very disappointed.

My first issue is that nothing happened for ~80% of the story, then suddenly eveything happened and I couldn't follow it. I finished the book and have no idea what the final few chapters were about. The story is told from two perspectives: on Earth and in Woodook. The parts in our world, following Livvy, were SO boring. I hated them and couldn't wait to finish the chapter to move away from her story. While nothing was really happening in Woodook either, I much preferred those parts.

Character wise, I had no connection to any of them and didn't really care for them. I also hated the insta-love relationship between the two main characters. It was infurriating.

Some parts I thought were a bit juvenille but otherwise, the writing was beautiful and flowed really well. I would have liked to have seen more details about what a Heartborn (all I know is they're created for sacrifice and are born with their eyes open) and a blightwing actually are. Also there was a lack of world building, which I feel could have been executed beautifully if there was extra detail.

Good idea but delivered poorly. Save yourself a few days reading and just read the synopsis because that tells you basically everything that happens.

2/5 stars because it was written well but it just wasn't for me.

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I have so many questions now that I've finished this book. How the heck do Miss Henatis and Dozer fit into the story at the end? Is Dozer actually a good guy? Was she in some sort of coma while she was "in the library"? How did the accident happen? Why were her bullies in her safe library? I got really interested when Keiron's family was summoned and everything picked up from there. The writing was really good and the family's trial was intense but everything else kinda fell flat.

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I received an digital copy of Heartborn, by Terry Maggert, from Netgalley for review, and I squealed at the cover. I admit that I absolutely judge books by their covers, and look at how beautiful this wing is! The colors are gorgeous, and they make the whole scene very ethereal, which is what I was hoping for when I read, right on the cover, that “her guardian angel was pushed.”

Unfortunately, Heartborn did not live up to my expectations. Here are a few (spoiler-free) reasons why.

Livvy Foster, the girl with “half a heart,” just wasn’t a strong enough protagonist for me. She has a compelling backstory of personal and physical willpower, but this did not shine through when, inevitably, she ended up falling head over heals for her fallen guardian angel. Her personality just didn’t translate in the storytelling, and I wish it had, because it would have been really interesting to have a “heroine” who was physically weak, but emotionally and mentally strong.

Next up, the pacing was all off. I was incredibly bored at the parts of this book where we focus on the “war [Keiron] cannot see,” because of how much Maggert needed to explain to the reader. And, this is done while alternating between Livvy’s story on Earth. Because of this, I was forced to do mental leaps and jumps to understand this brewing war and the politics behind it. There are some really interesting aspects to the place that Keiron left behind, but the world-building just wasn’t there. It didn’t seem like a solid place to me. Too much was thrown at me too quickly for me to care, and too little information was provided when I needed it most.

This is a total shame because the writing itself wasn’t bad! There were beautiful described moments and imagery, and I took pleasure in the fact that a majority of the time spent on Earth was at the library, where Livvy’s works.

I think Heartborn had potential! And if you are a fan of angels and the paranormal genre in general, you may have an easier time with this book than I did. But for all of Maggert’s beautiful writing, I could not get over how slowly the book moved, or the plot holes, or the lack of a strong character for me to focus on.

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3/5. I sadly was let down a bit with this book. I was confused with some of the events that happened, and then like suddenly everyone knew everything but Livvy was still in the dark but in the know too. Plus the situation with Kieron was just sad. Wow. I didn't expect that, so it wa interesting, but wasn't too crazy about it for reasons.

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Completely awful and just ridiculously pathetic. This story belongs in the garbage disposal

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Unfortunately this book fell flat for me. The blurb makes the relationship between the angel and the human the center of the story but it's not. The action is taking place in the alternate chapters in a different world. When we get back to earth the story is dull. We never get to hear from Keiron again after the opening which is unfortunate. The ending was jarring and came out of nowhere and left too many questions unanswered.

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I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was beautifully written and different from so many of the other angel-comes-to-earth stories. The romance between the main character (Livvy) and her love interest (Keiron) seems to just kind of happen with no build-up. This will seem awkward and you might think you missed like a prequel or a first book where they met, but it makes sense in the end.

Seriously though, I don't want to give anything away, but this book has a huge twist at the end that turns this good book into a wonderfully unique story.

I honestly can't wait to read the next one!

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With a full heart, I am irrevocably and unconditionally in love with this story! Where do I find my, Keiron! A lover who will risk everything for his one true love. True Sacrifice and what it means to love someone so much you would give your life willingly if it could save them or even prolong their life. This is an epic love story.

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I have conflicting opinions about this book. On the one hand, the writing is beautiful and the world that Maggert has created is fascinating! On the other hand, I had a really difficult time connecting with the characters - I had almost no emotional investment in their story, which is somewhat unusual for me.

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