House of Pounding Hearts by. Olivia Wildenstein | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: House of Pounding Hearts (#2)

Author: Olivia Wildenstein

Format: ebook (KU)

Pages: 444

Publication Date: 1/29/23

Categories: Romance, Fantasy, Series, Crows, Faerie, Fated Mates

I MEANT TO CAPTURE THE PRINCE’S HEART . . . AND ENDED UP WITH A KING’S.

My desire to sit upon the Lucin throne led me to revive an ancient, winged monarch; one I deemed a friend until that friend duped and imprisoned me.

Lorcan claims he’s holding me captive for my own safety, but then he also claims I belong to him. Slumbering for five centuries has evidently given the Crow King severe delusions.

We may share an unfortunate mind-link, but we are still masters of our own destiny, and I intend to steer mine away from the Sky Kingdom and its prophecies . . . away from him.

I quickly find out there is no escaping the possessive male. In all honesty, I’m no longer certain I want to.

Get swept away in the second installment of a slow-burn shifter fantasy series full of heartbreaking deceit, wicked supernaturals, and alpha males.

I wasn’t on planning on reading the sequel in this series because the first one was just an okay read for me. But I was curious about the crows, which came at the ending part of book one, so since I needed a break from reading arcs, I decided to pick this one up. This is what I thought:

+ Fallon annoyed me less in this one. She still acts young-because she IS, but mostly around her friends because she’s fun and wild around her friends. They drink and party a lot, but being in Lore’s world has finally opened her eyes to a few things. He’s the serious one between the two of them and with a lot at stake, he’s trying to keep her safe, break a curse and free his crow people.

+ I adore Phoebus who is not only a good friend to Fallon but super funny too. Fallon has great friends.

+ I liked the political intrigue and that the story was now more about that than Fallon’s love life.

+ Finally Fallon has seen what Dante really is! This book is mostly about Fallon and Lore and this bond that they have with one another and when she will stop fighting it. When they finally get together, it’s hot and steamy times Fallon and Lore!

~ This book is book, just like its predecessor is over 400 pages long. I think it’s a tad bit too long. There was a lot of court intrigue in this one, which I enjoyed but I think we could have done without Antoni pining for Fallon. That was so over when Lore came into the picture.

~ There are a lot of characters in this book so at times I just had to try and remember who was who in Luce…and I didn’t always do a good job at that but I just went with it.

~ I do wish we got to know more about Shabbe but I’m assuming that’s where this story is going in the third book.

Why you should read it:

you liked the first book
Fallon and Lore finally gets some sexy time together
you want to read a romantasy with fated mates and alpha males

Why you might not want to read it:

you weren’t into the first book

My Thoughts:

I actually liked this book slightly better than the first one because I think the crow people are fascinating. Also there is finally some sexy action between Fallon and Lore. I still think the story could be shorter but I’ll read the next one to see what happens.