Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆☆
Second Heart is the second installment in the Bones of Eden trilogy, and cannot be read as a standalone. I would strongly suggest against reading individual books or out of order.

In the continuation, the stormy season is upon the refugees from Eden, and they must learn to work together. With ignorance and past biases, it's with great difficulty, causing many issues as they struggle to survive without enough food to feed them all.

I was intrigued with the world Zaide Bishop created. Most of the time, it feels like I'm picking up book after book of the same, where every book either has a similar theme or leaves me feeling as if I've read the entire storyline before. That is not the case with the Bones of Eden series.

Innovated and fresh, I had no idea what was going to happen next. It's hard to believe but this installment was more savage, more thrilling, as the reader learned the genesis of Eden right along with the characters. There was no endless inner monologue-ing, or info-dumpage, as the necessary information was slowly delivered in a fast-paced read, as the characters discovered who they are, how they began, and how to survive with the knowledge.

I don't wish to ruin the story by giving out spoilers, so I won't highlight a specific thread, as it shocked me, and I respect the author and the readers enough not to spoil it for them. As I said, this installment was a bit more savage, with prehistoric animals, remnants of the world we know today, and the flex of the human condition.

Human nature is what Bones of Eden is most certainly about. How, no matter what conditioning we receive, what knowledge we learn, it's unavoidable how we will react and adapt.

With a handful of narrators, several romantic/erotic threads are played out on the pages as well, written in a fresh way that also removes the feeling of 'I've read that before.'