Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, bisexual MC, M/M, queernorm matriarchal setting
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; dual PoVs
Published on: 20th March 2025
ISBN: 9798991866804
Goodreads
Secrets and danger stalk the streets of Astreiant…Point of Hearts, Astreiant’s pleasure district, is being disrupted by an influx of scheming nobles who have descended upon the city for an aristocratic wedding. Mysterious carts smuggling something unknown through the night time streets and civil unrest are creating suspicion and turmoil. Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe and his lover, Philip Eslingen, captain in the City Guard, are keeping an eye on an aristocrat under self-imposed house arrest when Rathe is injured during a riot. Pursued by false accusations, Eslingen takes him on the run to Point of Knives while they try to unravel a plot against the queen and her government that could destroy the city they love. Can they count on alliances from their pasts to keep them safe long enough to solve the mystery?
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Highlights
~a musical
~salt
~a truly impressive loophole
~a very important wedding
~time to go on the run!
Book six in the Astreiant series is here and my friends, IT WAS SO WORTH WAITING FOR!
In many – utterly delightful! – ways, Point of Hearts feels like a reward to long-term fans of the series, a gift to those of us who’ve been waiting since 2018 to return to Astreiant. The clearest example of this is the focus on Nico and Philip’s relationship; where in most of the Astreiant books it’s almost possible to forget that the two of them are romantically involved, in Point of Hearts Scott delves deeply into how their connection has (and hasn’t) developed over the years, into their dynamic, their differing (sometimes wildly differing) beliefs and opinions on a variety of important topics. Having followed these characters through a bunch of books at this point, and given that I was expecting Point of Hearts to be more focused on the case and the setting like most of the series, it was such a wonderful surprise to discover Philip and Nico’s relationship placed front-and-centre!
(Nico has still not shared his stars. Still, Nico?!)
There’s also a lot more space for both of them as individuals: it was especially interesting, and timely, to see Philip’s stance on the law explored. He’s still very new to the City Guard (which was only established in Point of Sighs, remember) and I think it’s quite fair to ask – how much does he care about the law for the law’s sake, and how much is just wanting to work with Nico? If he has to choose between them – Nico and the law – which matters more to him? And what does Nico think about Philip’s approach to all this? Point of Hearts puts Nico’s Leveller beliefs – that is, the belief that the nobility shouldn’t exist, among other things – in the spotlight, and it doesn’t make for a comfortable situation.
Which isn’t to say that the case gets neglected in favour of the characters: it very much does not! It’s even twistier than most of the other books: the ‘case’ in this one is several layers deep, with several investigative dead-ends that necessitate retreating and regrouping. (I get that this might be annoying for some readers, but personally I think it makes investigative storylines more believable.) And unlike instalments like Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams, where the tension only really ratchets up in the last handful of pages, Point of Hearts had me vibrating like a harp-string from around the halfway-point on!
I WAS SO ANXIOUS! It’s funny, because it’s not like we haven’t had high stakes in this series before: in Point of Dreams the queen’s life was on the line! But for once Scott makes things very personal, with the villains quickly deciding that Nico is too much of a threat – one that needs taking care of. Usually our boys aren’t in danger themselves, at least not until the final confrontation, and I think Nico’s freedom – and maybe even his life – being on the line for so much of the book is what gives Point of Hearts an intensity most of the series doesn’t have. I’m used to Astreiant being indulgent and languid! I was not expecting to spend so much of this book flailing and biting my nails!!!
Not that I’m complaining. At all.
And it’s not as if Scott has suddenly written us a Hollywood thriller: everything I love about this series is still here, from the gorgeous, honeyed prose to the rich setting. I have been pining to get a proper look at this part of Astreiant, Point of Hearts, since we first heard about it books and books ago, and it was fascinating to tease apart how the district works, who lives there and what kind of intrigue is bubbling away there beneath the surface. And there is a lot of intrigue: not just with the sex work, although we do get some insight into that, but if you’ve read the earlier books recently, you might remember that Point of Hearts is where a lot of the nobility like to stay when they’re visiting court, because it’s the ‘fun’ district. Expect nobles and their nonsense, basically!
(Nobles being involved raises the stakes too, of course. Even the still-new City Guard might struggle to arrest someone highborn enough…)
One of my favourite aspects of this series has always been the setting, and the way in which each instalment fleshes out Astreiant a little more. There’s a subplot of Point of Hearts revolving around an annual tradition of the city’s playwrights, and it’s just – one of those things that makes a setting BREATHE. This tradition in particular is such a gleeful, human thing that I’m grinning even now, thinking about it; it’s so easy to believe that people would do this! Scott has always been a genius at settings, at making cities and realms feel vividly, powerfully real, and I’ll never get over how opening the pages of a Point book feels like stepping into a real city. One that I’m only too happy to visit again and again.
Will we get to visit again? I have no idea; the ending of Point of Hearts is a pretty wonderful place to stop, if Scott never writes another Astreiant book – it’s certainly a little hard to imagine what Nico and Philip’s everyday lives would look like after the Very Big Deal of the final pages. I hope there’ll be more, but I’ll be very content if there isn’t. For me, it’s enough that Point of Hearts appeared like a gift seven years after the last book, long after I’d assumed the series was done! I couldn’t ask for more.
TL;DR: it was an absolute joy to return to Astreiant, and Point of Hearts is easily one of the best instalments in the series.
Oh man!! I’ve got to order my copy now, I read these all when I was in college and Astreiant’s always in the back of my mind. Great review, thank you!
Eee, you’re so welcome, I’m so glad you liked it! But yesss, make sure to grab a copy!!!
this book sounds amazing, but there are so many books before it….. do we need to read all of them in order to read this one?
Nope! I would recommend that you read at least one, but it can be any of them – I would recommend Fairs’ Point, especially because of the adorable dogs in it!
I don’t think you can fully appreciate how much more we see of the romance in Point of Hearts if you haven’t seen their relationship in an earlier book, but plot-wise all the books in this series are standalones :)