*Actual rating 3.5 stars*

This was one of the easiest books to read with writing that allows you to just sit back and really enjoy the drama. Filled with witty dialogue, the writing in here was really funny, and made the experience very enjoyable.
I enjoyed the world and the concept of a disease that causes immortality. The small excerpts throughout give us the more scientific side, which made everything feel more real and possible.

In terms of the world building itself, I don't feel as if it was very developed and was just average for me. I also didn't connect with any of the characters which made it difficult for me to care about their fates. Finally, i didn't get a huge sense of danger whilst reading. We know lives are at risk. yet there doesn't seem to be a great deal of urgency to really figure out what to do.

Overall., I really did enjoy the writing style, particularly the witty dialogue between characters. I do however think that the world building and atmosphere could have been better developed. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the pubisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many of you probably know I'm obsessed with not-traditional styled books but in case you didn't, I'm obsessed. Books filled with logs and textbook pages and new paper clippings? My life force. Sisters of the Perilous tells its story through expertly weaving together it's 2 main perspectives and a variety non-traditional narrative stories to masterfully introduce you to the characters and world without making you feel overwhelmed with info dumps. It's hard to ramble about books you love without getting into spoilers so I'll be brief.

I really like how much this book trusts you to stay invested in the two alternating perspectives. Instead of feeling obligated to switch back and forth every chapter, Sisters of the Perilous Heart lets you spend a few chapters with each main character in chunks which really helped me stay involved and invested. Also, the world building? *chef's kiss*. Beautiful. Loved it. Loved this whole thing and you should definitely read it. (and it came out yesterday on May 5th so you totally can!)

This is my first Sandra L. Vasher book. Sisters of the Perilous Heart was interesting. It embedded all that is the sci-fi fantasy genre. You feel like you are reading a high fantasy but it is actually a future/dystopian novel.

I enjoyed this book and rated it 3 stars. It wasn't the best sci-fi fantasy I have read but it was decent for the set up of a series and the author writes well.

I did not, however, enjoy the switch of POV's. I think this book only needed one POV or earlier switching then say 5 chapters.

All in all a decent set up to a new series and world.

3 stars

This book was confusing. I struggled to understand the virus and what it actually does. The characters were jumbled and disorganized in my opinion. I liked certain ideas but couldn't get behind this story at all.

“Life is a death sentence for all of us, Vivian. The only question is how long your sentence is.”

On the far away planet of Keplar in the distant future, Vivian has been crowned queen of South Keplar. The only problem: only minutes after the coronation begins, she’s been shot by an arrow carrying the Immortality Virus- a virus capable of making humans immortal with some rather concerning side effects, but lethal to magic users (i.e. Vivian).
Miles away at a mysterious priory hidden away in the forest Carina, an orphan with little knowledge of her past and even less knowledge on how to use her magic, longs for a life free from the prioress’s strict rules and lifestyle. When an unexpected stranger arrives, Carina’s world is turned upside down and she must face the truth of her past, and her power.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Going into it, I had little knowledge about the book itself and the author. I think, overall, it was a strong start to what I believe will be an exciting series. Although at first I wasn’t a particularly big fan of any of the characters, they all eventually grew on me (especially Nate- can’t wait to see what happens to him in the sequel!). The world of Keplar was interesting and entertaining, although I kept trying to categorize this book into either sci-fi or fantasy. It isn’t clearly either, rather, it blurs the line between the two genres.
One thing that I would have appreciated would be more world-building focused in the first few chapters of the book- I came to understand the way the world worked as the book progressed, but for the first half I would say I was somewhat confused on what was happening, and why exactly it was so important. I do think the inclusion of logs, news clippings, and poetry was helpful though, and that’s what really made this book stand out. Overall, I think this book is a great start, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing what the author has in store for her characters!

That ending.......

This book was full of great world building and character development. However, the pacing at the beginning was a bit slow do to this. Not that big of a deal once you get further into the story and you don't want to stop reading.

You have two female MC's and a bunch of quirky side characters and siblings which lead to a lot of fun banter and entertainment. I enjoyed the side characters the most.

It was a little confusing at times to keep track of the different im/mortals/magic and the time frames, but it did not deter me from the story too much. Just kept me on my toes and always thinking. This story does that a lot as you don't really ever know quite who you can trust.

I would definitely reccoment this book to others. It was a lot better than I had originally anticipated.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publishers for a chance to read this title in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a fan ride. It was fast paced and characters actually acted as teenagers should! I liked the excerpts from various books/diaries thrown in between chapters. I think it was a nice way to incorporate more information about the virus, magic, characters and world building without too much info dumping.

