Having enjoyed the previous Celta books, I looked forward to another romantic story in a beautiful futuristic world. Unfortunately, reading Heart Change rendered me less than enthusiastic; the plodding storyline and snail’s pace relationship development left me snoozing hard and often.

We meet Signet D’Marigold on the morning of her birthday, depressed about her lack of focused power and feeling painfully lonely without friends or family. Suddenly she gets a call from GreatLord Vinni, a young prophet, who wants Signet to be his HeartMate’s guardian as she goes through her passages of maturity. As a child, Avellana suffered some brain damage, and her family fears that she may not survive her passages. Vinni has the vision that Signet may be able to guide Avellana, and Signet quickly agrees to let the child live with her until her passages are complete. Because Signet is so used to living isolated from the rest of the world, her home is woefully unprotected against intruders and negative forces. Cratag Maytree is assigned to guard Signet and Avellana, and he promptly moves in with Signet, acutely aware of his attraction to her on previous occasions. Within the span of a few hours, Signet’s previously empty life is suddenly full to bursting, complete with a new little family, a Fam of her own, and the knowledge that Cratag, a lower ranked man with little flair, is her HeartMate. Not only is she suddenly surrounded by friends, but if Signet is able to successfully guide Avellana through her passage, she may be able to start a business and gain an active role in her community.

The majority of the story is definitely focused on Avellana and her difficult passages, and not on Signet and Cratag. This means that most of the conflict and time is spent on Signet battling the snooty attitudes of the higher GreatFamilies, and trying to carve a new position for herself. There is quite a bit of wretched self-doubt and self-analyzing from Signet and hefty self-degradation from Cratag which also became boring after a while.

I felt that Signet and Cratag’s relationship was strangely rooted in the past, based on previous encounters that the reader had no knowledge of. Once Cratag is installed in her home, they easily acknowledge their attraction and just start sleeping together. Not much real relationship development occurs, and the majority of their thoughts are about how to wrangle some time alone with a little girl running around underfoot. I could understand Signet’s attraction to Cratag, a man who has created a tough shell from years of steeling himself against rejection and pain, but is still undeniably caring and considerate towards others. But Cratag’s feelings for her are more difficult to understand, because his feelings are intense from the second they meet, based on nothing more than appreciation for her beauty.

The writing feels awkward at times, and scenes between Signet and Cratag became repetitive quickly. Avellana’s personality took a long time to grow on me, and the running “joke” about her brain-injury-induced rudeness grew stale. I was a little annoyed by the utter obsequiousness the adults showed towards Vinni. I mean, I know he is a child prodigy/genius and has all signs of becoming the greatest prophet EVAR, but he’s a kid, and a really bossy one at that.

This is not my favorite Celta book; not by a long shot. It wasn’t incredibly bad, but it didn’t strike me as particularly interesting or inspired. My favorite element of the story was Signet’s Residence: its personality and efficiency is just hilarious and awesome – my favorite Residence so far. The world is detailed, as always, but the lackluster characters and the lack of much real romance dull the impact of the book as a whole. I did enjoy the emphasis on family and friends, but not enough to keep me involved. I think I’ll eventually read the next book in the series, but the abrupt ending in Heart Change left me more irritated than wanting more.