Book Review: A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass

A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass

Book Title: A Thousand Heartbeats (*Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Kiera Cass
Genre: YA fantasy, fantasy romance
Published: November 29, 2022 by HarperTeen
565 pages
My rating: 3/5

“Love has a sound. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats happening at the same time.”

Princess Annika lives a life of luxury in the prosperous kingdom of Kadier, but her life isn’t hers to control. Her father is forcing her to form a marriage alliance to duke Nickolas for political gain. Meanwhile, in the decaying Vosino Castle, Lennox prepares for a war to take back the throne from Annika’s father. When these two enemies meet, the call of a thousand heartbeats binds their fates together.

A Thousand Heartbeats is a Young Adult standalone fantasy romance. I expected the book to have more fantasy elements, especially as the cover seems to imply that the characters live in a world with a lot of water. But no. There’s no magic or magical creatures. Basically the only thing that makes the novel a fantasy is that it takes place in a fictional world. The setting is medieval-esque with its castles and princesses and warring kingdoms, so this book could be classified as a Young Adult fairytale.

The worldbuilding was nice, although a bit shallow at points. The historical and political situation of Kadier at least was well developed, but I would have liked to learn more about the other countries in this world. I didn’t get a sense of their landscape, and they seemed mostly barren of people. Didn’t anyone notice that an army marched straight through their land?

I liked the two main characters. Annika is soft and sweet but also fierce when needed. She’s a bit too perfect, but not to an unbearable extent. Lennox is a gruff warrior with a vulnerable side, forced to kill by his stepfather. I don’t usually like morally gray characters, but Lennox, despite having murdered several people, didn’t seem too morally gray – it made sense that he had been forced to become a murderer by the circumstances where he lived. However, I could not get over how quickly Annika forgave Lennox for the murder of someone she loved. I would have preferred it if Lennox had blamed himself for something that he didn’t actually do, and the murder had been committed by someone else.

The chapters are short, but the pacing felt slow, especially during the first half of the book. There wasn’t enough tension between Annika and Lennox, since they don’t even interact with each other for half of the book. The enemies portion of this enemies-to-lovers story was well done, although it took a long time to actually start – the main characters don’t meet until page 125. But then, all of a sudden, the main characters fall in love with each other in basically a day. This turn happens at midpoint, but it still reeks of instalove. Annika’s and Lennox’s relationship was sweet, but it happened way too fast.

This is a bit hilarious, considering that the title of the book comes from a discussion where someone tells Annika that love sounds like “a thousand heartbeats.” This is how Annika herself describes falling in love with Lennox. However, later in the book Annika realizes that the person who told her what love sounds like is actually not in love but obsessed – which would imply that Annika herself is not in love, but simply obsessed with Lennox. Way to undermine the whole thesis of the book! It would have been better if someone else (for example Annika’s best friend Noemi) had told Annika what love is like.

In addition, some things happen too conveniently and there are some plotholes. For example, when the Dahrainian army marches to Kadier, apparently no one notices them and alerts the army until they are charging at the castle? Also, why does officer Palmer trust Lennox so implicitly when he could be the one trying to assassinate Annika?

I’m giving this book three stars. It’s a light, fluffy fairytale romance, and as such it does its job reasonably well. If that's what you want, that's what you're going to get with this book. I also liked the fact that it’s a standalone and not dragged out into a series, even though it makes the page count quite hefty.

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