Living his whole life among circus folk, Phillip has always lived on the edge of society. His current hobby is holding body parts ransom; since childhood, he's had the ability to disconnect and re-connect body parts, and few people would want to go outside without a nose. However, he is forced to reconsider his money-making methods after stealing the nose from a young man named Wycliff, who is already depressed now that his sister has been kidnapped--the most recent of a series of kidnappings that have befallen the town.

My introduction to this book was positive. The premise sounded interesting--I was down for a trans teen playing a goreless version of Repo! The Genetic Opera, I enjoy a good rhyming title (though personally, I'd take 'Other' out--I think 'The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Parts' has a better syllabic rhythm, but that's just me), and I enjoyed the old fashioned wood-cut feeling of the cover. Unfortunately, my excitement became disappointment when I started the first chapter and read this line in the second paragraph:

"Moist fingers the color and texture of drowned slugs clawed and pressed ravenously into her windpipe."

Oh. That's not a very good line at all. Phillip's chapters, which are in first-person and include a lot of introspection, aren't as awful to read and make up the bulk of the book, but when it comes to other perspectives, the prose does the writing equivalent of not knowing what to do with its hands. Descriptions of other characters and environs are bare-bones--I don't think the city the characters reside in is even given a name--and the setting is vaguely 1800s and vaguely European, though not much detail is given to architecture or technology. I don't think this is bad per se, but it fits into my biggest complaint for this book--I don't think it should have been a book.

This might sound like an insult, but I don't mean it in this way. I think Elias Cold's strength is in characters and set pieces, rather than stories and prose, and 'The Duke...' would work better as a graphic novel or even an audio drama. I understand why they went with a novel--you don't need to find someone to draw or other people to do voices, but I think the narrative voice weighs down the novel and makes it less enjoyable. Phillip seems like a character you'd find on an obscure artist's tumblr, where they've drawn thousands of detailed comics featuring him that only answer some of your questions, and I mean that with praise.

Seriously, how COOL is this concept?

Not a lot surprises me these days as the market is very oversaturated, but this hooked me from the start.

A limb-poppingly fantastic read with diversity.

i am definitely too old for this book, but i definitely would have adored it at about 14, so that's something, and I am going to review it like I was in the correct age group. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, and the characters were fun, but I am not really a big fan of the way that transmasculinity was depicted(this is personal it's not problematic I just don't like it), and also I still don't get how the magic system works all that much. One of those books where the aesthetics are the best part of it

I don't have a lot to say aboutt this one. I thought it wasn't very good, that the narration was struggling and I had issues with the storytelling. Overall it lacked stakes and emotional attachment. The way information is revealed is off. I don't even know what this book wanted to say.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's really well written... and it's probably one of the most unique things I have fead in a long time. I enjoyed the reader's writing style, the pacing was great.. and the characters developed well as the novel progressed. What a lovely things for a villain to be able to do - steal body parts from people.. and what a world in which that can happen.

It made me uncomfortable that the MC was deadnamed... I have read books before in which the author has used a variety of methods to avoid deadnaming a character. Not sure if that will bother readers... I am sensitive to it.

Overall, a twisted tale... loved the morbid overtones. I didn't always connect well with the characters. Sometimes, their decision confused me a little bit.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25/5

The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts is a creative, immersive YA fantasy with a powerful plot and fascinating characters.

This one was lovely. I adored the characters, and each character’s development was great. They felt real, and I especially loved the explorations of sexuality and gender. The love stories were captivating, and I enjoyed the satisfying ending. The magic system was fascinating and imaginative, and I enjoyed the world-building. The plot was intriguing, and the pacing fit the story well, although a few parts felt choppy. Elias Cold’s prose was beautiful, and they presented a wonderful story. This one did not hook me throughout the story as much as I was hoping, but it was an overall entertaining and powerful novel that is a great addition to YA shelves.

Thank you to the publisher for the free ARC!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Page Street YA for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book is such a gem! I loved the whole, incredibly flawed cast of characters and was happy with how it all wrapped up!

I recommend checking out this book when it is released!

