I couldn’t finish this one. There was something dissonant for me in the gender equal society where a significant number of people seemed to identify as trans. It kept distracting me from the story, so I eventually gave up. I usually really enjoy Megan Derr!

As much as I wanted to love this book, because I love all things Megan Derr, I couldn't get into this one. I was disappointed with the relationship or lack there of between Kamir and Jader. They spent most of the book apart form each other and still somehow feel in love and lived happily ever after. It didn't add up for me. Overall, I liked the story, the drama with Kamir's ex and his parents; Jader's long lost relatives coming to claim him was interesting but not enough for me to give this a raving review because it lacked the most important factor to this book, which was Kamir and Jader together.

This book is something like 400 pages, but it only took me three days to read. For those three days, I could think of nothing but how long it would be until I could read it again, and if I wasn't at work or sleeping, I was reading this. As soon as I finished, I wanted to read it again. I haven't yet, but I'm about to buy a finished copy so it may still happen!

This is quite possibly the most satisfying book I've ever read. Everything that happened in it had so many layers, and when I got to the end and found out the true reasons for doing what they'd done, it took my breath away. The progression of the relationship between the two main characters was slow and felt authentic, their journey from friends to lovers totally believable and organic, with nothing rushed and every trope handled well. I do love a good romance trope, and this had a LOT of my favourites, but I won't name them because spoilers.

Kamir and Jader were both fantastic characters. Jader's identity crisis, between the only family he'd ever known and the only person he'd ever been and his ""proper"" family and the person he was supposed to be, was extremely well done, and I could feel his internal conflict on every page. I enjoyed that by the end, for the most part, his birth family understood that he was never going to be the person they wanted, and they seemed to be on the way to accepting that.

Kamir...where do I start? He grew up emotionally abused by his parents, and then emotionally and physically abused by his husband, whom he married at sixteen because he thought they were soulmates. They weren't, and despite the fact that he was alone and young and scared, he pulled himself out of that marriage and built a really good life for himself, and then continued to do that with every other bad situation he found himself in. I really admire his strength, and even when it was obvious that he didn't feel very brave, he was SO brave. I was occasionally annoyed that the other characters didn't help him more than they did, but as they kept saying - he seemed like he could handle himself. He can, and did, on many occasions, and if I grow up to be half as strong and brave as him I will be very proud of myself. I love him with my whole heart.

Both Kamir and Jader felt insecurities about their worth in regards to the relationship but they overcame them, and there was SO MUCH COMMUNICATION, and I don't mean that they wrote each other a lot, I mean that they talked about things!!! So many times there was information withheld and a lesser writer would let it spin into unnecessary drama but not here, no sir. One character would be like "I did this thing for this reason" and the other one would be like "OH, I understand." !!!!!!!!!!!!!! So nice.

This one also finally confirmed something that I've been wondering about since HKGT, and that is that all of the male characters who can carry children are trans. I assumed that was the case, but it was never really confirmed in HKGT. In this one we also get a greater understanding of how gender works in Harken, and honestly it was so great. Parents don't gender their children AT ALL until the child is old enough to tell their parents how they identify - this was so normalised that not even Kamir's abusive family misgendered him. Like it never even entered into their heads to do that. A+ work, thank you.

It was fantastic to properly check back in with the squad from the last two books, and to find out where they are in their lives. Sarrica continues to be occasionally completely brainless, but he comes good by the end and I love him anyway. Rene and Tara and Lesto and Shemal are living the lives I hoped they would, and Allen is a complete badass as usual. I'd be lying if I said a small part of me didn't continue this series just to read more about them.

I noticed just now that on the LT3 website this book is listed in the "Gray-A" category, and that's for Jader, but I haven't shelved it that way because it's not...super explicit? When I was reading it was obvious it was a possibility but it could have been made more clear. Maybe I just need to read it again to pick up on it more? Anyway, good to know it's a thing.

Unlike PoFD, I have absolutely no bad things to say about this book. I loved it a lot, it was an instant favourite, and I recommend it to LITERALLY EVERYBODY. You're welcome.

It's said that 'we should start as we mean to go on'...

So that's what I'm going to do. From the first book my reviews have started at the cover and this one is no different. Seriously, these are some of the most beautiful book covers that I've seen in a very long time. While each cover is uniquely beautiful. They are also tied to each other by how their similarities. it's a thing that I tend to notice about book covers and while the book cover isn't a factor when I'm rating a book, when it's as beautiful as these I like to give them the admiration they so richly deserve.

