Kiera Cass delivers a captivating YA standalone fantasy with an enemies to lovers storyline.

A Thousand Heartbeats is told from two perspectives, following Annika, princess of Kadier, who is forced into a loveless political marriage, and Lennox, who is plotting with a group of rebels to recapture the Kadierian throne for his leader. When the two sides collide, both Annika and Lennox find themselves drawn to each other, wishing for what they can never have.
While I'm not a huge fan of insta-love, I really enjoyed that this left more space for other character development: Lennox overcoming his guilt, and Annika coming to terms with her claim to power. Overall, there were a few plot elements that were a bit predictable and the novel feels targeted at a younger YA audience. It was an enjoyable read, and one to pick up if you're looking for a standalone fantasy novel,

A Thousand Heartbeats is a cute, dual-perspective romance with strong twists and a satisfying ending.

Princess Annika of Kadier will do anything for her country - so much so that she's willing to accept a loveless marriage insisted on by her father to keep her people safe. But beyond the kingdom boundary, Lennox and his people lie in wait, dreaming of a day when they can reclaim the land that is rightfully theirs. When a chance meeting throws Annika and Lennox together their lives - and the futures of everyone around them - will never be the same again.

This novel explores the murky truth of 'history' and who it benefits, as well as the many different forms toxic and dangerous relationships can take.

It has a cute romance storyline (as you'd expect from a Kiera Cass novel) but also some great friendships and a lovely sibling relationship too. It was a sweet, quick read and I really enjoyed it.

I was provided with an advanced copy for review on Netgalley

Kiera Cass's A Thousand Heartbeats is marketed as a star-crossed lovers' romance set in a sweeping fantasy world. Both of those thoughts faded quickly during the reading...

I adore fantasy: I love the world-building, maps, intricate backstories, and connections between all the various characters and relationships, both personal and professional I imagined Annika and Lennox's countries to be a few days' travels apart after looking at the beautifully drawn map at the front of the book. Because Annika's people had no idea Lennox's existed, I assumed the author had created a land at least as large as the United Kingdom.

Kind of a "switch your brain off and enjoy" kind of book with quite a predictable plot at times but great characters. Prefer the authors other works

I'm a big fan of Cass's work (the Selection was brilliant and definitely something I need to re-read soon!) so I was obviously excited to read A Thousand Heartbeats.

Sadly, I don't think anything will top the Selection for me. The story was good, but it just didn't feel as fluid or as natural to me. But I still enjoyed it, like I do with everything that Cass writes.

A thousand heartbeats by Kiera Cass is marketed as a star-crossed lovers romance within a sweeping fantasy world. Both those ideas quickly dissipated in the reading...

I am a huge fan of fantasy: I love the world building, the maps, the intricate back stories and links between all the various characters and relationships, both personal and professional (as it were!) After looking at the beautifully drawn map at the front of the book, I was imagining the countries of Annika and Lennox to be a good few days travel apart. Based on the fact that Annika's people apparently had no idea of Lennox's even existing, to me, I thought the author had created a land which was at least as big as the UK, where it took between 2 and 10 days to travel from Edinburgh to London between the 1740s and the 1840s by horse and coach. But no... A day's travel was all that seemed to separate the usurpers from their vengeful counterparts. Once this image in my mind of a large land was destroyed, I'm afraid I had little time left for the rest of the story. I was also disappointed by the lack of description of the various different countries that the main characters had to travel through to reach each other. It was lacklustre and a bit underwhelming.

The main characters' romance was a case of instalove, forged after a near-death experience in a hurricane (I don't even know where the hurricane came from, it just randomly appeared). Not a real and deep relationship. All the characters felt very 2-D, the relationship and plot twists could be seen coming from a mile away and overall, not for me.

Annika has lived a life of comfort and luxury as the Princess of Kadier—but now, after the death of her mother, she’s weighted under the looming threat of a loveless marriage arranged by her cold father.

