Heart of Mischief

Please note that this post may contain affiliate links, meaning I may make a small commission if you purchase through the links within this post at no additional cost to you. Please see my Full Disclosures + Privacy Policy for more details.

Synopsis

The thrilling sequel to Soul of Shadow, a contemporary romantasy for fans of The Vampires Diaries and Heartless Hunter where love, magic, gods, and monsters collide with devastating consequences.

I will make myself strong.
I will find Elias.
I will kill Elias.
I will never trust a boy with my heart again.

These are the vows Charlie Hudson made the day after Elias Everhart betrayed her, nearly killing everyone she loves most. One month later, revenge is still her priority, even as she navigates a harsh new reality: one where her brother and friends can now see Asgard, making them just as susceptible to its dazzling delights – and deadly dangers – as she is.

But when two bodies turn up in the forest outside town, and Elias waltzes back into her life with an offer to help find out what’s happening, Charlie finds herself accepting his offer—but only because feigning an alliance is her best chance to figure out how to kill him. And if it feels like the more time she spends with him, the more her heart softens, it must be a trick of the unusually warm fall air. Because there’s no way she would make the grave mistake of falling for Elias Everhart twice… right?

Emma Noyes’s Heart of Mischief will have readers falling in love – and falling apart – and loving every minute of it.

Synopsis source: StoryGraph

Review

Genre(s): YA Fantasy, Romance
HB&W Rating: 3.75 stars
View on StoryGraph | Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon
Release Date: March 10, 2026

Warning: This review is slightly spoilery for the first book in the series, Soul of Shadow. While I don’t go into specifics, this review assumes you’ve read the first book and makes references that could spoil the ending of that book if you haven’t.

As happens quite frequently with the middle book in a trilogy, this book is fell into the sophomore slump book in my opinion. I enjoyed it and I was engaged enough to need the third book right after finishing, but it didn’t quite hold a candle to the first book, Soul of Shadow. For me, it’s mostly down to how tiresome I found Charlie at the beginning of the book and some of the sappiness we get from Elias later, which felt inconsistent with his character. Maybe if we’d had more of his perspective throughout the book it wouldn’t have felt like such a 180 for his personality.

Still, like I said, the plot continues and while there isn’t as much world-building here, it’s obvious the plot is building to something big for Book 3, the final book in this series. While the plot definitely moved forward, this book had a greater focus on the romance than the previous book, in my opinion. I was a bit surprised that some of Charlie’s friends forgave Elias for what happened in Book 1 so quickly and easily. Charlie obviously comes around, able to see to the complexity of Elias and look beyond his faults, even when one of those faults was trying to kill them all in the first book. When I found out that the author is a big Damon Salvatore fan, it made more sense, and it’s pretty obvious that Elias was modeled after him.

All in all, I really liked the book and am still invested in the characters and story, but I’m hoping the third book is as good as the first.

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

Until next time,

Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you never miss a review! You can also sign up for my newsletter for a recap of titles read, crochet patterns I’ve released, and more! I only send it out sporadically so that I don’t spam you, promise. 😉