The Heart of Hannen

Book I in The Atriian Trilogy

Romance - Fantasy/Sci-Fi
522 Pages
Reviewed on 05/30/2014
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

Author Biography

Fawn Bonning resides in Tennessee with her husband, four sons, and six dogs. Her favorite author is Stephen King, her favorite television series, The Walking Dead. Her attraction to the dark, mysterious, and horrific began at an early age with shows such as Creature Feature, and books such as The Stand and The Shining. As an adult, she has developed a passion for steamy erotic romances, something not found in the horror novels she loves so much. The Heart of Hannen is an epic, dark and horrific, dystopian fantasy with erotic elements that should satisfy any romance addict. It is her debut novel and the first book in The Atriian Trilogy.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

The Heart of Hannen is Book One of the Atriian Trilogy, an epic fantasy written by Fawn Bonning. Christine Clavin has a history that haunts her sleeping and waking life and has her whole high school treating her like a freak. When she was a sophomore, a janitor assaulted her at knife point. Christine was found to have justifiably killed him in self-defence, but the fact that she stabbed Sanchez 53 times has Christine as worried as anyone else. Her younger sister, Kim, is being taken to the emergency room by her mother as the story opens, after Christine tried to strangle her. Christine has always had problems with controlling rage, but this time her mother talks of having her committed; a scary thought. Fortunately, her big brother Sam had intervened before she could do any real damage to Kim. Sam was always there for Christine, sometimes annoyingly so, such as when she meets Kyle, a neighbor’s nephew, and accepts a ride from him. Christine’s world is abruptly turned upside when she visits her favorite swimming pond and finds that a vast system of caverns can be accessed from it.

Fawn Bonning’s coming of age fantasy story, The Heart of Hannen: Book One of the Atriian Trilogy, is a marvelous and intricate tale that is deep and rich with imagery. Christine finds herself in an unsettling alternate world where women are consigned to washing, cooking, breeding and whoring, and seem of less value than domesticated animals. Her temper and sharp tongue get her into some fairly serious situations as she navigates her way through this world. I quickly found myself engrossed in this remarkable story. Bonning’s characters are living, breathing people, heroes and villains alike, and her story is original and highly creative. The only problem I had with The Heart of Hannen was with the language used by the inhabitants of Atriia. The many Atriaan words used in the text require the reader to frequently stop and refer to the glossary at the back of the book. I found this sometimes broke my involvement in the story, especially when reading an action scene, and would have preferred to be able to access a translation in a footnote while I was reading. That aside, The Heart of Hannen, Book One of the Atriian Trilogy is grand epic fantasy that has me eagerly anticipating diving into the second volume of the trilogy.