There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

With such a cool spooky looking cover, and an intriguing synopsis, I really expected Heartsnare by Steven B Williams to be a fantastic new gritty fantasy world for me to indulge in. And it might be! Just, not for me. I unfortunately had to call it quits on the book after approximately 30%. Almost all of the cool things mentioned in the synopsis never happens a third of the way through, save for Eric’s best friend dying.

I feel as though Heartsnare fell into a trap many writers wanting to introduce a new world do. Whereas we have some authors who give you too little, Williams gives too much. He makes you feel settled in and a bit mundane. Yes, I understand the importance in grounding the reader in the familiar before throwing them into the dark and unknown, but this was far too much. Additionally, writing in accent for the entirety might not have been the best idea if the goal was to reach a wider audience. At first, it was fun for me, a novelty that quickly lost its charm as I continued reading.

There are slight hints of what might happen, of some dark power Eric may have inherited related to a heart condition he suffered from in his younger days. Two or so instances in the first thirty percent where a slight something happens when he gets emotional, angry. But it’s never given further thought and it certainly wasn’t enough to keep me interested in continuing. I think, perhaps, if the horror element was introduced earlier on, had attempted to hook me, I would have continued on. The writing was solid, the characters likeable. Or, if it was going to take this long to get to the horror, I might have been able to stick around if the build-up and character interactions weren’t all in accent. But, to have everything in accent AND the horror not pop up? I just couldn’t stick through it.

Heartsnare by Steven B Williams has solid writing, and I’m certain Williams knows his world thoroughly. I think this is a book a lot of people can love, just not me. The constant use of accent and slow build-up were a tough combination I could not break through to finish this book.

Heartsnare is a difficult book to read which should have been so much better if the dialogue was a little tighter at times. The writer has created a working class fantasy / horror which I admired but this can sometimes hold the story back. Occasionally drifting into the ‘Play for Today’ genre it sometimes felt like the television dramas on BBC2 in the 80’s. The sarcasm and dry humour of the characters can be funny at times but feels overplayed on occasions.
I would be looking out for anything by Steven B. Williams but hope he does not lay on the northern-ness to much next time. Please note I am from the North of England so mean no offence in my review.

I absolutely adored this book. It is well-written, quirky, interesting, and has a lot of truth within it's pages. I enjoyed it so much I actually paid full price for the paperback on Amazon so I could read it again and again and again. I fell in love with the characters and really related to so much of what the author was saying that I felt like it was written for me. I cannot wait for the sequel!

See my full goodreads review for more.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1953959964

This turned out to be a very long and tiring read, and by tiring I mean two senses of the word: boring and stressful. Large portions of the book consisted of negligible details and boring dialogues. After some time, those even became quite annoying with every odd statement ending with 'mate' oder 'cheers' - at first it added a quirky but somehow also charming touch, but very soon it crossed the border to 'oh please not again'.

So how can a boring story at the same time be stressful? Well, between all that uninteresting stuff it was hard not to miss the main story-line, but once I got used to skip the unimportant stuff a quite interesting plot revealed itself. The basic concept of the hidden shadow hearts and the evil umbras was truly fascinating, although I missed some more background detail to truly understand everything. Were the dialogues are the weakest part of this book, the action scenes and the fantasy passages are OK. The looming romance between Eric and Alistair with their constant teasing was a nice addition to loosen things up.

Like the needle in a haystack, you have to dig deep to find the essential story hidden beneath a huge pile of fillers. This book could easily be condensed and edited into a quite captivating fantasy novel. However, in its current state it just left me exhausted and disappointed.

This was my first read by this author, and I was highly impressed. It's a unique take on the horror genre, which I truly enjoyed. Very recommended for any horror fan and even beyond.

On Netgalley I happened to stumble upon Heartsnare. This cover really stood out to me from some of the rest and the promise of monsters rapidly made me request this book. Unfortunately the execution of this book ultimately let it down.

The thing is, the start was slow and incredibly boring to me. I get setting up the plot and the lives of these people but for a book barely 300 pages one would expect a bit of pace. There was none at that start. I really didn’t care to learn so much about some of their neighbors and all that. I had a hard enough time with Eric and his mother Jardhine. I struggled to connect with either of them.

