Hearts And Swords: Four Original Stories Of Celta (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
4/5; 4 stars; A-This anthology contains four short stories/novellas set in the same world as the Celta series. I can't judge how it would appeal to someone not familiar with the series because I've read all the books and found this anthology to be a perfect accompaniment. I enjoy the insights into the colonists lives as well as hearing the stories of some secondary characters from the series. The first story, Heart in Sword, was a 3 star read for me. I really enjoyed reading about life on the ships, particularly Nuada's Sword, but I didn't care for the characters much.The second story, that of Blush Willow was much better. When I read the story of her son Saille and his heartmate Fleur, I always thought there was more to his mother's story and this novella tells us more about his mother, Blush. My favorite story in the book was Heart and Soul, the follow up on Genista Furze. She was a strong and somewhat mysterious character in the main series and this novella gives the reader some closure on her life. The last story, Noble Heart, was good too. It brought the Clover family back into play. Anything Celta by Robin D. Owens is always a good read. In this book, she focuses on minor characters who are nonetheless interesting enough to want to wrap up their stories. I particularly liked the first story because it takes place on the spaceship, and you get more of an idea of what led these people to leave Earth due to persecution. And Genista's story had me crying at points because you could really feel her heartache. References to the other continents such as Chinju have me really curious . . . who were the people who settled these continents? Did they come on the same 3 spaceships, or did they come at a later time? Do they have psi abilities? One hopes that Robin will address these questions at a future date.
What do You think about Hearts And Swords: Four Original Stories Of Celta (2011)?
A great little tie in to the series. Makes me anxious for the next book. I love this world.
—isabela_claudia
I really love the Clover story in this as well as Blush's story.
—Jayman