'The Heart of the Lost Star' is once again set in the world of Harken and while we've met both Kamir and Jaden briefly in previous books, mainly 'The Pirates of Fathoms Deep'. Those glimpses were brief and gave us very little information about either of this books MCs. Kamir is the youngest and sadly mistreated son of some minor nobles and in this third book we find out the full extend of how hard Kamir's life has been and how strong Kamir truly is.

Kamir has suffered abuse at the hands of his parents...mostly verbal and emotional, it would seem but that can be every bit as damaging, sometimes even more so than physical and this was compounded by marriage to Theoren, an abusive man who had no problem with adding physical abuse to the mix. But Kamir's strong so incredibly strong and he does what he needs to do to protect his children and to get himself and his children away from Theoren. He's worked hard to make a life for them which unfortunately has also put him back under his parents influence. It's while living in the castle that he first notices and finds himself attracted to High Commander Jader.

Jader grew up an islander his origins lost to him because of a shipwreck that left him on Pearl Island where he was adopted and grew up with a large and loving family and worked his way through the military to become the High Commander of the army, upon Lesto's departure with his husband, Shemal, in the second book.

It's not until Kamir crosses Jader's path in the royal gardens that he truly notices him and their relationship begins only to see duty take Jader away from the capital for weeks. It's while Jader is away that he begins to realize that Kamir has come to mean so much more to him than a dalliance of a night or two.

Megan Derr has once again worked her magic to create the Kingdom of Harken and the people who reside within it's realms creating a story that's intricately woven giving it depth and texture to both capture and hold the reader's attention and once again we are given characters who have depth and personality and are very likable.

Fantasy is my catnip but I have to admit I am one picky soul when it comes to fantasy and I have a very small list of books on my go to list when I want to read a fantasy novel and with this book Megan Derr has ensured this series has a permanent place on that list.

'The Heart of the Lost Star' is a book readers biggest quandary...it's that book that you can't put down and yet at the same time you are praying that it will never end...all the while knowing that 'all good things do come to an end'...that is until the next book is released.

This is an advanced copy review via Netgalley. I absolutely love the Tales of High Court series. The characters are charming and likable. In this book, we have our main characters being Jader and Kamir. Now, I remember Jader, but I vaguely remember Kamir if at all from the other books. Anyway this is a slow burn title in my opinion. Kamir and Jader spend a lot of platonic time together I think. I was hoping to see more heat, but considering their respective roles, I understand why that wasn’t really the case. Their relationship was very much like a courtship because Kamir already has kids and an ex-husband and Jader is the High Commander.
There is one intimate sex scene that leads to some drama. I wish this was written differently in that Jader and Kamir spent more time together as an official couple. Once Jader gets shipped off they don’t see each other at all and they only have their letters to each other. When they are finally reunited they are still technically a fresh couple, being fast-balled into a committed relationship. I can appreciate the slow development of their relationship because I absolutely hate insta-love stories, but this one I felt like met standards, but didn’t necessarily exceed expectations in the areas that I wished it would. It felt rushed in the relationship however, with the bulk being a courtship-like dynamic.
This is also listed as an mpreg story. I personally like mpreg from conception to birth to life after/childhood. There is only the conception for the most part in the story and for the type of relationship that develops in this story the mpreg was like dangling a carrot in front of a horse, but never actually giving the carrot over. We get the mpreg we want, but never the after happening. Regardless this is a good story; solid 3.5 stars.

This book is the third in this series so it'll probably make more sense if the previous books are read before as characters from the other books reappear. I like that this book built upon the world that was created in the books before and answered some unanswered questions like the logistics of mpreg.
This story is about Kamir whose abusive ex husband has returned and is after his children and Kamir's parents are are also trying to disown him unless he marries into money.
Jader makes a return in this book as the high commander and as Kamir's love interest. Early on he discovers he is long lost nobility in a different country. Kamir and Jader start a casual relationship not thinking it will last but it turns into a sweet romance.

This book was a lovely read, like the sweetest little hug and suddenly I feel all better again. It has a world I can sink happily into, with high fantasy court intrigue, powerful figures, decadent clothing and plenty of political intrigue. It also has wonderful characters.

I love Jader. He’s both an outsider and an insider all at once, because on the one hand his Islander upbringing has met with racism and scorn throughout his life, while his friendships with the royals and his position as High Commander have made him a figure of envy and respect. The fact that he isn’t an Islander by birth – and looks noticeably different – just makes everything that little bit more complicated. Yet Jader himself is a pretty straightforward man. I loved how vain he was, though never in a pretentious or arrogant way. He likes pretty things and jewellery and is so appreciative of what he has. He's strong but decent and I really like him.