This is a new standalone novel from the author who brought us the selection which is one of my fav fantasy series of all time. I was a little apprehensive to read as I didn't think anything would be as good as the selection. A thousand heartbeats is so good so much more than a love story it was beautiful. Highly recommend

I really enjoyed A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass!
I used to love The Selection series so I was really excited to read this book!
It was so much fun to read!
I really loved the main character and i also really liked the romance.
I definitely recommend this!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, we had a strong FMC from the start! I enjoyed the story progression throughout and I enjoyed the chapters showing the reverse POV.

This one reminds you that in some books, love really still does conquer all, and I loved that! It gave me warmth and made me smile.

I very much enjoyed this read and would recommend it to anyone that likes a soft enemies to lovers or forbidden love YA romance!

This was just the book i needed to help with my reading slump!
I was a massive fan of The Selection series so when I saw this book and read the synopsis I knew I would love it and I was right! I love all the character dynamics in this book and if you’re a fan of romance you’ll definitely love this!
The pacing was also great and I ended up hooked during the last part and I couldn’t put the book down, if you loved The Selection then you’ll love this too!

I loved the Selection series by Keira Cass, so I was delighted to get my hands on an advanced review copy of this latest standalone novel.

Pleased to say it didn’t disappoint. Lots of what Cass does best, royal privilege vs rules and regulations, amazing, strong, secretly kick ass female leads. Some decent bits of fashion. Good action and adventure and plotting.

A couple of the less critical twists seemed a bit out of nowhere. There were some characters that I wanted a bit more on (Rhett, Noeme). But I found it light and engrossing and totally readable. Not quite as spectacular as the Selection (in my opinion) but still pretty damn good.

I adore The Selection series so anytime KC has a new book come out I immediately add it to my tbr pile. I think the only thing that cause my rating of this book to suffer is I typically am not that into romance stories - I find instant love to be a bit cringey and unrealistic at times, but despite that I still always enjoy Cass' stories. Annika and Lennox are such endearing characters that I couldn't help but root for them. Some aspects of the plot felt a little hazy, but regardless I still devoured this book fairly quickly and am excited for Cass' next book!

Kiera Cass’s best-written book is also her most boring. The interesting ideas and characters ultimately don't meet their potential.

Annika and Lennox are heirs to rival kingdoms – Annika is meant to marry herself away to preserve her bloodline, and Lennox is meant to invade her country to take back the land owed to him. At the beginning of the book, they both juggle several different characters and come face-to-face with difficulties, and their relationships are well established and intriguing. I was especially interested in the dynamic between Annika and her brother Prince Escalus, and Annika and her snobbish fiancé, Nickolas.

Annika and Lennox, together, however, have no chemistry. There’s no organic build-up of the enemies-to-lovers trope because most of the book they spend it separated. The other characters talk so much about the strategies and machinations, but the main two barely interact until about 60% of the way through.

Because of this, the book is boring. The world-building is poorly developed – we know nothing about Kadier – and there are little to no descriptions of anything to paint a picture of the surroundings, places and people. Most of the supporting cast don't fulfil their potential and feel like word-wasters with little importance in the story, despite some of them being prominent characters; I was completely stony-faced when people died, or when Annika and Lennox were betrayed.

Ultimately A Thousand Heartbeats is dull, poorly developed, and mediocre.

WILL I READ MORE BY THIS AUTHOR? Probably not.

I enjoyed this book, it's a solid YA fantasy romance that will keep you hooked. But given the similar setting, character personalities and plots/storylines, it's hard not to draw comparisons to Kiera's Cass' most popular books, The Selection Series.

I usually enjoy YA fantasy as there's some very good and gripping books. This one didn't work for me as I found it too slow paced and the romance too fast.
There's an interesting world building, there's some intriguing aspects of the characters but it wasn't my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

“Love has a sound. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats happening at the same time.”

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. HarperCollins Teen for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘A Thousand Heartbeats’ by Kiera Cass.

It’s been some years since I read Kiera Cass’ The Selection series and while I don’t often read Teen/YA fantasy romances, my recall was that they weren’t overly mired in teen angst. So I was pleased to read her new standalone title.

