Heart Thief is a part of the Sinister Fairy Tales collection. I’m not sure if Ker was trying to retell a fairy tale or if she was coming up with her own. Either way, I’m perfectly happy with the book the way that it came out, and I would actually love to have more, because it was a pretty quick read.
We start with sisters, Clara and Mona. Clara is the older of the two. They live in a very restrictive religious cult where their father is the leader. Neither one of them is happy though. They live on a small island in the ocean, and their father has told them for years that if they go off the island and into the outside world, they will be tainted, and horrible things will happen, including having to spend time in the dungeon and be cleansed afterward. But Clara has managed to leave the island occasionally. She gives Mona her birthday present, and then disappears, and then turns up dead.
Now, 5 years later, Mona is about to turn 18. She hates where she’s living even more than she did when her sister is there. The only person she really feels close to is Eli, and he is problematical. He wants to marry Mona and become the next leader of the island. Mona has other plans though, and they end up being with people named Colt and Cash, the twin Ward brothers, who have more history with Mona than you might expect.
There is a lot of pain and sadness in this. Colt and Cash have their issues with their own pain, and then the pain that they share as twins. They have had some bad shit happen, and they have an asshole father who is going to do what he can to push that pain and make it worse.
Mona has her pain because of her missing sister, who was so close to her and who she almost shared a soul with. And with the way that her father rules their island. He’s a dickhole. No, what, that’s too nice for him. He’s the dickhole of the worms that feed on whale shit. Mona is really strong, and pretty fearless. I mean, when you look at the book, you can just see how she pushes on despite whatever fear she has and she doesn’t really let it stop her.
OK, no spoilers today. It’s a pretty short book, and I’m already worried that I might have pushed a little far in this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 