I loved Kamir too, even though he’s completely different to Jader. He’s soft and sweet and quiet, and I just wanted to protect him, because he’s faced so much hardship in his life. His family are awful, the court scorn him and his ex-husband is a rat bastard. But Kamir is strong too, because he has had to be. Yes, he shakes and cries when bad things happen, but then he pulls himself together and finds a way to sort things out, because his children need him and if he doesn’t protect them all, no one else will. I loved his quiet strength and the way he handles himself. There’s nothing flashy or showy about him, but he’s so endearing. How can anyone be mean to him? (He’s also transgender, but as gender is a personal choice in this world rather than assigned at birth, this is not a concept these characters would understand. It does, however, explain how men sometimes end up pregnant.)

The romance itself is pretty slow, primarily because Jader is in another country for a lot of the book. He and Kamir do come together fairly early on, but they don’t know each other too well at this point. The majority of their romance is played out in letters, as each of them find comfort and support in writing when the rest of their lives are riddled with problems. I love an epistolary romance and found theirs very sweet, even if I wish there had been a bit more time together at the end.

However, there’s a lot of other stuff going on beyond the letters, so it never gets boring. I’ll admit I did find Kamir’s side of things to be a lot more interesting, partly because I loved seeing Kamir show his strength, even as I wanted to punch certain people (Sarrica), while poor Jader spent most of the book completely out of his element and I wanted to bang a few people’s heads together to get them to back off. I also felt things ended a little abruptly on his side, but since it meant he got to come home, I didn’t mind too much.

So overall, I really enjoyed this. It’s sweet and romantic, with a little bit of sensual heat and lots of political and familial intrigue. But mostly it was the characters – as always – that made this so lovely for me. Cute and comforting, another great addition to this wonderful series. I can’t wait to read the next one!

Excellent addition to the series. Jader's surprise as he falls in love is adorable. Kamir is strong despite the abuse he suffers and yet he learns that it is okay to accept help. And it is fun to catch up with all the other couples in the series so far. Well-written with some amusing scenes to temper the parts that made me mad and the ones that choked me up.

4.5 star read for me. This is the third book in this incredible fantasy series, and although you could probably read this one with no problems, I definitely think that having read the previous two will give you a better understanding of the world building and the characters since we see the other two couples from the previous books in here.

Ahhhh I LOVED Kamir, how strong he was in making sure he lived the life he wanted to live and how strong he was for his kids. I also loved that he was transgender (I had wondered how the mpreg was possible when I first read this series, but now it makes sense) and that is perfectly acceptable. I loved that. And I loved that Jader was fine with it too. I love that Kamir had a crush on Jader, never really thinking that things would work out for him, when Vader thought the same thing about Kamir. Love them!

My only slight "meh" about this book is that Kamir and Jader spent a good chunk of the book in the middle separated, each doing their own thing. I don't want to give any spoilers away, but with what was going on, I do wish that the two had gotten more time together. And I could have used an epilogue or something else to give a bit more closure as well, especially since <spoiler>we didn't even get to read about their child being born at the end of the story.</spoiler>

If you have read the other stories in this series, I'm sure you will love this one! I'm still fairly new to Megan Derr's writing, but she's my favorite fantasy writer, the world building and depth to these stories is simply amazing and wonderful to read about.

Next up is Charlaine and I can't wait for his story! I loved his interaction with Kamir, so I can't wait to read more about him. It will be m/f/m I believe, so something a bit different!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ever since I read The Pirate of Fathoms Deep last year I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of The Heart of the Lost Star and it did not disappoint!

The Heart of the Lost Star follows Kamir Norring and Jader Star. Kamir is a sweet and kind man, despite the hardships he has endured. Young and seemingly in love Kamir had married at 16 and was a parent at 19, earning him the disapproval of his family who view Kamir as a failure for not having married into money and an elevated position.

Jader Star is the High Commander of the Imperial Army. Jader faces derision from Mainlanders who don’t want to see an Islander in such a position of leadership or indeed in the military at all. Jader washed up on a beach on the Islands at roughly 8 years old with no memory of his previous life and no one to tell him what language he was speaking, but was quickly adopted. He’s a touch vain, loves his jewellery and hate snow with a passion.

The Heart of the Lost Star is something of a case of mutual pining. Kamir has admired Jader from afar for years but never believed the High Commander could possibly want someone like him, facing constant mockery and whispering from the court. Though Jader recognised Kamir, it is in the beginning of this book that Kamir properly comes to his attention. However, Jader can’t see how someone like Kamir, who would be revered and honoured back home as the head of the household, could possibly want someone like Jader.

