The Heart of a Soul (The Soul Trials #2) by K. Loral Series: The Soul Trials #2
Genres: Supernatural, Young Adult
Pages: 491
Format: eARC
Source: Provided as part of book tour
Goodreads
The trials tested her body. This one wants her heart.
Mary has survived frozen mountains, deadly games, and the ghosts of her own past. But the sixth trial doesn't ask for her endurance. It demands ten years of her life.
Crowned queen of a kingdom built to fall, Mary must rule souls who worship her as a god while the sister she's fighting for slips further from her reach with every passing year. Azel, wounded protecting her, lies silent and unreachable. And in his place stands Valerio. Patient, attentive, always three steps ahead. He plans her balls. He charms her nobles. He offers to take her pain away with a single touch. All she has to do is let him.
But in this trial, her word is law, and every command has a price. Mary is about to learn that the most dangerous wishes are the ones that come true.
Julie’s Review:
Where the mood of the first book should be determined, the mood of this second book is: melancholy.
The first four trials tested her spirit and resolve. The fifth nearly broke her body and left her one-winged guardian Azel broken and unresponsive. This sixth trial is meant to test her… heart? What was it actually testing other than trying to break her at every turn.
This is where the book lingers, at this 10 year trial, and we experience nearly half of that time, in which we have plague, famine, death, destruction, and challenges to her authority. Mary tries to be a good queen, to take care of her subjects and show she is one of the people. Because at the end of the 10 years she will be judged on how she ruled and the way to pass this trial seems unknown. But she’s also incredibly stubborn and refuses to hurt anyone.. Which, I suppose you can say that’s part of her heart, but it tends to let bad guys continue to be bad, and hurt others. I feel like a lot of her choices caused more problems than they solved. But then again, in this trial everything was probably going to backfire no matter what she did.
I admit I struggled with the lingering and slower moving plot. This book being almost 500 pages felt too slow at times, but then things happened to gut me and make up for the slow with a different kind of agony.
Then there’s our demon Valerio, showing up while Azel is out of commission, and being helpful and supportive. But what are his motives? Does he actually care about her, or does have he have his own agenda. I mean, he’s a demon, you can’t trust him. And Mary knows not to trust him, and tries to be strong to avoid temptation of giving up.
I wanted more answers and this book just gave a few crumbs. When Azel gets severely injured in the fifth trial and believes he may die, he starts to tell Mary something, that she refuses to hear because she’s stubborn and won’t accept that he might be gravely injured. When Azel finally awakens, he gives just a bit of an answer, but he “isn’t ready” to tell her the whole story. So I guess we as readers have to suffer a lot longer before we find out what actually happened. Le sigh. But we know he is impossibly devoted to her, and punishes himself for something. Thus, lots of yearning and no resolution.
And so we have this soul fighting to save her sister, caught between a fallen angel and a demon, both trying to get her to pick a side. One full of sorrow and pain, the other deliciously devious. Both with motives not clear to the reader, or to Mary.
So then I leave you with some quotes and you decide which one we will root for in the next book.
“But even if I can’t be the comfort you need – even if I can never let myself be that happy… that wanted… don’t let it be him. Anyone but him. Don’t let him be the one who holds you when you’re broken. Don’t let him be that spark in your soul.” – Azel
“But I will be the curse that rids the world of anyone who hurts you. If the cost of keeping you standing is that you call me a monster, then I wish for nothing more than to be a monster.” – Valerio
The ending was a punch very low in the gut and the whirlwind of everything Mary feels is too much. What will she do next? How will Valerio help, or will he ruin her? I hope we don’t spend the 3rd book lingering for too long in this trial. Girl, it’s time to end these trials and take down the entire system.
Thanks to Lumos Book Tours for a chance to read this book.
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