Heavenbreaker Review

☆☆☆☆

I actually really enjoyed this book. It’s unfortunate there’s a bunch of bad reviews. This is due to an issue with the publisher advertising it as romantacy – the problem lies with marketing rather than the quality of the book. I read three other Red Tower books this year and only one other was okay.

(I blame readers for this – even the description of the book makes it obviously sci-fi. Do they just buy books with pretty covers without reading the description at all?)

This book is definitely sci-fi, and there’s definitely a romance — although a slow-burning one (which is my preference anyway). But there’s more than the romance. I don’t read books for romances. I would argue it could have left the romance out – the story could potentially have been even stronger.

Sara Wolf does a great job with worldbuilding. This is a very unique book that doesn’t follow many tropes that I’ve been coming across over and over lately. She has created an in-depth world that combines history and future. There are some parts of the world that I didn’t think were fleshed out enough. I found myself not really remembering the “look” of certain things and other such insignificant aspects. However, these details didn’t take me out of the experience.

The first chapter was corny and admittedly I don’t think was an effective beginning.

The naming conventions of this book were a great addition. They show Sara’s dedication to the world she created without being heavy handed in explaining the symbolism. The last names include words such as “de,” “cu,” and “vel.” Although not explicitly stated, they all denote the character’s relationship to power. (“De” for those who inherited power, “cu” for those who are chosen for it [those with strong loyalty], and “vel” symbolizing duality – those who may be trying to reclaim power or are in a liminal state.) Since the book also has a focus on castes, it was an excellent touch.

One of my favourite decisions made for this book is the use of italics and bolding. It was effective in its use and helped alter the narrative in a meaningful way. I think it was done masterfully.

This book also builds up gradually. There is no point in which things just randomly flip. A character doesn’t suddenly hate another and then flip to pure forever love. There is no point in which anything happens this way (I would give more examples, but it would include spoilers).

My biggest pet peeve of the entire book is the amount of time “redwood” was written. All wood was redwood, but most importantly, a certain someone’s eyes as being described as redwood over. And over. And over again.

I also kept imagining Rax as a guy with dark red hair and not platinum. That’s my own fault as it is written that he has platinum hair repeatedly.

I’ve taken issue recently with many books (in these sorts of books in particular) in which characters have trauma, but trauma that does not have any meaningful effect other than to be used as relationship-building fodder – in which it doesn’t have anything to do with the plot, the character’s motivations, reactions, personality etc. I think this book departs from that. Although there is trauma, all of it serves its purpose. All of it makes sense.

The characters are fairly well rounded and I didn’t have any issues telling them apart. The flat, stock, or tertiary characters are still well defined and serve their purpose.

The character isn’t described in all the silly ways as being too average and then everyone calling her beautiful. Her looks aren’t a very important aspect at all. This book is all interconnected plots and worldbuilding. I read another review in which apparently this author starts series she never finishes, which I hope isn’t the case here, because there’s a lot that requires multiple novels to get through.

Synali is a great character. She has her flaws that are not romanticized. She has her motivations. You can see her character arcs. She can see both the good and bad in people, especially when it comes to Mirelle. Mirelle is a character I ended up liking much more than I expected. She has very strong morals. Although she is in a similar position to Rax in some ways, she has a completely different view of life.

I am genuinely more interested to see how Synali and Mirelle’s relationship will evolve more than Synali and Rax’s.

I’m going to need more time to really care about the “Spiders” that much.

I loved the use of religion. I appreciated a religion that doesn’t have multiple Gods. If I have to read “godsawful” or the mention of “gods” in another novel, I might vomit. I like how the use of religion evolved since Earth, but yet still has similar characteristics.

Every relationship, name, House animal, colour – all of it has a purpose in this book.

As usual, I’m not a big fan of first-person point-of-view, but in this one it feels necessary. In the same vein, what helps me gets past the first-person is how, when the point-of-view changes, it then becomes third-person. The entire thing could be third-person, but I’ll accept it the way it is.

The use of “Mother” and “Father” instead of “my mother” or “my father” was a bit pompous to read. I think her scar was mentioned too frequently. Some of the wording in the book seemed a bit out of place. However, I’m not taking marks off for this part.

Overall, I would give this about a 4 or 4.5. However, “romantacy” and “fantasy” should be taken out of the tags or genre. Maybe even take romance out. Although the book includes romance, it is not a focal point. The book’s plot does not revolve around a romance. Maybe it’s just my belief, but a book containing romance does not automatically make it a romance novel.

I look forward to the next one! Hopefully it can better find its actual audience.