Annika is the Princess of Kadier and lives in luxury. Yet since the disappearance of her mother, her father has grown cold-hearted. He has decided that now she is eighteen, it is time for Annika to marry and decrees that her cousin Nickolas will be her husband. This is a political alliance though they do get along. Still, once the engagement is announced Nickolas becomes increasingly controlling including insisting that she styles her hair as he wishes. Definitely a red flag.

On the outskirts of the lands where Annika’s family has long ruled, Lennox is waiting for his moment. His father is dead and he is constantly seeking to prove himself to his mother’s new partner, who is a nasty piece of work. The leaders of his peoples are planning to overthrow the Kadierian monarchy and reclaim the land of Dahrain, its original name, since as they believe it is rightfully theirs.

On a reconnaissance mission Lennox and his companions come across Annika and Nicolas, out for a ride accompanied by a small protection detail. Things do not go well for the Kadierians and Annika is captured.

Despite her situation, Annika is determined to escape while Lennox is constantly threatening to kill her if she doesn’t divulge details of the Kadierian defences. So, quite a lively animosity commences that given the tropes of YA romance suggests that these enemies may soon find themselves falling in love.

Even though I am not a fan of Insta-love, so common in YA fiction, I felt that sufficient groundwork was laid between Annika and Lennox before hearts started fluttering.

The narrative viewpoint shifts between Lennox and Annika. There is a political aspect to the story that includes the machinations of the leaders on both sides, few battles, betrayals, twists of fate, and the like.

Overall, I enjoyed ‘A Thousand Heartbeats’ as it had all the ingredients of an engaging heroic fantasy with a believable romance at its heart. Not too soppy! While intended for a teen/YA readership, I felt that it will appeal to readers of all ages drawn to this genre.

As always the publishers’ design team are to be applauded for creating such beautiful cover art for Kiera Cass’ novels.

Thank you #netgalley for this ARC.

Annika is a princess who is caught between following her heart and serving her people. Lennox is soldier of an unknown people fighting to take back their land. As Annika struggles with her betrothal and Lennox works to prove himself, their paths collide and put them on a journey neither expected.

What comes next is a battle for home, redefining loyalty and friendship, and a quest for love.

This was a fun adventure story. While written as YA, I do think some of the character and relationship building could have been stronger. The relationship between Annika and Lennox - it was more tell than show which I was disappointed with. And as for the twists, most of them were obvious so it felt like I was waiting for the characters to catch up.

I really loved this book! The beginning was a bit slow, and I was hesitant since it was such a beast of a book, but luckily around 30% the pace really picked up and from then on I started enjoying it more and more. I enjoyed the characters, the plot was epic and the romance was just to die for. Can highly recommend this!

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for the advance copy of this book to read for an honest review.

The story follows Princess Annika who has lived a life of comfort but it isn't hers to control. Her father the king has gone cold and is forcing Annika into a loveless marriage for the kingdoms gain.

On the opposite side of the coin Lennox lives miles away devoted to the Dahrainian army working to help them reclaim the throne that was stolen from them. The idea of love to him is merely a distraction.

However when love finds them both they are bound by its call. From two completely different worlds they couldn't possibly be together but love will not let them stay apart.

I was a massive fan of the Selection series so jumped at the chance to read an advance copy of this book.

A classic enemies to lovers trope executed well into an easy read I got through the book quite quickly on holiday.

However I fear I may have grown abit too old now for these types of stories despite my nostalgia for the selection books.

It was all abit too much of a cliche to me with some very cheesy elements and lines in the story. Major plot arcs and losses are forgiven very quickly giving this almost a Disney film type feel as it is all in the name of love. This just felt abit unrealistic to me however the story was an easy read and if I could suspend that critical thinking enjoyable hence the 3 stars.

I just feel I may no longer be in the age ranged demographic for this type of fiction anymore. I'm sure if you are a young adult this would be an enjoyable read.