Especially with Jardhine who did not really have much to do with the supernatural part of the story. It is one thing to have an active parent present, it is entirely another to have her have such a frequent point of view without enveloping her moments into the supernatural parts. She was more there as an incentive to Eric and I don’t think we needed her point of view for that.

That the author used a dialect and slang words and sayings like ta and put the kibosh on it, didn’t entirely help with that either. Having said that, in the second half I stopped noticing it as much and I started getting used to the ta and so on. Dialect and slang can be hard things in books but since this is something that is used in the area that they lived at it did make it realistic.

Around page 150 the book started picking up when the supernatural elements became more clear and a new character was introduced. His point of view was a fresh of breath air throughout the rest of the story. And his interactions with Eric made him come more alive as a character for me as well. The sass was added and the pace picked up. I started enjoying this book.

The idea in itself of the hearts is something I haven’t seen before. Not like this. And that really interests me. But the world building in itself was such a mess. I have so many questions and we got so little answers. I hate especially when the book ends with I have to tell you something but I won’t for your own good. Rolling my eyes here. Keeping things from others never did work out well. Don’t we learn?

Different planets was suddenly dropped into a conversation as if that had been discussed before and I started at the page because I wondered what I missed. Could not for the life of me remember that explanation. And that happened with more things. There would be snippets of conversation happening between two characters and Eric would be there listening in but the information would not be explained. Sometimes I felt it was just assumed that I as a reader would understand the world. I can guess a lot but I really shouldn’t have to. So I have very little grasp on this world at the end of this book. And that is such a shame.

Heartsnare was an odd and for the most part intriguing blend of family drama which moves into fantasy and the supernatural. Set a year after Eric has miraculously recovered from a heart defect, and in a humdrum Yorkshire town where everyone seems to be struggling to pay the bills, a very good friend of Eric's is murdered which leads to the complex supernatural of the book. I found the book was way too long and found myself drifting away at certain points and some of the characters came across as working class caricatures. However, there were some very nice set pieces and the author had some real flair in his writing. I just wasn't convinced it all fitted together, but it was certainly ambitious and Steven Williams is certainly an author to watch out for.

I do not usually like to give a book less than a 3 star review because in my mind 3 star denotes a relatively well written book, with defined characterization and plot. Mr. Williams seemed to have written large portions of this book while watching television, with a lot of nonsense and sarcasm used to pad it...perhaps I missed something? There seem to be some humorous portions but...only my opinion.

"In essence: they'd lived, he'd just survived."

God, this is a hard one to rate.

Well, Williams definitely can write, somehow managing to infuse terror with sarcastic, Very British humour so one minute you're laughing and the next minute you're screaming. (I was sometimes doing both simultaneously.) He also has an almost Douglas Adamsian talent for wry, sardonic descriptions. Here's a few of my favourite quotes:

"She radiated beauty like a carnivorous plant."

"Eric handed over his provisional driver's licence. She studied the picture, then his face. She studied the picture some more. Take your time, love, but if we stand here much longer the ravages of time mean I won't look owt like that picture."

"Even the back of his mum's head looked annoyed."

Tl;dr, as a fellow sarcastic world-weary northerner, this is Precisely my type of humour and I loved it. Now, onto the actual plot.

I found the overall concept of umbras, supernatural beings hovering somewhere between the realms of fantasy and horror, to be really original and interesting and for most of the book I was really invested in what was going to happen next. Unfortunately, I did feel it perhaps lost its way a little bit towards the end. I still really liked it, but that lack of momentum is what prevents me from giving this five stars.

Great read, though. I'd recommend it if you like dark fantasy or horror, and you want to read about creepy demonic beings ravaging a sleepy Yorkshire village instead of a sprawling metropolitan city for once. Undecided whether I'll read the sequel (I heard it's a series?) but I'm leaning towards yes at the moment.

Heartsnare is a book with horror,fantasy, and some humor. The story is very British and most of the book will keep you very engaged in the story. I will read the next book in the series and I am sure it will be better than the first.

Dark, fantasy horror, laced with humanity and humour. A hero who occasionally needs his ears boxed. I enjoyed this a lot. The first in a series that I can't wait to keep reading.