Flowerheart tells the story of a young woman by the name of Clara. We find out that she lives with her father, she has magic but it is unstable. Her magic often does whatever it wants, and Clara is unable to control it. So when the council of witches and wizards visit her, and they find out that after extensive training that she cannot control her own magic they offer her an ultimatum. One, they take away her magic completely, or two, they bind her magic, which allows her to keep her magic but to cast spells it is extremely painful for her. Clara chooses to bind her magic, but her love interest, Xavier protests. Later on in the story, Clara accidentally injures her father, causing flowers to bloom in his chest which almost kills him. So, Clara seeks out Xavier the boy who was with the council, and her love interest for help. Xavier agrees to help, and they make a deal, he will help her cast a blessing on her father to heal him, in exchange for her power. They make the deal and Clara becomes Xavier's apprentice. We also find out later that her mother is a notorious witch who essentially serves as the villain of the story. Her mother is a drug dealer but for potions. Overall I would give this book a ⅕. The romance in the book was cringy, to say the least, and it got very hard to read at times. The whole magic premise is not explained well, and I had a lot of questions regarding how it worked. Multiple times in the book it says that their power comes from, but other times it comes from their emotions. The author seems to try to make the main character relatable, but as I kept reading the book she just kept annoying me more and more.
About This Book
Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest.
The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into someone distant and mysterious.
Xavier asks a terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she once loved, she discovers how many secrets he’s hiding. And as she hunts for the truth, she instead finds the root of a terrible darkness that’s taken hold in the queendom—a darkness only Clara’s magic is powerful enough to stop.
Reviews
Anonymous
Flowerheart Review
Anonymous
Flowerheart Book Review
Flowerheart, written by Catherine Bakewell is a young adult fantasy fiction novel filled with elements of romance coursing through it. This fantasy novel details a world containing wizards, witches and humans. Clara Lucas, the main protagonist, is a witch unique to others; Clara is a witch that can not control her magic. Her magic, which has never harmed anyone before, is seen as dangerous to the Council—the “government” in this fantasy world that has control over witches and wizards—and is threatened to be taken away or reduced at any moment. When the Council visits her, Clara has two choices to make regarding her power; the Council could either take her power away completely, making her a regular human or she could have her power halved but she would feel pain everytime she used it. To this, Clara becomes extremely upset and her emotions grow wild, causing her to accidentally grow poisonous flowers in her dear father’s chest. Clara is taken back, she has yet to harm anyone with her flower power until now. Desperate situations call for desperate measures, resulting in her trading her precious yet disobedient power to her ex-best friend, healer and wizard for his wisdom and teaching on how to heal her father. Yet, as she learns more about her magic and him, she finds out that he has hidden secrets away from her from the five years they spent apart. I rate this book a 3 out of five stars—realistically speaking I would rate this book a 3.9 stars out of 5 if I could—because although it contains interesting and supernatural scenes, some scenes were predictable. However, if you are looking for a good romance book, this book would be a good starting point as it does have romantic scenes throughout it!