This book was a quick and fun read but it was your typical YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy so although it was fun, it was predictable and full of cringe worthy lines like: “God, you’re… gorgeous … If you can’t remember your name, maybe I’ll just call you that.”

Some of the characters were frustrating. I found Carina to be incredibly annoying but it wasn’t surprising because she was your typical rebellious teenager. I appreciated the growth of Vivian’s character. Her proud nature was quite annoying as well, but she matured a lot as the story went on.

The other problem I had was that there was a lot of telling and not showing, especially in the beginning of the book, but even that became less of a problem the farther we got into the story.

I think this book is perfect for teens. Even though the twists were predictable, they were still interesting and exciting. I know my teen self would have enjoyed this book a lot.

I received an ARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I picked up Sisters of the Perilous Heart on the strength of its attention grabbing premise, and I think there’s a lot of potential here. It’s a compelling and complex mix of dystopian, futuristic, and fantasy elements.

I enjoyed the two main characters, Vivian and Carina, the former in particular as she goes on a journey of trying to find a cure for the Immortality Virus, and I think it’s great that it gives her some complex motivations and a place to evolve from over the course of the story.

Carina’s story forms a great contrast, as she’s only growing into her powers, although I was a bit less invested in her story. She does have a cute romance that develops over the course of her arc though, so that’s a plus.

One of the aspects I really liked was the use of clippings from books to help illustrate the world building. As a history buff, I love when fictional worlds have as much depth put into their history, to the point of their being written records, and the way it feeds into slowly proving insight into the world building and the magic is great.

I really enjoyed this, and I can’t wait to see where this series goes from here. I recommend this to anyone who likes stories with a mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free e-arc!

I was truly pleased with this book! Once I got through the first chapter or so it really drew me in. I did feel at times that the plot line was slow but it is worth it over all. Very well built world with plenty of back ground. I think the best part was getting to know the Royal siblings and loving them through their own eyes, and then meeting them through Carina's eyes and hating them.

I can't wait to see what comes next!

ARC from NetGalley

2.5 stars

I didn't like that there was so much sci-fi in this fantasy.

I spent a good portion of this book hating the characters.

The royals didn't get help when they demanded it like a bunch of assholes because they were acting like a bunch of assholes. As I read that portion, I thought to myself, "these people are assholes." Not only did they not deserve the help, I hoped they wouldn't get it. I didn't sympathize with them. They were really crappy people.

It's difficult for me to like a book if I hate the characters. It's difficult to sit through a book where the entire story is pretty much a tale of a sick person trying to find a cure for their sickness, and you hate that person and kind of hope they die.

Miguelina and Carina were okay. Miguelina spent most of the book being an insufferable child. She acted like she was about 10. That said, Carina just allowed herself to be led around by her idiot boyfriend, and I kind of sympathized with Miguelina on that point. I would have been pissed off at her too.

The ending was mostly predictable. It would have been nice to learn that information slightly earlier. I think it would have had more impact. The ending was cliff-hangery, but not really because I didn't GAF what happened to the characters and have no real interest in reading the next edition.

Did this book have a plot? I mean, sort of? It's very much the first book in a series, disappointingly so. Nothing really happens until the end, and it's just a set up for what comes next. A solid meh.

This book drew me in slowly and kept my attention. At first I did not fully understand what was fully going on; however, as the book went on I found questions that I had being answered. The way that the characters interacted with each other made them come to life for me. The world building was done well and makes the story come to life for me. Plan on recommending this book to my other book loving friends.

Title: Sisters of the Perilous Heart
Series: Mortal Inheritance #1
Author: Sandra L. Vasher
Length: 414 pages
Publisher: Mortal Ink Press, LLC
Release: May 5th, 2020
Rate & Recommend: 🌟🌟🌟✨ likely

Thank you so much to Xpresso Book Tours via NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own! Sisters of the Perilous Heart is a unique sci-fi / fantasy crossover novel that got delightfully dark for the genre. There is even a tad bit of romance, and half of it is actually.....cute.

Immortality is engineered by a virus strain in a future Earth. Ships with Immortals are sent out to colonize other planets, and the events of the novel take place some 4000 years later. Once we read through some boring-ish but important epidemiology stuff, this book became truly enjoyable. I will not say spoilers but the end of the book was BRAVE on the author’s part!

The world-building and history is extremely well done. It comes in bits and pieces. In the beginning things are a bit confusing, but by the end of the book the various Strains of Immortals and Mortals and mostly everything else makes sense. The world itself is very well constructed with terrain, geography, architecture, food and dress that is very Earthlike at times. We even get a glimpse into the Royal family, succession, and political maneuvering but the novel never felt info dumpy in the present-day chapters. My favorite bit was to see the native citizens and some animals too.

