Reading With Tyler

Name: The Second Death of Locke
Series: The Hand and the Heart #1
Author: V.L. Bovalino
Publisher: Orbit / Illumicrate
Format: Hardback (Special Edition)
Genres: Adult, Romantasy
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Review:

I have been seeing nothing but positivity about V.L. Bovalino’s The Second Death of Locke for months now. And the summary I was hearing made it sound like something I would love. I was put off for a while by the cover though (controversial I think because I’m pretty sure everyone loves the cover!)… Thankfully, for me, my fiancé treated me to the Illumicrate special edition for Christmas. And normally, I would be saying I wish I hadn’t let the cover stop me from reading this book! But I can’t say that, and I’ll get to that in just a moment…

I loved Grey and Kier and their relationship. I loved the dynamic of being a well with a mage – one creates magic but unable to use it, and the other unable to create it but can wield it. And of course our main characters weren’t your typical pair – because the summary tells us, Grey is actually the heir of Locke, the root of all power and if she dies all power dies with her… Talk about some high stakes!

I can’t even explain why I loved The Second Death of Locke – I enjoyed reading it, I enjoyed the story and the world building that we got, and the characters! Not to mention the writing was beautiful, there were multiple times I found myself tearing up because of what was happening on the page! It was a great experience.

The quest that Grey and Kier find themselves on to protect a child of an enemey kingdom was great too. We got to know a couple of the side characters and I enjoyed the growing dynamic between them all that carried throughout the rest of the book. Leonie is probably my favourite side character though, her relationship with Grey and Kier made my heart warm!

I am struggling more and more with the FMC or MMC keeping something from the other when it directly involves the other and the choice should at least involve the other! And we did have an example of that in The Second Death of Locke which annoyed me. It’s getting to the point where it pulls me out of the story whenever it happens so I can have a good old moan about it, and then I carry on reading… so it definitely bothers me, but not enough to give up on a read!

And finally – the reason why I can’t say I wish I had read this despite my issues with the cover… I felt like the ending was a bit anticlimactic. However, lucky me, in the edition I received there was a bonus chapter exclusive to Illumicrate and with the addition of that bonus chapter I liked the ending a lot more! So, this may be one of the only occassions where I’m glad I stuck to my guns and waited for the special edition.

All in all, this was a solid read and I really did enjoy it! The ending was cute, albeit anticlimactic, but the bonus chapter helped! The next book in this series follows different main characters, a different story in a different part of this world. And what we got to know about that part of the world in The Second Death of Locke has me very excited for it! I don’t know if they’ll be inter connected, or if it’s just in the same world – time will tell!

“Take my freedom, Grey. Everything I have is yours. Everything I am is yours.” (the rest of this quote is, I think a spoiler even without context, but just be known that I love it and it made me emotional!)