Kiera Cass is best known for her “The Selection” series, which was very popular in the early 2010s. Since then, she has released a few other books which have not had the same level of success. I haven’t loved the Kiera Cass books I previously read, so my expectations for this one were low. I was surprised to find that Kiera Cass has upped her game. I whipped through this book in two days, and while there were some plot holes, this is still a great book.

This story rapidly hooked me, and I quickly became invested. It’s certainly fast-paced, and although it comes to over 500 pages it’s so packed with events it didn’t feel long. In addition to the two point-of-view characters, there are about a dozen secondary characters who play significant roles in the story. In some books it seems you only encounter a handful of characters, or the main character only has a couple of meaningful relationships. That isn’t the case here. The author spends time exploring the relationships between characters, giving them different depths and dynamics. This made the characters really come off the page, and it’s something I hope to see done more often. Also, this book comes to a satisfying, if somewhat predictable, conclusion – which is particularly important since this is a standalone. The plot was the weakest part of this story. It’s predictable, and there are several obvious plot holes. However, I did feel like this was compensated by the characters and pacing. A Thousand Heartbeats is a good choice for most fans of YA, but it is certainly aimed at a female audience.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 1 mild profanity.

Violence/Gore: A few reports of executions and violent deaths; a character knocks another unconscious; implication of a father abusing his daughter; a brief fight scene; three characters commit suicide to avoid being captured by their enemies; a character threatens and hits another; report of a character’s family member being executed, some detail; report of a character’s family member’s corpse being sent on a cart into the wilderness; a few verbal threats; a few instances where a character hits another; a character is ordered to execute others; a character dies in battle, brief description; a few instances where a character is injured in fighting; a character reports being injured by a family member, partially unintentionally; brief description of serious injuries; a character dies; battle results in a few injured and dead characters; an animal is killed; a few instances where characters are tied up or imprisoned.

Sex/Nudity: A few instances of characters gradually falling in love with each other; several instances where characters kiss; two instances where characters declare their love for another; characters flirt; characters partially undress to remove wet clothes, not sexual; a few instances where characters embrace, touch another’s face, or a woman touches a man’s chest; two romantically attached characters sleep in the same bed, not sexual; characters get married.

Mature Subject Matter:

Arranged marriage; death of a parent; death (general); executions; abuse; grief; war.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

None