While this book me a while to finish, I feel like it's not completely done. I had a hard time connecting with the characters and felt that their motivations were often strange and unreliable. I love that the protagonist is trans, but feel like the initial "transition" could have been fleshed out a little bit more - we went from Phyllis to Phillip almost on a whim, and then didn't dive into anything else. Beyond that, the magic system also could have been explained a little bit more, because it's such an interesting concept, but missed the execution. Sometimes, it was difficult to follow the first vs third-person narratives through the story - at several points, characters would refer to Phillip as Phillip, and then we'd jump back into Phillip's head. It was a little disorienting to follow. Adeline was a major character, but we almost never get her POV beyond being angry at Phillip or being a dancer. Phillip's feelings for her also appear out of nowhere, and it was hard to root for their relationship when he was suddenly obsessed with her for no reason other than feeling guilty about stealing from Wycliff when supposedly Phillip has stolen many body parts before and never felt bad. I also didn't fully see the relationship that Phillip and Lucent claimed to have - we get snippets, but mostly it felt like the relationships (and the world-building!) could have been worked on for a little longer. Show, don't tell, and all that.

The ending brought down what had been an enjoyable book for me. Around 80% through the book, I realized how few pages were left and how much story there seemed to be left to tell, and I wondered how it would all fit. And then it didn't. The ending was abrupt. Many of the plot threads felt hastily resolved and some of the characters fell away. First Wycliff, then Adeline and Nyx, started with strong presences in the narrative in terms of their personalities and goals -- Wycliff and Adeline even being point-of-view characters -- before dwindling away. Lucent had a lot of set-up as a complex, tragic villain, but not a lot and not consistent development of those ideas. His main motivation ended up not really seeming to matter to him or anyone else. He drops it with very little prompting considering he's been pursuing this one goal for 400 years, killing for it and ruining his own happiness for it the whole time. **spoilers** (Also, if he cared so much about resurrecting his sister or at least tells himself he does, why kill the one man who's been shown to have resurrection powers? At least pretend a bit to consistent goals, you killed your lover for this.) **spoilers** Also, the tragedy of him living so long, but by his nature always falling into the same miserable and inescapable patterns is a compelling concept, but not shown off all that well.

What I liked:
Phillip's coming into himself as a trans man. Despite the fantastical setting and his unusual past, he reads true and relatably as a young trans person figuring it all out, both in his insecurities and fears and in this bright new self-assurance and comfort he starts to find as Phillip.

The trio of Phillip and the two undead girls. They had a sweet friendship developing even if, like many things in this book, I think it could have used more time to keep developing. Their support of each other and attempts to be honest and open with each other (a work in progress but something) were a nice contrast to the unhealthy relationship Phillip had been trapped in.

Lucent's love. Lucent's worst actions are done out of love and to people he genuinely loves. He's not just pretending to manipulate Phillip or Weevil. I think it adds something to the book's discussion of unhealthy relationships to acknowledge that there can be real love, care, and affection mixed with or driving the cruelty. And where other attempts to add complexity to Lucent's character fall flat, this one does work for me.

This was good, but I was left with wanting more, ya know?

First thing I'll say is that I liked Phillip and the (literal and metaphorical) transformation he undergoes throughout the novel. The persona of the duke being the Trojan horse to self-acceptance and love was probably the most interesting aspect of the story. The exploration of toxic love and its complex effects was the nice cherry on top, too.

The other characters were fine, I guess. The POV shifts from Phillip's first person to a variety of third persons throughout the story, and it had different affects on me depending on the character. Lucent's POV was the most intriguing to follow; his thoughts allow some insight to how toxic people think. Wycliff, the aforementioned mark, felt the least necessary, as it felt like it was repeating much of the themes and messages of Phillip's storyline. Adeline only had a couple set in her POV, but it felt underdeveloped compared to the others. The rest of the side characters, other than Madame Beatrice, didn't really resonate with me enough to properly remember them.

The worldbuilding could have been cooked far longer. The story takes place in a fictional country akin to Victorian England, but there wasn't much given to fully separate the two in my mind. There's a caste system/royalty claims, but what are the politics? The country's relation to others and its own people? I had lots of questions that about the world that the story just wasn't all that interested in answering. I also wish we got more in-depth about the magic, maybe see a wider variety of people other than Phillip and Lucent.

All in all, this has its merits as a book about a trans main character, but the other elements could have been given the same amount of care/depth.

The premise of this sounded great, but it just didn’t fully deliver for me. I kept waiting to become more invested in the characters and relationships but it never really happened. I did love the trans MC and his journey from to Phillip, but other than that most things fell flat. The magic and worldbuilding was never really explained and the ending seemed abrupt. There was just a lot of different things cobbled together that didn’t fully work for me.