A Harvest of Hearts was compared to Howl's Moving Castle and I can see the connection, but don't think it completely met expectations. The whimsy is 100% there! There's a magical, sentient house that communicates with Foss through rearranging itself. I loved how the house's emotions got space to develop and readers could see a range from happiness to anger. Also, there's a talking cat! Cornelius is EVERYTHING and I love him.

However, the humor of Howl didn't come through for me. I rarely found anything funny and with Howl I am always laughing out loud. Sylvester had Howl's arrogance and aloofness which made him mysterious in the beginning, but the sheer drama wasn't there for me. Plus, the romance was severely lacking. Nothing happened until 80% of the way through the book and before that Foss's love was because of a spell. There was no tension or slow burn. I was rooting for nothing.

This book was also compared to The House in the Cerulean Sea because it's a cozy fantasy. Ummm. . . yes both are cozy fantasy, but A Harvest of Hearts does not have the innate sense of charm that The Cerulean Sea has. The characters are nowhere near as loveable. I just think these comp titles are doing this book a massive disservice.

I did enjoy the book. It's not a favorite, but I don't feel like I wasted my time reading this. I know this review is fairly negative; however, it's mostly because I don't want people to have the wrong expectations going in. The plot moves very slowly, but the magic system is very intriguing.

I had a hard time connecting with the author’s style throughout most of the book. It felt like to much detail was being given and very little was left up to my own imagination of the world.

Was also not a fan of the FMC constantly talking about how unattractive she felt she was. It got to the point where I was just skimming through her inner dialog and the story in general.

The relationship between Foss and Sylvester felt forced as well since we don’t see much of their “relationship” building outside of the magic and the very end of the story. Felt instalove in a slow burn way if that makes sense 🙃

Cornelius was adorable though.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A cosy fantasy set in a kingdom where stunningly beautiful sorceresses take parts of your heart to fuel their magic, this was a very quick and easily devourable read. Featuring a sentient house, a talking cat, a headstrong and resilient butcher's daughter and a grumpy, over-dramatic sorcerer, the Howl's Moving Castle parallels are very obvious. The magic system is interesting and unique, if not pretty sinister, and the world setting well developed. I found Foss abrasive at first but as I read on I started to understand and like her more and more, especially her dynamic with my favourite character - Cornelius the cat.

In Foss Butcher’s kingdom, the people are used to having pieces of their hearts collected by sorceresses for the health and protection of the kingdom. When Foss’s heart is accidentally snagged by a rare sorcerer, she is drawn into the city, where she’s bound to her sorcerer Sylvester and must come to terms with her strange situation, an even stranger magical house, and a talking cat. When the hearts that protect the kingdom become infected, both Foss and Sylvester start to question everything they’ve ever known.

The fairytale quality of the story was interesting, but mostly I was disappointed and occasionally confused. The pacing is incredibly slow in some places, Sylvester is never truly fleshed out—I think this was just a case of Stockholm syndrome because outside of Foss’s spell infatuation there’s nothing about Sylvester to like, and Foss herself is borderline repellant because she never stops talking about how ugly she is. Shoutout to Cornelius though, he makes me wish my cat could talk. Overall, the story had potential, but it didn’t pan out.

I was drawn to A Harvest of Hearts by its premise, promising a whimsical adventure reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle. The book certainly captures that essence in its early chapters, with a magical atmosphere and intriguing world-building. As the story progresses, it carves out its own identity, adding unexpected twists and a sense of wonder that kept me engaged. The blend of fantasy elements felt fresh, at times evoking the charm of classic animated films.
However, the character development left me wanting more. Foss’s constant self-deprecation made it difficult to fully connect with her journey, as her growth felt slow and drawn out. Sylvester, while an interesting character, never quite reached his full potential, and his arc felt somewhat rushed. On the other hand, Cornelius the cat was the undeniable scene-stealer, adding humor and warmth to the narrative.
Overall, while the book had its flaws, its imaginative world and whimsical tone made it an enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

You know, I questioned the comparison to Howl’s Moving Castle, thinking there’s no way, but the first 30-40% really does feel like the movie. Almost *too* much, where it felt like I was reading an imitation Howls, but then the plot kept plotting and we ended up in an interesting place, with a heroine who didn’t lose herself in the process.

There are witches and magic, fueled by hearts that they steal from citizens. Our main girl Foss is snagged by sorcerer Sylvester and needs to follow him to ease the pain of her heart sickness. From there, we encounter a magical house, a talking cat, and a plot so sinister that it gets surprisingly dark.

My biggest complaint is that I feel the story could have been about 100 pages shorter. It just felt bloated, with too many scenes communicating the same thing, that spending that time instead tightening up the plot and character development would have gone miles for the betterment of the story. Less would have been more.

