A Voice for Independent Authors

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

REVIEWING TODAY: THE NATURE OF ENTANGLED HEARTS BY EMMA HARTLEY

The Nature of Entangled Hearts by Emma Hartley is self-described as a romantic thriller … with a touch of the supernatural. That is a good description, as it would be a shame to have this skillfully written, entertaining book relegated to just one section of the bookstore. The elements that make Entangled Hearts a romance, a thriller, and supernatural, are all so nuanced in the telling that one experiences a much more balanced reading satisfaction than if one genre only had been stressed. Ms. Hartley provides substance and literary talent in her writing, elevating her romantic thriller to the more generalized category of Good Fiction. The writing is superb and made to look effortless. Still, the book is fast-paced, highly entertaining, and is – in truth – a thriller.

Derrin, an intelligent and creative young woman who prefers this moniker to her fairy-based formal one, is the first-person narrator of The Nature of Entangled Hearts. She is an art instructor at the local university, a sculptor of clay and ceramic pieces. This is mentionable because so much of Emma Hartley’s skill in beguiling the reader comes from this focus of the book, until it becomes a kind of symbolic revelation of the plot. The plot is misleadingly straightforward (allowing for the supernatural) – our young woman meets a man while fighting off the unwanted attentions of another man. However, in Ms. Hartley’s skillful writing hands, as deft as any sculptor’s, this simple plot becomes complex, intriguing, romantic, thrilling, and … a little supernatural. There is great substance here, undergoing firing in the kiln and coming out … remarkable.