how he mirrors F-clutch through his service to Xian (like Frieda to Bethesda or Frederick to Julius), how he seems almost more like a servant than a member of the imperial family.
how he's likely the closest Xian ever had to a real friend, and clearly values him more than the Empress Mother, and yet there's still the barrier of their separate roles, plus the barrier of the nature of Xian's luck magic. Tranquility over joy, over true connection.
is he older than Xian? Younger? Did his mother enter a mating flight around when the previous Golden Emperor and Fenghuang flew together?
was he made for Xian? Born to serve his emperor/cousin?
and how Xian's luck accidentally killed his mother (Does he resent Xian for it? Does he resent Chelsie?)
Once upon a time, magic returned to the world, along with dragons, magic users, fairies, spirits, and gods
This story takes place in the DFZ, the Detroit Free Zone. The city of Detroit became a sentient free spirit and living city. She builds and holds dominion on her domain, and she has ruled that everyone is free to live their life on her terms within her limits, and she is no longer bound to the United States.
Once upon a time, a changling was left in place of a human girl, however the parents were terrible anyway and once the little girl started showing problems, they dumped her into a psych ward and abandoned her. The little changling girl cried and cried, as at first, she didn't even know she was a changling, only that she was a monster that was being punished. She had fur and claws, sharp teeth, and could barely see, and each day she was abandoned by the nurses, talked about in fear, and forced to hide under the bed from the cruelty of the place. Her only solace was her treasure, a silver thread tied 'round her wrist that only she could see and feel, which connected her to her sister.
One day, a wizard walked into her room and once he placed his hand upon her, he forced back the fur and claws and teeth, and she became a little girl again. She wept in gratitude and was compelled to pledge her service to the wizard, as he had stated she was dying, and the only way to save herself was to pledge herself to him.
Turned out he was an evil blood mage, and for a long time afterward, she was abused and forced to do evil things for him. She was trapped with another kidnapped child, a little boy who the wizard also made do even worse things as he was being groomed to be his apprentice.
One day, many years later, both now adults that were still trapped by the evil wizard - the evil wizard disappeared without a trace.
This was bad as the wizard controlled the pills that kept the changling human and stable. Without them, she turned right back into a monster, and she would rather die than be a monster.
SO - the clock is ticking as they try to find out what the hell is going on, why the fuck some shitty kaiju movie is being advertised on every possible outlet, and what the fuck the evil wizard was scheming.
continued:
SO the premise was really good and got me hooked. The main character Lola is really likeable as is the other characters
HOWEVER, the book (listed as Urban Fantasy) couldn't make up it's mind whether it was YA, New Adult, or actual adult Urban Fantasy
like there were some reaaaaaaaaaallly good parts, and some parts where the author peppered in pop culture, and then decided to be stupid YA protagonists.
it got mildly annoying sometimes, especiallyyyyyyyyy towards the 3rd book with Dee and Toothy. Dee had glimmerings of actual character and I wish the author would have developed that more instead of the stupid YA shit.
I wish amazon would just FUCKING SAY if a book was YA or New Adult. I'm sorry, there's a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE between YA, New Adult, and Adult. FUCKING PICK ONE.
But again, the story was so interesting that I skimmed over the annoying parts to get back to the actual story.
I really really loved the slow progression of interaction and growth between Lola and Valente. This was done really well and actually made me gasp a long drawn out gasp in book 3 as they FINALLY connected and said how they felt. Literally gasped like a victorian maiden, so good shit there.
The build up of the overarching story and what the fuck the evil wizard was actually fucking doing was good-ish. The evil fairy was a good antagonist, and Lola's overarching growth as a character and person was good. However the ending felt very rushed and kind of stupid actually after all that build up tbh.
And Valente's ultimate fate seemed like the author reallllllllllllllyyyy wanted him to be the DFZ version of Ghost Rider (which he mostly was to begin with). Which ehhh is cool, but I think it could have been tweaked a bit more? idk
Tbh, Lola's and Valente's relationship was really good and I wish the author had given it more time and room to breathe.
Anyhoo, TL;DR:
These were pretty good and I recommend them if any of this sounded interesting or good to you. They're pretty cheap at $4.99 per book.
I might give the author's other series "Hell for Hire" a shot
ooh, it was very interesting to read your summary and review of this series! I definitely agree with a lot of the points you brought up (I think generally Aaron is very strong in character-writing and getting readers hook in their stories) including a couple of the criticisms. (I also took a long break between reading the first book then the rest of the series, which may have also colored my perspective.)
Since you mentioned potentially checking out her newest series, might I recommend a couple of her older ones as well? Both the Heartstrikers and DFZ (Minimum Wage Magic) series are also set in the DFZ-verse (apologies if you’ve already read them), and personally I think they’re a bit stronger overall than DFZ-Changeling (which is totally not due to my dragon bias, no siree). They are set in the past compared the Changeling, which means there will be some spoilers you’ll already know, but I don’t think that should have too large an impact on reading enjoyment.
Anyways, always glad to hear of more people reading these books :D
Do you want more stories specifically focused on the Heartstriker clan? Ever wanted to know what a dragon hosting live TV would look like? Heard about this series but wanted a sample before committing to a whole book?
Then you should read Mother of the Year, a short interview-style story set around the events of the first book. Here, you'll meet BETHESDA HEARTSTRIKER, head of the largest dragon clan in the world and mother of mc Julius, as she plugs her newest book on Saturday Night with Marlin Drake. (Marlin Drake, of course, being the famous first dragon on television!)
I think it's great extra content for fans of the series, and a fun introduction for newcomers (though not all dragons are as horrible as these two, I promise!). No major spoilers are present, though the download also comes with an extract from the third Heartstrikers book, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished, which does spoil the previous two! So if this is your first glimpse at the Hearstrikers/DFZ universe, I'd recommend stopping at page 26.
Mother of the Year comes for FREE when you sign up for Rachel Aaron's mailing list (which is pretty spam-free, I'm on it and so far it only updates for her newest book announcements), available through her website here!
What are you waiting for? You could be reading about dragons TODAY! (and if you've already read it, share your thoughts in the notes :D)
Hell For Hire - a whole new action-packed series in a whole new magical world, out now!
^pasting link in a second time for good measure.
If there's a trouble with receiving the link to the files after signing up, let me know and I can provide it and/or the downloads directly (but I'll want proof you did sign up, support small authors, yo!)
okay guys i don’t know if i’m cut out to run a fuckyeah blog, spoons-wise, but darn it if i’m not going to try! I’ll see about maybe trying to post like once a month or something
ask box/dms is open for requests or really any heartstriker/dfz rants, though i may only check them occasionally
I know in the Heartstrikers books there’s a lot of emphasis on how Chelsie (and Felicity) takes after her mother (“reeks of Bethesda,” as per Fenghuang), and i know how they're narrative foils to each other and all, but let’s take a moment to appreciate the similarities between Bethesda and BOB?!
Look at this shit. This makes me insane.
Bethesda being initially underestimated by her father and brothers before she successfully staged her coup, and Bob being fully embraced by Bethesda as her seer only to then ultimately betray her too?
NOT TO MENTION ONLY THEY HAVE RAINBOW FEATHERS?!??
Plus with Amelia being in the “starter clutch” and lacking the green eyes, this means Bob is the first child to truly look like Bethesda.(well, since the rest of his clutch died)