But, I can’t be too mad. Even if it felt a little bloated, I still had fun and wanted to make it to the ending. Rounded up to four stars, because the author has a brain and while the story was bloated at least it wasn’t poorly written and repeating itself.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This was such a lovely cozy fantasy. I loved the magic and the world building and how Sylvester was an intriguing MMC. Foss even though doubtful and self conscious proved to be a strong and brave character. And Cornelious the talking cat was one of my favorite characters.

Although this book was good it moved quite slowly until the 50% mark and then it feels like the ending and the romance bit (even for a slow burn) was rushed. I also do wish there was more depth to the FMC and the MMC as well.

I'm still rating this book four stars because it was definitely a cozy fantasy through and through and the writing style was good, it's definitely something you need to be in the mood for but I enjoyed this read because by the end it had me "snagged".

A girl who finds her heart being ensorcelled by a Sorcerer so she decides to go in disguise to work as his housekeeper to find her heart and break the curse! Foss is the daughter of a butcher who lives in a world where heart magic fuels the kingdom.... and now her heart is being taken and she has to find a way to get it back. This book was advertised as a " Howl's Moving Castle" meets " House in the Cerulean Sea" but unfortunately this book feel flat for me. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. I love a fun fantasy adventure story, I absolutely adore Howl's Moving Castle, but this book just felt so boring to me. I could never really fully get invested in the character or the story. i just didn't really care all that much. I found myself getting bored and disassociating while reading this. I wish I could like this. I truly did. The romance just never really felt all that there and I just wasn't convinced. The writing style just didn't work with me. Sadly this one wasn't for me and I really did try to like it but it just didn't live up to my expectations.

Release Date: March 4, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Kensington Publishing | Erewhon Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Decent story, not exactly what I would call cosy, though. It's for a good length of the book a rather grim and dark story, more horror-ish than cosy. Reminds me in some ways of Stephen King's & Peter Straub's 'The Talisman', just very attenuated, when it comes to the general vibe.

I found the character pretty flat, the only ones that stood out where Cornelius the Cat and, ironically, the House (in the first half of the story). The plot was rather interesting, but the writing style took me a while to get used to and it dragged on a bit in the beginning.

All in all I would say it's a decent book, for the most parts, that suffers heavily from being wrongly labelled. It's more a magic/witchcraft-centred MG/YA (low) fantasy story, as long as the kids can cope with some swearing, some horror elements, and a few hints at sexual activities (it's really just lukewarm, nothing really spicy, not even mild - in my opinion (but I am not American)), than cosy fantasy aimed at adults.

What it is definitely not: 'Literary Fiction' (it is categorised as such on NetGalley, I am not making this up), and if it can be called cosy is at least highly questionable.

A narrative unique in its premise and execution. Although it does draw on tropes from time to time, Eames primarily weaves a narrative indépendant of them.

I love creepy fairy tales! And boy did this give me what I wanted.
I enjoyed this cozy fairytale, though I would say that it's more creepy than cozy tbh, especially with the whole pulling hearts out of chests thing.

At turns eerie, horrifying and funny, this story did make me think of how scary and awful the origns of fairy tales have always been; with a dash of sweet (very low-key, almost no spice) romance that I also did enjoy. There is also a talking cat named Cornelius, and a sentient house; which are two of my favourite things ever in books.

I did feel the similarities to Howl's Moving Castle - mainly in the tone of the writing and the acerbic self-awareness of the narrator; but also in Foss's lack of confidence in herself. I know a lot of other reviewers really didn't enjoy the constant negative talk that Foss has going on (and they make some valid points!), but I didn't find it too off-putting - if anything, it made her more real to me (especially since having sex and finding love didn't magically change her self worth like it often does in stories) but that's personal preference.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book!

This book had such a cool, atmospheric vibe with a really immersive world. The magic system felt fresh—sorceresses feeding on hearts was both eerie and fascinating. I liked how the heart wasn’t just a literal organ but tied to a person’s soul, making it feel more meaningful rather than just an “evil queen stealing hearts” kind of thing like in *Once Upon a Time* (tv series). That element added real stakes, especially when it started disrupting the main character’s quiet village life. The arrival of a Sorcerer (when there were only ever sorceresses before) shook things up in a way that made me eager to see where the story would go.

But the pacing was a bit off for me. The first half dragged, taking too long to build momentum, while the second half rushed through some of the most important parts. The romance had potential but needed more meaningful interactions to really land. I loved the worldbuilding at the start, but I wish certain events had unfolded a bit faster to keep the excitement going. Still, the book had a unique magic system and an intriguing setup, which made it an interesting read overall.

