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I received this book as a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion. A big thank you goes here to HarperCollins Australia.
Arden Beacon arrives in the salt-swept port of Vigil with a job to do. Tasked with using the magic in her blood to keep the lighthouse burning, she needs to prove herself worthy of her family name and her ancestors' profession.
But the coastline Arden must keep alight – battered by a sea teeming with colossal, ancient beasts – is far from the cultured, urban world she knows. It is a place of secrets, rumours and tight-lipped expectations of a woman's place. More than anyone, the town folk whisper about Arden's neighbour, Jonah Riven, the hunter of leviathans. They say he murdered his wife. They say he is as much a monster as his prey.
Amidst all her determination and homesickness Arden cannot get this shadowy stranger out of her head. A plot swirls around the lighthouse keeper, the hunter and the authorities. Arden must make sense of these dark waters – before they wash her away.
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Voyager - GB
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0008337136
ISBN-13: 978-0008337131
First, as this is an ARC of ᴍᴏɴꜱᴛʀᴏᴜꜱ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ by Claire McKenna it is not the final cover. But honestly? I adore this cover! It's simple at first yet absolutely captivating with it's tiny details.
I needed to get used to the author's writing style at first but after about a third of the story I got totally hooked. The story line is thrilling, emotional, and partly scary. It also shows that you shouldn't always believe what the gossips are telling you. Not everyone is who you think they are and in this book? Well, no one really is who you think at first and the author had quite a few surprises in stock! The last third of the story absolutely killed me and I couldn't put the book aside at all. Also, the world building is amazing! I love the darker setting with all its little details and have been able to imagine every tiny spot the characters visited.
I don't want to say too much about the characters as I really don't want to spoiler you but I can say that they are a great deal of kind, loving, cunning, scary, brutal, courageous, and stubborn. They also are very secretive and some are having very dark, animalistic sides to them.
All up I enjoyed reading ᴍᴏɴꜱᴛʀᴏᴜꜱ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ with its surprising story line and the crazy characters. It's covering more serious matters and I can definitely recommend this story.