The Heart Trials
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In a world where love is forbidden, one girl must fight for her heart and freedom through deadly trials in the first book of a dystopian romantasy duology from New York Times bestselling author J. Elle.
"Love Island meets The Hunger Games . . . a satisfying reality dating competition unfolds within a dystopian fantasy." —Kirkus Review
Welcome to The Heart Trials. The prize is love. The cost is everything.
In Ethyria the highborn may love; the lowborn may only feel what the Benevolent allows.
Saltblood lowborn Axira Merreri survives the decaying districts by keeping her heart locked tight, couriering goods by day—and smuggling the ruler’s euphoric Heartfillers to the highborn by night. Until a drop goes wrong and her execution looms.
When she strikes a dangerous bargain to steal something from the Tournament of Hearts, a ruthless dating competition to gain highborn citizenship, she enters. Not for love. For freedom. But as the twisted allure of the competition turns deadly, an unexpected connection cracks her defenses, forcing her to confront a truth she fears: In a regime built on engineered happiness, the most dangerous weapon she has is her heart.
New York Times bestselling author J. Elle delivers a breathless series opener that is bold, bone-chilling, and wholly original as it explores what happens when the heart becomes the empire’s sharpest blade.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Elle (Fortress of Ambrose) merges the spectacle of reality dating competitions with the tension of survival games in this brutal and beguiling romantasy series opener set in a dystopian island society that treats emotion as a commodity. To maintain order in the kingdom of Ethyria, ruler the Benevolent regulates his constituents' feelings according to class: Skyborn citizens maintain exclusive access to love, while everyone else is chemically suppressed using drugs called Heartfillers, which induce artificial happiness in consumers. Lowborn, orphaned Axira Merreri, who has pale skin, illegally sells Heartfillers to Skyborn elites, hoping to earn enough money to buy a ship and escape. After one of Axira's clients, a Skyborn royal, overdoses on the contraband, she's arrested for his murder. To secure her freedom, she forms a reluctant alliance with Prince Caelus and volunteers to enter the Tournament of Hearts, a dating competition that offers lowborn contestants a chance at Skyborn citizenship and the privilege of experiencing true love. If Axira obtains and delivers to Caelus a potent magic found within the contest, he'll grant her gold and passage off the island. Sumptuous prose and cerebral, original worldbuilding coalesce into an electrifying narrative that boasts relentless tension, political unease, and irresistible momentum. The result is both gut-wrenching and page-turning. Ages 14–up.