This was a very atmospheric fantasy with a rich and immersive world setup. The magic system felt quite unique and there’s a good balance between whimsy and an eerie mystery feel to it. I found the premise and magical system being very interesting from the start. It being based on sorceresses feeding on hearts of the people so interesting and bit creepy at the same time. Also i did enjoy how the heart did reflect the human soul's essence and not it being straightforward evil queen stealing hearts like it was in "Once upon a time" tv series. This premise also really raised the stakes when it started actively affecting the main characters previously mundane life. Her usual day-to-day existence in the village shifts when a Sorcerer appears, breaking the norm of only sorceresses being present and it definitely made me want more of the story.
Unfortunatelt then the pacing let me down a bit. The first half moves slowly, taking too long to build momentum, while the second half rushes through key developments. This imbalance affects the romance, which had great potential but lacked enough meaningful interactions to feel fully realized. And as in the start I loved the worldbuilding, some things could have delivered differently and sped through towards more action faster.

Thanks to NetGalley & Erewhon Books for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF'ed at 40% of the way through.

By all accounts this should have worked for me. Cozy magical house with talking sassy cat? A slow burn romance? Nope. The writing wasn't delivering.

It was also kind of creepy that the wizard didn't know he had accidentally ensnared the protagonist in a curse. She HAS to be with him or else her heart would kill her. So that kind of kills the "romance" angle for me, personally.

It also doesn't help that the protagonist is kind of a ding dong that has no idea what she's doing. I wish we had more about the house and the cat instead.

A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames

Set in a land where heart magic is the fuel for a prosperous kingdom, Foss Butcher finds herself Snagged. Her heart ensorcelled by a Sorcerer, Foss travels across the kingdom and enters his house under the guise of a housekeeper. She hopes in playing this facade that she can find her heart and break the curse that torments her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 ⭐️

I was really intrigued by the world of this story. A kingdom that relies on sorceresses to “harvest” human hearts to ensure that the land remains prosperous. The heart magic aspect of this book was unique and interesting. However, I found the writing gruelling if I’m being honest. Foss’ character was hard to bare with and I found myself cringing at some of the descriptions she made. The constant self-esteem bashing was too much and I couldn’t stand it. While parts of the story were humorous, I simply didn’t enjoy the conversations between characters. The romance aspect was also bland and not very believable. I really did want to love this book given that it does have similar themes to Howl’s Moving Castle. Unfortunately the writing just didn’t do it for me.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing/Erewhon Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel! All opinions within this review are voluntarily given and entirely my own.

Contrary to some of the other reviewers, I did really enjoy Foss as narrator— the dialect of her narrative voice added a great deal of depth to her character.

The most significant issue I take with this novel is that it is repeatedly emphasized that Foss, the protagonist, is ugly. “Ugly” is the word used to describe her more generally, but when describing the specific features that she feels make this so (red hair, round face, strong arms, solid figure, “my lumpen self”), it makes it seem that the author has written a fat protagonist without being willing to actually explore the intricacies of that. Fat is not synonymous with unattractive or ugly, but the pervasiveness of fatphobia certainly has an impact on what is excluded from desirability by society. The scene reflecting on the ‘Toad Wine’ incident begins to broach the topic in an abstracted way, but this is the closest it gets to being confronted by the text (as well as being the only elaborated example of Foss being appraised as ugly). It does seem that a fair amount of it is self-deprecating and internal rather than accurate or external, which also would have been very worthwhile to explore more in-depth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

When I started reading this book, I had little to no expectations going in. So, I can truly say that I was completely taken by surprise when Andrea Eames “snagged my heart” (pun intended) by creating a horrifyingly beautiful, yet dangerous world of magic and whimsy. I have honestly never read anything quite like this, despite all the inspiration it drew from other works.

The story followed Foss, an unassuming and exceedingly ordinary butcher's daughter whose typical and monotonous life was flipped upside-down when her tiny border town in the kingdom was visited by a mysterious and handsome magic-user, who accidentally snagged her heart. This unintentional action takes her on a tiresome journey of love, loss, betrayal, danger, and self-discovery.

Oh, and there's a magically sentient House with a temperament and a talking cat!

The writing style was bewitching and bone-chilling, which painted a vivid picture of a mystical, yet dull world that jumped right off the page and never shied away from any detail no matter how uncomfortable or gruesome. I had visceral reactions throughout my reading, from terror to nausea. At times my blood ran cold from sheer terror or gasped from shock, and other times I felt nauseous. The phrase "being on the edge of my seat" holds new meaning to me now, because I truly felt like I was dangling off a cliff’s edge while reading.

While I understand why this novel was compared to HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE and THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA, I also found that I was reminded of other great works of literature, like THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS and FRANKENSTEIN. I also couldn’t help but think of the TV show Once Upon A Time and the Evil Queen/Regina stealing hearts, somewhat similar to the magic-users in this book but much darker and with higher stakes.