Their romance is just so sweet! Events of the book push them apart not long after the first come together with neither really expecting (but quite wanting) the relationship to develop or go anywhere. Yet the longer the separation the more the longing grows.

Something that I really like about this book and the series in general is the lack of homophobia. As a queer person myself its always and absolutely lovely to read books where being queer is normalised and the fact that people are queer is not the source of conflict. There’s a brief mention of Kamir’s mothers opinions on his twins but that it. Kamir himself is trans, he’s far from the only one, and none of this is ever questioned. More books like this please!

The letters Kamir and Jader send to each other are a highlight and so sweet. It’s has been awhile since I read the first to books, but from memory this one is slightly less angsty than the others in terms of action, with more of a focus on Kamir and Jader’s journey. Though there’s plenty of tension in the form of Kamir’s ex and parents and Jader family origins and adventures in Benta! I particularly like the fact though there was some tension in Kamir and Jader’s relationship, and a few secrets kept, it wasn’t overdone or puffed up for drama’s sake.

Megan is particularly good at descriptions, I could visualise everyone with ease and vividness and was able to deferential between side characters as well. Speaking of it was a delight to see Sarrica, Allen, Lesto and others return and of course Sarrica was in fine form (will be needing to do a bit of grovelling!).

The Heart of the Lost Star is book three in the Tales of the High Court series, and though it can be read as a standalone I’d recommend reading in order for a more rounded understanding of the characters and events that are mentioned.

Well, that was a great read!
The Heart of the Lost Star is a third book in the series. It can be read as standalone, as it features different main heroes than previous two books. Books are taking place in the same universe and in the same place - High court of country called Harken. You should be able to catch up even without reading previous two books, but I recommend doing so, for two reasons. One is that first two books are great, second is that there is lot of characters and if you have read previous books, you will know who is who from the start.
One of our main heros is Kamir, who is trans man, noble and a biological father of his two children. Currently, he has two problems - his piece of shit ex-husband who suddenly returned to court and his parents, who want to cut him off from their money unless he does what they tell him.
Our second main hero is Jader, current high commander of the army, who is an adopted Islander. (Islanders are similar to our world's Polynesian cultures and Jader could be desribed as white, one of the few characters in the books) He gets a nasty surprise when group of travelers arrives in the city claiming he is a long lost son of some foreign noblewoman. Who is from country which has kinda strained relationship with Harken.
These two characters start a relationship with each other, but before they get a happy ending, lot of things must be unraveled, baddies dealt with, etc.
I really enjoyed the fact that main hero was trans man. Most of m/m romance books usually feature cis men, so reading about trans man in a main role was refreshing and brought some unusual plotpoints. The story is set in a universe where being trans is not really a big deal at all and lot of people are trans (there are at least two other trans men mentioned in the story), so there is no transphobia and no conflicts related to that, which is great too.
The story itself is interesting and has some surprising twists, it also made me cry a few times. But it has happy ending, which is important!
My only complaint that it maybe had too many characters. Sometimes I was kinda lost just who are we talking about right now and I think this book could use some character index at the end. But otherwise it was a great read and I recommend it to all lovers of queer fiction and fantasy.

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

Kamir is on the verge of losing everything. Knowing full well he can't meet the ultimatum his parents have issued, he instead finally puts in motion his plans to live completely independent of them. His plans are interrupted, however, by the unexpected return of his despised ex-husband—and thrown even further into upheaval when he ends up comforting the man he's secretly loved for years.

Jader may not know where he comes from, but he knows where he belongs and what he wants—until he helps rescue some stranded Bentan travelers, one of whom look almost exactly like Jader, throwing his life and everything he thought he knew into tumult. Scared and overwhelmed, Jader flees—and lands unexpectedly in the arms of a man he's always seen, but never really noticed.

Megan Derr is one of my favorite fantasy authors.  Her Lost Gods series remain at the top of my list of books and series to recommend.  Derr continues to demonstrate why I love her so with series and books like Tales of the High Court and The Heart of the Lost Star, the third story in the series.

Derr has built such an incredible universe through three stories now, threading through more mythology, cultural facts and world geography in each one, enriching each stories foundation, and enlarging our knowledge of the world these characters live in.  Even of the characters themselves.  Here gender isn't assigned by physiology but chosen by the child when they feel  comfortable enough to choose.  And no parent has the right to force the child to live otherwise.  So Kamir, a male, can bear children, with his own twins of age to choose their own gender and it's a lovely easy fact of life.

