Blurb:

Envy can slay even the mightiest heroes.

Kilek dreams of becoming a hero. Which is why when a goddess calls him and his friends to adventure far from their sleepy village, he's ecstatic. But when his friends are transformed into adults with weapons, magic and more, Kilek gets nothing—except a divine mission and bitter odds.

A hoard of giant insects and the agents of rival gods threaten the land, and it's his mission to resurrect the dragons that can defeat them. Feeling cheated and adrift, Kilek does his best to be useful. But as his friends repeatedly risk themselves to save him, he slips further into bitterness. Can Kilek push past his envy and become a hero without the goddess' gifts, or will his failures doom them all?

War Heart is the first exciting fantasy novel in the Five Furies series. If you love epic quests, impossible odds, and underdog heroes, dive into War Heart!

Review:

This has been on my kindle for a good long time, on my TBR for longer, and it did NOT disappoint. Immediately, we’re sucked into a beautifully fleshed out world that I just could not get enough of. If you’re a fan of the Zelda franchise, games like DnD, and stories chock full of adventure, then War Heart by Ashley Capes is absolutely the book for you.

From the get go, we meet a group of lovable friends in the village of Hasere, going about their adventuring day clearing out a landslide just beyond the village. Our main character, Kilek, finds a sword and, like the upstanding guy we learn that he is, offers it to someone else. Kilek knows his limits, something he’s constantly reminded of. Well, things take a turn for the worse almost at once. In a nearby temple where the group was tasked with a short bout of cleaning, an exotic insect was found. A Cabeku. Its blood and venom ate through clothing and would have done the same, if the group hadn’t been more careful. Perplexed by the discovery, they scour the rest of the temple, and find an unexpected figure waiting for them. A literal goddess.

She grants them boons, well, most of them. All but Kilek have their bodies grow many years, and receive other boons besides. What does Kilek get? Well, he wants to know the answer to that question too. A great evil is stirring, according to the goddess, one that Kilek and his friends need to stop, but when they return to Hasere, it's been razed, and all the people gone, conscripted into a foreign army.

So begins the group’s journey to track down their friends and loved ones, uncover how the exotic insects play a role in all this, and figure out just exactly what the goddess gifted them with. But more importantly, why?

Along their journey, we meet strange enemies, stranger comrades, and learn a lot about Kilek and his friends. Some of them become savants with magic, the bow, or the sword, while Kilek and one other don’t exactly get anything. Anything tangible, at least. I found Kilek’s journey very refreshing and authentic. He’s struggling with who is now that his friends have grown so much but he hasn’t. Who is he to question a literal goddess? But at the end of the day, why couldn’t she have told him what happened? It wasn’t adding up. But Kilek is slowly figuring it out.

Their journeying travels great swaths of land, described expertly by Ashley’s hand. I felt like I was in the world, bounding over hills, sprinting down back alleys, skulking through caves, and riding horseback. Now, have I done most of those things? Nah, but it sure felt like I did.

By the end, we learn of what’s happening with the forced conscripts, or we’re beginning to get an idea, at least. But just before we do, a familiar enemy—a servant of a different, less benevolent god—rears his ugly head, and stops Kilek in his tracks. Will he make it out alive? I’m honestly not too sure. One, because Kilek’s track record precedes him. Two, because it’s the cliffhanger we’re left on. That’s my only complaint with War Heart. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NOW.

That aside, I had so much fun reading this book, and despite the 300+ pages, it went by in a flash. We see a lot of common tropes here, like the reluctant hero, princess that’s pretending not to be a princess, strange mage who shows up at the right time, but they’re all so well done that I genuinely did not realize they were in the book until I put together this review. I perhaps wish we got to see how it ended rather than a cliffhanger, but hey, I’ll be reading book 2 no matter what, so I don’t mind.

There was one specific scene, I won’t say which, that filled me with so much… emotion for Kilek. I felt for him, from the bottom of my heart, and I can only hope things turn out the way he wants them to, in one way or another. What am I talking about? Well, if you haven’t caught on to the message by now, go buy and read the book. Seriously, it’s worth it.

As I said, if you enjoy games like Zelda or DnD, anything with adventure, quests, and a whole lot of fun, read this book. It brought me back to my days as a younger kid playing some of those quest-y PS2 games nobody can remember the name of, as well as a whole bunch of quintessential adventure fantasy books, shows, anime, what have you. It's all wrapped in one in War Heart, go give it a try.