*Attention: contains spoilers for The Crescent Stone (The Sunlit Lands #1)*

Okay. The most difficult part of writing a review for The Crescent Stone was not spoiling the great big twist that serves as the book’s thematic hook. What is the book about? Well…hard to say in too much detail because it concerns the book’s big plot twist. So, if you haven’t read The Crescent Stone, STOP NOW. The rest of you, continue…

The Heartwood Crown begins in what looks like victory. The Crescent Stone has been destroyed and with it the magic that kept Elenil society thriving at the Scim’s expense. Madeline, having rejected her year of service, accepts her disease back into herself and escapes with Shula and Yenil. Shula was a human bound in service to the Elenil, originally from Syria. Yenil is a young child, one of the Scim. Madeline’s parents accept her return rather casually, not even really questioning the addition of Shula and Yenil to the family. (Is there something up with that? There’s gotta be something up with that?)

Jason is still in the Sunlit Lands living his best life, which, for him, means being a wanted man by nearly every race of people and having accidentally gotten engaged to Baileya. (It’s a long story. That story is called The Crescent Stone.) Darius is there as well, seeking his revenge on the leader of the Elenil. The destruction of the Crescent Stone was supposed to be the key to righting the wrongs in the Sunlit Lands, but, by and large, society continues on as normal.

We get a lot from Darius’s perspective in The Heartwood Crown, which builds even more depth to the story through a strong third point of view. His big struggle is how we are to go about enacting justice and correcting wrongs and that personal struggle gets writ large throughout the events of the story.

What seemed like loose threads, red herrings, and rabbit trails in The Crescent Stone get tied up or explored here. In particular, I enjoyed Mikalatos’ portrayal of the necromancers. I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t even begin to see it coming. It isn’t often a book takes me completely by surprise in a good way, but Matt seems to be able to do it consistently.

The story does get a bit heavy and bogged down. It’s doing a lot of work to 1) play off the events of book one and expand the world; 2) tell its own self-contained story; and 3) set up the plot threads and events necessary for the conclusion in The Story King. Too often, middle novels in a trilogy act as journey novels—they simply get us from the beginning to the end. Mikalatos does that, but gives readers a story that stands in its own right, bowing but never breaking under the weight.

Weighty is the word I keep coming back to. The weight of the world is on Mikalatos’ shoulders in The Heartwood Crown. The weightiness of the issues he confronts, issues that matter to both the Sunlit Lands and our own world. And also just the weightiness in a literary sense of world building as the world of the Sunlit Lands expands. To tell the story of everything is a difficult task, indeed, and Matt has to make choices of which stories best serve the overall narrative.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more time spent on Madeline’s storyline. It’s ostensibly the main storyline, but never really felt like it. It also felt a bit slow and plodding (though, hey, the main character does have a disease that prevents her from breathing easily, so action isn’t quite on the menu.) There’s a lot of complexity and lore that gets dumped in this particular storyline and maybe it could have been stretched out a bit into book three. (But there’s also good publishing industry reasons why it wasn’t.)

Jason continues to be a favorite. I’m not convinced I like the storyline where Baileya’s family is trying to kill him for being engaged to her. It doesn’t seem necessary and is always sort of interjected into the plot as almost a recurring gag without going anywhere. But yeah, I’m going really deep here to find anything to criticize and when I have such a strong opinion about a relatively minor story point, it’s safe to say that I’ve fallen in love with the story.

The Heartwood Crown isn’t the kind of book you read casually. I mean, you can. It can be just entertainment for you. You can read it like that and it is better entertainment than most books you’ll find. But really read it. Soak it in. Read it undistracted. It took me a month to read these books because, halfway into book one, I committed to only reading them when I knew I had at least an hour block of not being distracted. This is a story that deserves your complete attention. Its magic is real. Its power is undeniable. Settle in and let the story flow over you.

The sun shines on life, danger, and death

Madeline is home again, with Shula and Yenil, but pulled to return to the Sunlit lands. The Heartwood Crown needs an heir and sacrifice. One by one, the players are called to take their places in the grand play, each to do their part. Again, as in The Crescent Stone, the world-building is absolutely top-notch, the humor is funny (with many authors, too often it’s not) and well-timed, the adventure is engrossing, the characters believable and engaging, and the story is multilayered and believable. There are new characters, as well as those that we cherish already, and they all live and breathe from page to page.

