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by J. Elle
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 new dystopian romantasy duology from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J. Elle.
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 and USA Today bestselling author J. Elle delivers a breathless series opener that is bold, bone-chilling, and wholly original. For fans of the cutthroat competition of The Hunger Games, Love Island, and Powerless, this dystopian romantasy explores what happens when the heart becomes the empire's sharpest blade.
"A well-written dystopian romantasy, hand it to fans of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games." —School Library Journal (starred review)
"Sumptuous prose and cerebral, original worldbuilding coalesce into an electrifying narrative that boasts relentless tension, political unease, and irresistible momentum." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Love Island meets The Hunger Games in a racially diverse world…A satisfying reality dating competition unfolds within a dystopian fantasy." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about The Heart Trials was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
J. Elle is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of dark fantasy fiction examining love as a powerful phenomenon—capable of building and destroying worlds.
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