This novel is perfect for readers who love dark romantasy, dangerous adventures, magic & mystery, charming characters, elements of horror and violence, and the balance between good and evil. I give this 4.5/5 stars

A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames is described as a cosy fantasy and for at least half of the book that holds true. Our protagonist Floss lives in a small village on the outskirts of the kingdom where the most exciting thing that happens is when one of the sorceresses that travel the lands come to harvest human hearts for their spells. When one day a sorcerer arrives in the village and inadvertently snags her heart Floss finds herself feeling the ill effects and the only thing she can think of to cure it is to travel to the city and confront the magician. Once there she finds that Sylvester, the sorcerer in question doesn't really understand his own powers and has no idea of what he has done. Instead of confronting him Floss finds herself working as a housekeeper in his semi sentient house with only Sylvester and a talking cat for company.
This all sounds interesting but while some of it worked for me, most notably the house and the cat, I really did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped. While I could appreciate the author's attempt to have Floss be a more everyday sort of character than the usual beautiful, powerful protagonist I found her constant obsession with how plain and ugly she was to be quite disturbing , I am not sure if it was intended to make us feel sympathy for her but if so it did the opposite. I also struggled with the romance plot between Floss and Sylvester, there was nothing that made me believe in it or care about it, especially since Sylvester was not at all fleshed out as a character.
I also think there is too much darkness in this book to describe it as cosy, there are definitely fairy tale vibes but in the second half of the book in particular they veer towards the darker Grimm's tales with hearts being literally ripped from peoples chests.
An interesting premise that had potential but the execution just did not quite work for me.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.
2.5 stars rounded up

I had high hopes for this book based on the unique-sounding summary (plus, who can say no to a cover with an adorable cat silhouette?). Unfortunately, this one started out a bit rough and then never quite recovered. I will talk about some of the good things first though. And primarily among those is the creativity at the heart of the this story. The idea of sorcerers who casually roll through villages and suck up parts of peoples’ hearts to gain power? Super interesting! This book has also been compared to “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and as I don’t think this fully works, there were aspects of the writing that did strike a similar note. Moments of whimsy and small interactions between Foss and Sylvester, some of these did have a certain “Howl’s” vibe to them.

However, for the most part, I didn’t connect with this book. It didn’t start off on a good note, with the very first chapter being essentially a big info-dump from the main character. It was paragraph after paragraph of basic facts about this world. This was made worse by some of the inconsistencies with the writing style for the voice of the main character. She’s meant to be have had a simple upbringing, which the author demonstrated with attempts at “folksy” language. But then some of the exposition would completely conflict with this character style, with Foss conveying information to the reader that it doesn’t seem like she would know (always a challenge with this POV style of writing, but the challenge in and of itself doesn’t excuse the error). Beyond that, this manner of introducing a world and magic system was simply clumsy, at best. From this rocky start, the pacing continued to be a problem, with large lulls happening throughout.

I also struggled to enjoy Foss as a character. I appreciate what the author was attempting to do, creating a character who struggles with self-esteem and self-perception. However, the actual execution of this was, again, very clumsy. Foss would bemoan her own looks and her expectations for a loveless future to such a degree that it felt like she was hitting readers over the head with it. And, from what the reader is given, none of these fears seem based in reality. Yes, people often struggle to view themselves as others do, and this is a believable problem. But the degree to which Foss focused on this aspect of herself was over the top and began to overwhelm any other characteristics she brought to the table.

I was also supremely uninvested in the romance. There wasn’t anything overtly bad here, but Sebastian was such a nothing character that, combined with my struggles with Foss’s self-talk, I couldn’t become invested in their love story. Perhaps others will appreciate these characters more than I did. I think each started with some interesting groundwork, but the story failed to realize them as fully-fleshed out characters.

Overall, this was a very underwhelming read. There were brief moments of light and I think the author could come into her own with future projects. But as it stands now, this book felt underdeveloped with fairly weak characters. Perhaps those fully dedicated to the cozy fantasy subgenre may find this one more appealing than I did, and I’m sure there are readers out there who will enjoy it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t me.

Rating 6: There were some creative ideas at the heart of this story, but weak characters and choppy pacing left me struggling to get through this one.

Link will go live on The Library Ladies on March 12.

A Harvest of Hearts is a whimsical fantasy inspired by Howl’s Moving Castle, containing a unique magical system and so much romantic tension between Foss and Sylvester. While I love a good slow burn romance, I felt the main characters’ relationship left me wanting more. I felt myself able to relate to Foss and her internal self deprecating dialogue as she struggles to navigate self image. This was such a feel good, cozy whimsical fantasy that I would definitely recommend to other readers.