Frankly, the Heartwood Crown is going to exhaust you and I won’t be surprised if you feel worn just trying to put into thoughts and words everything the story means to you. The Heartwood Crown is going to pit you against what you thought adventure was, drag you, gnashing teeth and all, along the rough trail, throw scenes your way that have you alternately cheering, laughing, and crying, and then it’s going to tear your heart out of your chest. Like in Alien. Well, no, not that kind of chest-burster. But, gosh, at the end of this book I was dehydrated. But then the end wasn’t truly the end, so hope springs yet eternal.

I don’t mean that there’s not an ending and that it isn’t satisfying. Many story threads are tied up neatly, emotions and all, and some are left lying there teasing the way, I hope, to another book. The Sunlit land are only a side-step away and I hope to return there soon.

The sequel back into the Sunlit Lands has hit every cord that it needed to continue the story of our friends Shula, Madeline, Jason, etc. Our friends from The Crescent Stone have been waiting to show off their next plight to their readers. Many of the characters have found their way back to earth to live their lives just like everyone else, but will it stay that way? Will everything they wished to happen actually happen or does something happen to make that wish no longer viable? The Heartwood Crown certainly answers that for us in a way that breaks a reader in two, steps on their feelings, and throws them back into the chaos.

There are many themes and ideas that come into this sequel such as love, heartache, self-respect, loss, and more. There is a bigger focus on love then there was before, in my own opinion, but it is accepted and loved for what it is. Madeline has many things to think about within this book that has many twists and turns to keep the reader occupied. This can be utilized for many grades and many different groups of people—it would be a great book club book.

I had never originally read the Sunlit Lands book series until I picked this one up—once I started reading, I needed to read the first book. However, there is enough here in this second book that you do not necessarily need to go back to the first book. There is a lot of backstory that can help you understand what is happening cover to cover. I would suggest this book for a book club or even independent reading as it is not a difficult read and definitely has the hi-lo aspect to it that all students can get with.

I really enjoyed the first book, but as I read it some time ago, I didn't remember a lot of the details. Therefore, I had a hard time getting into this one. I do recommend reading them in order, and perhaps re-reading the first one as a refresher prior to reading this one, as things seem to pick up where the first book ended.

Mikalatos creates vivid pictures with his writing, and he tackles some important topics, such as self-respect and forgiveness. While this book is labeled YA, it's one that can be enjoyed by adults, as well.


NOTE: I received a print copy from the publisher as well as the ebook copy, so I read the print copy instead of downloading the ebook copy.

The Heartwood Crown is the second book in the Sunlit Lands Series by Matt Mikalatos. But don't worry if you haven't read the first book, The Crescent Stone. There's enough back story in this one for you not to be completely lost, but seriously, the first one is so good, you should plan on reading it first.



The story of The Heartwood Crown picks up a short time after The Crescent Stone ends. Many of the characters have settled into various parts of their life. Madeline, Shula and Yenil are back on earth, trying to live as normal a life as possible but the Sunlit Lands and their struggles from there keep creeping back in. After a visit from an unusual guest, Madeline knows that she has to return.



What she didn't know were the difficulties that her friends Jason and Darius had been facing in the days after the attack on the Elenil people that control the magic of the Sunlit Lands. The end of magic as the people of the land know it is at hand and Madeline must decide if she will be the one to help usher in the new age.



This story does an excellent job of entertaining but beyond that, Mikalatos brings up issues that we all struggle with. He handles very difficult topics such as love, self-respect, and forgiveness in a way that allows the reader to identify their own struggles and come to a decision of if they can tackle them or at least admit their presence and how they may be affecting day to day life.



This is a young adult fiction but the themes and storyline capture the reader from a much broader age range. It is an excellent second installment and I look forward to reading any additional adventures that the Sunlit Lands may have for us.





I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. I'm never required to leave a positive review but always thankful when I can.



PS Matt, If you're reading this, is it possible that The Sword of Six Worlds is going to combine with this series? Signed, A Validus Fan Who's Still Waiting For More

I really enjoy reading the work of Matt Mikalatos. It is thought provoking and allows me to see the world through a different optic that non-fiction simply cannot touch. He tackles some rather sensitive issues, and the way they are handled through fiction causes the reader to be awakened to see social injustice in a way that is not "in your face". When many people are confronted with difficult issues, they become defensive. Fiction literature allows the reader to discover the nature of injustice in ways that take us off guard rather than causing us to become defensive. So it is with The Heartwood Crown. This is a well-written book and I look forward to reading the next installment in this series.