Welcome to The Heart Trials.
The prize is love.
The cost is everything.
In Ethyria the highborn may love; the lowborn may only feel what the Benevolent allows.
Saltblood lowborn Axira Merreri survives the decaying districts by keeping her heart locked tight, couriering goods by day — and smuggling the ruler’s euphoric Heartfillers to the highborn by night. Until a drop goes wrong and her execution looms.
When she strikes a dangerous bargain to steal something from the Tournament of Hearts, a ruthless dating competition for highborn citizenship, she enters. Not for love. For freedom. But as the twisted allure of the competition turns deadly, an unexpected connection cracks her defenses, forcing her to confront a truth she In a regime built on engineered happiness, the most dangerous weapon she has is her heart.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J. Elle delivers a breathless series opener that is bold, bone-chilling, and wholly original. For fans of the cutthroat competition of The Hunger Games, Love Island, and Powerless, this dystopian romantasy explores what happens when the heart becomes the empire’s sharpest blade.
Title: The Heart Trials
Author: J. Elle
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 1, 2026
Review:
Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own..
I was fairly excited for this title. Honestly, I picked it up because of the reviews and it was read now. I should have known better as I didn't love the first series from this author and never moved on from book one. I was hopeful she'd honed her craft but the writing is exactly the same as it was with that series. Plus there's nothing different about this story than other dystopians I've read. It was actually quite flat for such a book. If you're going to base a book on a popular book, possibly the best dystopian series of all times, it better be just as good or better than that book.
The premise of this book is interesting but the execution fell flat. If you're going to talk about one of the most famous dystopian series in your blurb (The Hunger Games), you better live up to that series as those are big shoes to fill. Also, there's no mention of it, but this definitely had the feel of Lauren Oliver's Delirium series. I waited a month to review this because I didn't want to damage what good reviews did come of it. And I seem to be in the minority for this book when it comes to disliking it.
The world building lacks so much depth. I was honestly bored for the whole book. I even switched to audio at one point in the hopes that would make it better for me but the narrator did not do the book any favors, either. What is the point of the heart fillers (we never told more than what they do)? Who came up with the mouth chains? What of the clothing that prevents people from feeling the touch of others? I do understand these things are to try to keep the low borns in line so they do not feel emotions, particularly love, but it's not explained, we are just told that it is. I have zero understanding as to why except it has something to do with the high borns being able to control the low borns. I don't understand the different "factions" and why they exist? Where is the history? This book would have benefitted from a prologue or some kind of inclusion of how the world came to be. We are just thrown into it and given the explanation of the societal structure but why would I care that it even exists?
On top of this, there are many plot holes to the story. Places where things that weren't there suddenly are. Subplots that are introduced but nothing comes of them.
I hated the FMC. I understand she is not supposed to be emotional but as the heroine of a dystopian where emotion is forbidden, it should not have been the case with her. The rebellion is the whole reasoning for a dystopian story. So her emotion and feeling them would have been pertinent to how the story progressed. I was unable to connect with her as she didn't even feel real.
I didn't feel the romance. There was no chemistry at all. It felt so forced. We're just told they are attracted to each other but then they do things that do not show it at all. Yes, I understand they needed to put up that front, but even with no one around, I didn't feel their connection.
There are so many characters I could barely keep anyone straight. And many (SPOILER HERE) die before we even get a chance to know them or see what their contribution may have been to the story. Killing off characters doesn't make a book more exciting or interesting for me if there's no connection to them in the first place.
Finally, some of the trials sometimes had nothing to do with love, which is the whole reason for the competition and it's outcome. Every one of those tests needed to somehow connect to that emotion, otherwise there's no reason to include them in the competition.
There's a good message here, I just wish there was more to the entire world. The cliffhanger did not make me want to move on to book 2 to find out what happens. I'm sure many younger readers will enjoy this more than I did given they are a lot younger than I am and may not have read all the dystopian I have.
Author:
J. ELLE is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction and a 2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens. Her work has been translated into three languages. The former educator credits her nomadic lifestyle and humble inner-city beginnings as inspiration for her novels. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found on the hunt for new desserts sans Chocolat, looking for literally any excuse to get dressed up, and road-tripping her way across the country with her two dogs in tow.
Follow me on BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/j-elle
Follow me on BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/j-elle
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