#111 These Vengeful Hearts

 These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers RB media for granting me access to this audio book in exchange for an honest review.

These Vengeful Hearts follows the story of highschooler Ember, star track athlete, model student and captain of the debate team who is destined for great things but all of it is an act to gain entrance to 'The Red Court'. The Red Court is a secret society run within Heller High where members work on a favor based system to take someone down, expose them or ruin their life in return for a favor from the person requesting. When Ember was fourteen her sister was victim to The Red Court and after a terrible accident was left paraplegic. Ember has always sought revenge and wants to join in order to take the organisation down from the inside. The society is run by the elusive 'Queen of Hearts', all requests are approved by her and she is the one who grants favors to serving members. 

The other main characters are April Embers sister, Gideon who is Embers best friend, Hayley who becomes Embers partner in The Red Court and Chase who is Embers love interest. After Ember is accepted into The Red Court she is immediatley send jobs to do but when the jobs involved are surrounding her closest friends she has to evaluate what is more important choosing her friends or keeping up the charade in order to take down the secret society.

Over the last year or two i have really enjoyed some of the dark academia books i have read and its becoming one of my favourite tropes but this one was a bit juvenile for my tastes. it never really felt like the stakes were high enough, i wanted to be on the edge of my seat. Some of the 'take downs' were built up and then felt quite anti climatic. It has an element of Mean Girls to it in the same way that Ember is pretending to be a part of the Red Court but finds herself enjoying some of the jobs shes given which causes her to lose some friends along the way. 

Some of the relevations towards the end were well done and i didnt see them coming. After that point in the story i started to feel for Ember whereas i didnt really before, she just seemed a bit bitter over everything. 

Overall, this was a quick easy read (or listen should i say) the narrator did a great job. I did enjoy it but i wanted it to be darker, creepier and more high stakes. Id still recommend for readers wanting to get into dark academia but more of a YA take on the genre.