I’m certain we all remember the moment Kiera Cass debuted with The Selection, the series that turnt out to be one of the biggest guilty pleasures amongst YA readers. It still bremains one of the many YA classics to date. I picked up these books very late because upon release I was in the biggest reading slump ever. I barely picked up a book till my final year in college and that was when the spin-off series was already released. I also had no idea YA was a real genre. When I finally read these books, I guess I’ve rated the entire series 5 stars. I wouldn’t do tthis anymore because I’ve gained more reading experience. Afterwards, I haven’t read any other book by this author for a while. The Siren didn’t grab my attention. However, I’ve read the mess that was The Bethroted, but I will shut up about that book. Anyway, I wanted to give Cass a fair final chance and A Thousand Heartbeats sounded like the perfect opportunity. Has Kiera Cass regained her magic?

• Title: A Thousand Heartbeats
• Author: Kiera Cass
• Publication date: November 29, 2022
• Publisher: HarperTeen
• ISBN: 9780062665782
• Number of pages: 576
• Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

1 New York Times bestselling author of The Selection series Kiera Cass is back with her most epic novel yet—a sweeping enemies-to-lovers standalone romance.
“Love has a sound. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats happening at the same time.”
Princess Annika has lived a life of comfort—but no amount of luxuries can change the fact that her life isn’t her own to control. The king, once her loving father, has gone cold, and Annika will soon be forced into a loveless marriage for political gain.
Miles away, small comforts are few and far between for Lennox. He has devoted his life to the Dahrainian army, hoping to one day help them reclaim the throne that was stolen from them. For Lennox, the idea of love is merely a distraction—nothing will stand in the way of fighting for his people.
But when love, against all odds, finds them both, they are bound by its call. They can’t possibly be together—but the irresistible thrum of a thousand heartbeats won’t let them stay apart.
Kiera Cass brings her signature sparkling romance to this beautiful story of star-crossed lovers and long-held secrets.

Beforehand, my expectations for this book were not that high. I was curious if Cass could top The Selection, her previous duology wasn’t that big of a success to say the least. It was not good at all. When reading the blurb for A Thousand Heartbeats, I still had my doubts as I saw so many similarities with her other books.

Annika is the princess of Kadier and is used to a luxurous life. However, she has nothing to say about this life at all. Her loving relationship to her father, the king, has drastically changed over the years. He only seems to care about politics, her forced marriage to a distant cousin proves that. This marriage is only meant to increase their kingdom’s political power and love will never play a role. Miles away, Lennox has a totally different life. He devoted his life to the royal army and to get back his kingdom’s crown that has once been stolen. He hes no time and space for love at all. Fate brings Annika and Lennox together and then it seems you can’t ignore a thousand heartbeats. Will they succeed to fight for their love or is their sense of duty stronger?

Just like in Cass’previous books, the story is told through multiple POVs. In often really short chapters we follow Annika and Lennox. This way, their stories take a similar amount of space. Unfortunately, we don’t get to know them really as they feel quite shallow and they don’t have much depth. However, you find out what changed both their lives drastically in their past, but that’s it. They both lack character development. This problem also occurred for me with Hollis from The Bethroted (and years later I also realize with America from The Selection): you see her, but don’t know her. I really hoped the author has improved in this, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

The writing is okay. This is no different from Cass’ other books. This quick and easy writing style makes you read the book fast and makes it suitable for the less experienced and younger readers. On the other hand, the world building didn’t succeed. It is more complex than you think at first, but I didn’t get invested in it. Unfortunately, the plot is not investing either. It’s very predictable and when you compare all Cass’books, you notice the similarities upon first glance. All books have a royal setting and a wedding. This seems to be Cass’ signature trope, but how often can you keep repeating it in different stories? I really hope she takes the opportunity to discover another tropes to make her books more interesting again. Now, I didn’t feel any urgency to keep reading and to find out about Annika’s and Lennox’ story. I wasn’t intrigued at all. The poorly excecuted worldbuilding and characters didn’t help either.

A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass was a nice in-betweener. It reads very fast because of the easy writing. However, everything about this book was shallow. There was close to no character development and the same old trope was repeated again. To be honest, this book was way too long for the actual story I wasn’t intrigued by. However, the less experienced and/or younger readers will love this book. It’s just not my cup of tea anymore, I’ve outgrown the books by this author.