Scan barcode
A review by forevermorepages
Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston
2.0
I honestly hate that I've rated so many books two stars in the last few months. Part of it is that I'm becoming a more critical reader (good), but at the same time, I don't want to dislike book! I want to rate everything five stars! So that's...bad.
I can't for the life of me come up with a way to rate this higher. The main thing it suffered from was pacing. The events of this novel went at such a pace that it could have spanned three books, maybe two, and had been successful. Everything happened far too quickly, with most of what could be the main events of a whole novel happening in the first 100 pages. Therefore, it left this book being way too complicated and with a plot that carried on way too long.
As well, I couldn't connect with the main characters. I connected to Jax the most, but his main conflict over his relationship Robb could have made so much more sense if explained from the get-go instead of in the last hundred pages. I'm still not entirely sure why that was information we couldn't know about earlier. It only made Jax seem overdramatic. BUT. That isn't to say I disliked Jax; he was the most interesting and the best character out of them all. As for the others, I couldn't connect with Ana at all and her characterization seemed all over the place. Not to mention, I can't possibly ship a romance between a robot and a human; it just doesn't work for me (sorry, guys). As well, they had no chemistry anyway and it started off too soon, without any build. Furthermore, Robb's character was more on the "okay" side, where I didn't have any issues with him, felt a little for him, but still didn't find his character to have enough depth for me to fall in love with him. Some parts were kind of dropped in randomly, like his relationship with his brother, to the point where I wasn't sure if it actually had an impact on his character because it seemed very...sudden.
As a whole, this book was very flawed and I had more issues with it than not, but I will say that the diversity was by far it's best part. If the characters aren't POC, they're members of the LGBT+ community, which was amazing to see, honestly. It had such a wonderfully diverse cast of characters and I really appreciated that.
Can I say that the cover is a pro? I definitely loved that.
Don't let my review persuade you not to read it because you might love it! It just wasn't for me.
-Book Hugger
I can't for the life of me come up with a way to rate this higher. The main thing it suffered from was pacing. The events of this novel went at such a pace that it could have spanned three books, maybe two, and had been successful. Everything happened far too quickly, with most of what could be the main events of a whole novel happening in the first 100 pages. Therefore, it left this book being way too complicated and with a plot that carried on way too long.
As well, I couldn't connect with the main characters. I connected to Jax the most, but his main conflict over his relationship Robb could have made so much more sense if explained from the get-go instead of in the last hundred pages. I'm still not entirely sure why that was information we couldn't know about earlier. It only made Jax seem overdramatic. BUT. That isn't to say I disliked Jax; he was the most interesting and the best character out of them all. As for the others, I couldn't connect with Ana at all and her characterization seemed all over the place. Not to mention, I can't possibly ship a romance between a robot and a human; it just doesn't work for me (sorry, guys). As well, they had no chemistry anyway and it started off too soon, without any build. Furthermore, Robb's character was more on the "okay" side, where I didn't have any issues with him, felt a little for him, but still didn't find his character to have enough depth for me to fall in love with him. Some parts were kind of dropped in randomly, like his relationship with his brother, to the point where I wasn't sure if it actually had an impact on his character because it seemed very...sudden.
As a whole, this book was very flawed and I had more issues with it than not, but I will say that the diversity was by far it's best part. If the characters aren't POC, they're members of the LGBT+ community, which was amazing to see, honestly. It had such a wonderfully diverse cast of characters and I really appreciated that.
Can I say that the cover is a pro? I definitely loved that.
Don't let my review persuade you not to read it because you might love it! It just wasn't for me.
-Book Hugger