Sexy Barbarians! | A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane

Four Reasons to Read A Heart of Blood and Ashes

You know a book is going to be special when the first time the main characters meet, she’s stabbing her asshole brother in the back, and he’s sucking the blood from her fingertips. It’s a grisly, erotic image, and it perfectly captures the mood of A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane. This is a dark fantasy romance featuring half-naked barbarians, a marriage of convenience, and a plot to take vengeance upon a tyrant—and it features smoldering, steamy sexual chemistry every step of the way.

In a nutshell, this book is about what happens when an alpha male warrior gets out-played by a quietly enraged queen: he falls for her, but proceeds to fuck it all up because he’s a big doofus. (Also, revenge happens.)

You love to see it!

#1: Fully Immersive Worldbuilding

Before we get to smol, stabby queens and barbarians with more Big Dick Energy than good sense, Milla Vane is careful to set the stage—a vital component of any good fantasy novel, romantic or otherwise. I traditionally have a difficult time with many fantasy series openers because the author has to both tell a good story AND create a universe from scratch. This usually results in a very slow-going, bulky first few hundred pages, and I lose attention as a result. For the most part, I think Vane avoids that problem here.

Yes, the first few chapters of A Heart of Blood and Ashes are a bit bewildering. There’s a complex set-up for this universe’s political situation—an alliance of city-states that stands united after a dark necromancer nearly wiped them all off the face of the earth but can’t stop jostling for power amongst themselves. Then in a smaller, more localized sense, there’s the very present culture clash between Maddek (barbarian warrior from a marginalized race that does most of the heavy lifting for the alliance) and Yvenne (daughter of two royal houses who have some…baggage). But after the first few chapters—basically, as soon as Yvenne stabs her brother and Maddek subsequently fellates her bloody fingers—it all snaps into place. The author keeps the pacing throughout this novel consistent, and sprinkles her world-building in at appropriate times when it’s actually relevant to the immediate plot. 

#2: Epic fantasy conventions standing separate from the romantic arc

Do not mistake the fact that this is a novel about sexy, half-naked horselord warriors doing sexy things as a sign that Vane skipped out on all of the plot conventions of a standard fantasy novel. Here, the author achieves something that I believe is very difficult: encapsulating a fully-formed romance story inside a big-picture epic fantasy novel. Neither component of the book feels shortchanged. Honestly, one of the impressive things about A Heart of Blood and Ashes is that Vane expertly juggles and sustains three separate but intertwined plot threads for all 500+ pages of the book.

The love story between our protagonists, Maddek and Yvenne, would have no context or urgency without the larger socio-political situation in the land of the Alliance. And the vengeance plot would probably have very little interest without the human faces of Maddek and Yvenne to remind readers that the stakes are very, very real. Then add in the fact that the entire world is ravaged by a necromancer who probably plans on returning real soon, and we’ve got drama and conflict on every single page. The balancing act is perfect. Vane knows just when to tease readers with a scene of smoldering intimacy between her main characters, and when to focus in on the important things (like stabbing people and fighting zombies).

Unless the hallmark of “good fantasy” for you is “how many women and children can get brutalized on-page,” à la every male fantasy writer ever, I think A Heart of Blood and Ashes has it all. Cursed ruins, political subterfuge, battles, daring escapes, a “band of brothers” central cast, fully-developed folklore, etc. 

Not to mention an excellent slice of enemies to lovers / marriage of convenience tropey goodness on the side!

#3: Dynamic push & pull between the protagonists

Now on to the main event. Swords and necromancers and goddesses are cool, but all that would be nothing without Maddek and Yvenne. I love love love how the author writes their developing relationship, how it felt like a natural progression from “I don’t trust you unless you’re in my direct line of sight, preferably immobilized” to “I have genuine regard for your unique abilities and personality.” 

To write a romance where the couple goes from a place of zero trust to implicit confidence in each other is a tough proposition, but I think A Heart of Blood and Ashes manages it supremely well. There’s genuine growth and development on both sides, and Vane is a genius at creating real-world obstacles that force her characters to work together without frustrating readers.

That being said: Maddek is…a problematic fave. One of the central issues between Maddek and Yvenne for the duration of the novel is that Maddek decides, immediately after they meet, that he cannot ever believe a word she says, no matter what. And after he’s made this decision in a fit of anger and grief over the loss of his parents…he never revisits the issue. Not even when he has mountains of evidence that Yvenne is 100% truthful and authentic with him. It literally gets to the point where he says: “Look, I know you lied to me about X, Y, and Z, but I’m willing to look past it for the sake of our marriage” and she says “But…? I didn’t lie…?” and he’s like “NONSENSE! You’re a liar and you lie, it is known” with zero basis for this aside from a faulty assumption.

And all this would be fine…except there was no groveling! The scene where Maddek finally realizes that Yvenne has told him the truth since the very first moment they met is horribly rushed and swept under the rug. It’s literally a paragraph. If Maddek ever apologizes, we don’t see it on the page!

And I get it, they’re fighting for their lives and people are dying and stuff, but really? If you write an asshole character, they have to grovel. It’s the law.

#4: Sexy sexy sexy (I say it three times for EMPHASIS)

I will cut to the chase: A Heart of Blood and Ashes is hot as fuck. It’s the slow burniest of slow burns, between two people who have a dark, elemental sexual attraction that’s partially fueled by the fact that they kinda-sorta hate each other a lot of the time. I mean…after the opening scene where Yvenne stabs her brother, Maddek then orders her to give him a handjob with her still bloody hands.

When I say I lost my mind, I mean that I LOST my mind. I have never, ever read a more explosive initial meeting between two protagonists in a romance novel. Every single scene that Maddek and Yvenne share together is absolutely tense with chemistry and lust. But due to cultural traditions, they can only consummate things under a full moon—which is two full weeks after the fateful bloody handjob / brother-stabbing incident. Milla Vane makes her characters (and her readers) wait for it. It’s agonizing. Think about trying to save the world while being horny as hell for your newly discovered soulmate, who you honestly just want to hate-fuck into the ground.

Phew. It’s a lot.

Fantasy Romance Never Looked So Good

The tl;dr of this review is simply that A Heart of Blood and Ashes is an intensely sensual fantasy novel that does everything right (except for the lack of groveling, of course). In a single book, I got a great high-stakes fantasy story and an off-the-charts slow burn romance. This novel is funny in the right places, well-written throughout, and isn’t afraid to get dark when the moment calls for it. Perfection.