Heartsong by TJ Klune

All Robbie Fontaine ever wanted was a place to belong. After the death of his mother, he bounces around from pack to pack, forming temporary bonds to keep from turning feral. It's enough-until he receives a summons from the wolf stronghold in Caswell, Maine. Life as the trusted second to Michelle Hughes-the Alpha of all-and the cherished friend of a gentle old witch teaches Robbie what it means to be pack, to have a home. But when a mission from Michelle sends Robbie into the field, he finds himself questioning where he belongs and everything he's been told. Whispers of traitorous wolves and wild magic abound-but who are the traitors and who the betrayed? More than anything, Robbie hungers for answers, because one of those alleged traitors is Kelly Bennett-the wolf who may be his mate.The truth has a way of coming out. And when it does, everything will shatter.

This one didn't quite grip me as much as the first two books. Klune kind of goes off format and starts in the middle of a story, working back and then into the future so I spent about a quarter of the book being frustrated and confused. This is why I hate stories with amnesia. Klune's writing is stellar and you do catch up along with Robbie, but it just wasn't as enjoyable because of that. And, because of the end events, you don't even get all the answers. I hope that the final book ties up some things but since it takes place from yet another character's POV who is not with the pack, I don't have hopes for that. Still, this series is brilliant and has made me tear up or laugh out loud on several occasions, resulting in my having devoured all three 300+ page books in a week which is pretty speedy for me - and I only want more.

3.5 stars!!!

Knowing that this was going to be from ANOTHER POV when going into it really raised my enjoyment. It was really nice to follow Robbie through his struggles in the second book, but going into the details of why it worked so well for me would be a huge spoiler for book 2. I just love T.J. Klune's writing, he has a way of making the characters jump off the page and feel so real. I wish I was one of the people that this book made cry but it just didn't hurt me the way I wanted it to. The plot throughout this is so sad and heartbreaking and I was rooting for Robbie the whole time. I'm looking forward to seeing how the overarching plot of the series is going to wrap up in the final book!

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.

senti el momento justo en el que el corazón se partió en 20 pedazos

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Love but with notes

4.5 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book but still with notes

5.0 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book and notes are very positive

I don't round up if half stars are not allowed.

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I wrote this review after I have read Brothersong so my views may be colored from that.

This book started off quite confusing. I wasn’t quite sure if I was reading Robbie before meeting the Bennets or if he moved back for some reason. It was sort of the latter.

I actually didn’t mind this so much. What did bother me was that this book was kind of boring. There was a lot of back and forth about what happened but it was going in circles, in my opinion.

I did like that we learned more about Robbie. I also liked that despite Kelly being Ace, there was more scenes about how Robbie and Kelly build up their relationship as compared to Gordo and Mark in Ravensong.

There are things in this book that just made me scratch my head in frustration:

1. Why were the former humans panicking when Kelly got sick with the cold? They were humans until recently. They should have recognized a cold for what it was.

2. It was said in the 1st and 2nd book that wolves recognize their mates. They get that feeling and then they know that person is their mate. So why didn’t Kelly immediately know that Robbie was his mate? In Wolfsong, Kelly was giving Robbie puzzled looks when Robbie was trying to get close to him. Also, Robbie didn’t immediately recognize Kelly as his mate. He said Kelly was cute though. But it wasn’t how it was with Joe and Mark.

It could be argued that recognition of one’s mate is different from wolf to wolf. However, they made such a big deal of it in Wolfsong that this whole thing feels like they are retconning the whole sentiment.

3. The argument in point 2 applies to Carter and the wolf (Gavin). Also they made Carter seem very dumb. He wasn’t like that previously so what’s up.

The book does have a “big” battle near the end. But it wasn’t really that big. They were basically fighting a bunch of feral children, Michelle, Dale, and Livingstone. It didn’t really give me the sense that the odds were against them or that the fight would be close. The story tried to make it seem that way, but I wasn’t really buying it.