The two main characters are both sweet and pretty relatable. Carina the girl from the brewery and Vivian, the Queen, poisoned two minutes into her rule. I liked these two, and the funny thing was that every single side character was a huge wildcard while the main characters stayed their courses. The princes obviously have their own agendas, and who knows what’s going on with Carina’s travelling buddies. A lot of character development was built around angst and hiding things, but teens in books rarely have open communication and that would make it too easy, right? Poor Queen Vivian though I really liked her and everyone thinks she’s a monster because of her god-terrible mother. I did like the dynamic between the trio of siblings – ha ha usually. I repeat: pay attention to the side characters while reading!

The magic was pretty straightforward. Certain Mortals in the Cardinal families have strong abilities in telekinesis and either heat or cold, while most people have some mild telekinetic skill. They vary from the interpersonal threads similar to Truthwitch to moving objects, healing, sensing people’s where abouts, to being able to tear a building apart.

Quick note: once it got going the pacing is perfect. I promise the plot and character twists toward the end are worth the reader’s time. Some is foreshadowed, some really isn’t.

Last but not least, the OneReadingNurse medical rant©! As a medical professional I am not sure how I feel about HIV+Flu mixing to cause the Immortality virus. I feel like it would just … kill people. I did like how much thought Vasher put into the etiology and epidemiology of the virus, but caution readers not to take it as advice on any specific modern day viruses. I also think her magical healing makes sense – Danielle Jensen and Kristin Britain in the past have written similar magical healing elements – it takes ENERGY to heal! It would likely wipe out the healer, and I like how the energy transfer is acknowledged and realistic here!

Anyway! In summary: Miscommunication as a plot device is not always a bad thing. There is political intrigue, sibling banter, and a whole lot of ‘why murder me when you could have just asked’? I liked the mix of modern, medical, and fantastic elements. I definitely recommend this book to both sci-fi and fantasy readers. I rated 3.5 stars for the learning curve at the beginning and amount of time it took to clear up the different factions, and I didn’t like Carina’s group’s dynamic. I definitely have 100% respect for the author for doing what she did at the end of the book 😉 and definitely need to read the next installment!

Can be seen on my blog at https://onereadingnurse.com/2020/04/30/arc-review-sisters-of-the-perilous-heart-by-sandra-l-vasher/ also posted to GoodReads and will update to include Instagram link

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for and ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

”The queen is supposed to be a light of hope for the entire kingdom, Viv,” he admonished. “Where’s your faith?” “Completely in you for the moment,” she admitted. “That’s a start,”

This book was so much better than I expected! It was full of action and excitement and I found myself getting the jitters as I anxiously waited to find out what was happening haha

The book had two POV’s from Carina and Vivian, although I think I enjoyed Carina’s chapters a little more. The world building and magic was pretty good, but kind of confusing? I was confused on when it actually took place because they had things from let’s say the 1800s as well as modern day. Idk maybe I just didn’t catch on.

Have you ever read a book where you didn’t know who or what to trust so it completely frustrated you? Well this was the book for me haha I went from “omg I love them” to “wait can I even trust him/her?” It’s a rollercoaster in the best possible way. I definitely think everyone should grab a copy of this book once it’s released and I excited for book two.

4/5 🌟’s

This book kept up the pace all the way through. There wasn't one moment I felt like putting it down. It was absolutely brilliant 5 stars for Sisters of a Perilous Heart can't wait to read the next one. Recommended!

*eARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

I was so confused the first like 10% of this book, and I don't know why - but I kept mixing up the main characters all the time. It felt like both Vivian and Carina was some sort of the same person in so many aspects. The magic system in this was just ... WOW, I adored it. I really enjoyed the small pieces of information that was like mixed media type of, and to get more knowledge of small pieces to piece the story together more. I did not enjoy the world building, and found it difficult to visualize how it looked for the most part of the story. Like, if you're going to build up this entirely new planet I want some world building and details about how it looks like.

I kept on reading thinking that it would become a different story than it was, and I think that is because of the synopsis. It let us believe that Carina and Vivian will meet within like the first 10% of the book, but no, they meet for the first time like 50% in. This book is so much about traveling and in some aspects I had a hard time understanding where the plot was going.

But, those last 20% of this book got me caught in the story totally. I devoured those chapters and couldn't put the book down and when I finished it I felt that I only wanted more more more more. I need to now what's going to happen next, and can't wait for the next installment in this series!