What's not so easy is how they were born, and Kamir's ex-husband's treatment of Kamir and the children.  That is an element here that's unfortunately too familiar even within a fantasy setting.  But Derr has created in Kamir a truly remarkable character, vulnerable, yet strong in his perseverance, graceful and kind.  Trust me, you'll fall under Kamir's spell just as Jader does.  Kamir has a complicated life, one he's trying to uncomplicate himself, although love has a way of throwing in one more unexpected entanglement.  The same goes for Jader, an adopted Islander who's now risen to a top position within the Kingdom.  Last thing he expects is his attraction to Kamir and his children, then events happen that throws Jader into turmoil...and more complications ensue for all.

At times this will seem like separate stories, one for Jader who is undergoing his own journey, one for Kamir who is fighting his own battles, and then one for them as a couple. All three stories are emotionally tumultuous, fraught with danger and suspense for each individual and the couple, and yet so full of love, especially towards the end, when it all pays off.  It's full of adventure, high court politics (never a good thing), and passion.  In other words, a stunning great tale!

And yes we see something of the couples from the other stories as well, a trend I hope will continue because I want to see more of Kamir and Jader too.

If you can't tell by now this is a book and series I highly recommend.  The writing is fluid and dynamic!  The characters memorable and the situations charged full of action and emotion.  I can't wait for the next book to appear.  Neither will you once you get started!  Enjoy!

Cover art by JohnCoulthart.com  Love the covers.  It brands the series and works for the story.

There were several issues I had with The Heart of the Lost Star.

One is the way that Jader behaved when dealing with soldiers who to be executed. Obviously, this book is fantasy and exists in a completely separate world from our own but this scene was seriously off-putting. At one point someone from the crowd calls Jader what is assumed to be a sort of racial slur because he disagrees with him. First, Jader threatens to execute the man for literally saying something mean and then he punches that person in the face. I understand that Jader is the High Commander and that calling someone a racial slur is unacceptable but the whole interaction felt wrong. It almost felt like a dictator exercising power because he could. In my experience, people don't show loyalty to leaders who punch people in the face when someone says something mean or disagrees with a course of action. It's like getting punched in the face because you disagree with the death penalty.

This book suffers from the "unrealistic-super-evil-villain" problem. You have meek and quiet Kamir who has a truly heinous family who are terrible to him. Then you have his ex-husband who is also very mean to him. Then you have the Court who is full of people who are ALSO very mean to him. These people are so unrealistically evil for really poorly explained reasons. It felt very much like they were mean solely as a plot device. Literally everyone disliked Kamir except for the people integral to the plot. It all felt very forced.

There were some instances of modern day overlap. For example, at one point a character says "motherfucker" which instantly pulled me out of the story. Another instance was Kamir referring to his ex-husband as his "ex". This felt really odd in a book where everyone talks formally "My Lord", "My Lady", "Your Highness" etc.

There was a lot of inner thoughts going on as well. Way, way too much. Sometimes a character would ask a question and it would take a full page worth of inner thoughts before the other character would respond. To the point where I actually forgot what the previous character had said and had to go back a page and reread. Sometimes there were thoughts that were repeated over and over again. I'd be reading and roll my eyes because Kamir had already had the same thought a few chapters (or even pages!) ago and here he was mentally lamenting about it again.

There were some redeeming parts of the book but honestly they're overshadowed by everything that was not good about this book.

Parents are difficult to avoid, especially when they're helping to finance Kamir and Kamir's children. Luckily, Kamir has a plan to get free. Except, the appearance of his ex-husband and the machinations of his parents just might make that impossible. Jader is the opposite: he loves his parents. He knows he's adopted, but he's managed to make a happy life for himself until the day his birth family appears and demands he come home.

The best way I can think of to describe this book is that it's a solid, enjoyable read. The plot and the twists kept me entertained, the characters were engaging, and it was generally a good book. There wasn't anything that had me jumping out of my chair in excitement and nothing disappointed me. It wasn't as good as the first book in the series, but I will definitely be rereading.

I do have to say I wish the ending had a slightly later epilogue. I would have liked to meet everyone's baby, or at least learn the genders. One of the amazing parts of this series is the intricacy of the gender-fluidity and I really feel meeting any of the babies and learning how they go from their birth gender to their true gender could give this series a touch more depth.

No review since it apparently has a theme I'm still not comfortable reading. Genuinely sorry to the publisher. I will be more careful in my request next time. This should be NO RATING because I don't read it but apparently Netgalley won't alley no-rated book :(