Interesting premise, but I kept waiting for something more. Also, despite the steampunk cover vibe and the magic mentioned in the synopsis, this book is primarily sci-fi.

Queen Vivian flees the palace with her two brothers after being fatally wounded in an assassination attempt. Infected with a strain of the Immortality Virus, Vivian searches for a cure no one thinks can exist. During this upheaval, on the opposite side of the kingdom, magically gifted Carina starts on her own journey to learn more about her powers and the red-eyed Immortals chasing her and her sister. When Vivian and Carina’s worlds collide, they both hope for answers, but secrets surrounding the origins of their world threaten to raise even more questions.

This book felt like a very long introduction to the coming sequels. It followed two perspectives, Vivian and Carina, and I wish both had been condensed into half as many pages. Vivian swung between passive and vapid, making it hard to invest in her character. She was very much an observer in her own story, focused on mediating between her polarizing brothers rather than asserting herself as a decision maker. Carina was more enjoyable, but her journey suffered from building toward an Extremely Obvious Plot Twist.

I enjoyed the stronger personalities of the two girls’ friends and family. Vivian’s brothers share a unique and dynamic relationship, it’s hard to go wrong with a bodyguard-type love interest, and Miguela is a petulant, yet loving younger sister.

Maybe it’ll all come together in the next book, but this first installment struggled as a self-contained story just because Vivian’s plotline was so boring.

**Thanks to Netgalley and Mortal Ink Press for the ARC**

I liked it enough to pick up the sequel.

This was an interesting story with well-crafted characters and good writing.

This was a really interesting book with some very neat and original ideas. It’s a mashup of a few different themes and although I wasn’t sure how that would play out, I did end up enjoying it.

First, I’ll start with the things I did like. I really liked one of the two MC’s, Queen Vivian. She was easily the most relatable and genuine person of the entire book. I liked how magic was used and described in the books and I thought the world building was well-done, albeit there’s still a lot I didn’t fully grasp. Sometimes I’m not a fan of books that switch of points of view, but it worked for me in this one. I liked the relationship that was building between Queen Vivian and Captain Thurlow and wish we’d have gotten more of that. I liked the complexity of the relationships between many of the characters as well. This book really started picking up towards the end with more pieces falling into place that definitely made the book better.

Now for what I didn’t like. First and foremost, Carina. I just really didn’t like this girl, at all. Maybe the last 10 pages or so of the book she starts to redeem herself but honestly I’m afraid it may already be too late for me to change my POV about her. She’s incredibly selfish, naive, immature and I cringed at a lot of her scenes. Overall, the entire book has a lot more of a “teenager” vibe to it that made it hard to get through at times. Especially considering the nature of the book and the complexity of it all. I have questions about a lot of things too but seeing as this is the first book in a series, I understand that’s probably done on purpose.

All in all, I did enjoy the book and after the cliffhanger of an ending, I absolutely must read the next one when it comes out.

I was provided an ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Planet Kepler - Two young protagonists - Vivian, new Queen to the throne, who needs magic to save herself from the Immortal Virus and Carina, an orphan girl forbidden to use magic and bought up hidden in a convent! Their paths are bound to cross and unforgettable things will happen along the way...

I really liked the history of planet Kepler and the forgoing rival between Kepler Mortals and the Immortals. The world building is a fine mix of virus, immortality, dystopia, sci-fi, space travel and fantasy, it doesn’t stop and develops with the story. For first few chapters, the story was slow paced and the characters other than Vivian and Carina were often morally confusing in whom to trust. But as a reader I stuck with it and honestly I got more involved in the twists, betrayals and adventures!! I think I’ll read the next book just to confirm my thoughts about the characters.
Thank you Netgalley, Sandra L Vasher, Mortal Ink Press for the ARC!

I loved this book!!! I was hooked from the very first “entry.” I can’t wait for the sequel. I took so many notes along the way, let’s see what I can share without spoilers...
The story follows two families of siblings. First is Vivian and her two brothers, Bastian and Nate. She has just been crowned Queen. The other two are Carina and Miguela who are orphans raised by sisters (but not nuns). Only Royals have strong magic. The immortals have no magic and no empathy/emotions, and they’re hunting both families.
This world is intriguing. It’s over 3000 years in the future but they still use horse drawn carriages and bow and arrows. One thing I enjoyed was that the story wasn’t drawn out. At one point they take a few day journey in a vehicle and the author didn’t waste our time with filler story documenting all three days. Just gave us what we needed to know and moved on.
Very early on I did make some predictions that came true in the end but it didn’t deter me from enjoying the story and the journey.
Definitely recommend!