Toxic Heart (Mystic City, #2)by Theo Lawrence

Synopsis
A city in flames. A trust betrayed. A perfect love destroyed.

Has Aria lost Hunter, her one true love?

Ever since rebellion broke out in Mystic City, pitting the ruling elite against the magic-wielding mystics, Aria has barely seen her boyfriend. Not surprising, since Hunter is the leader of the mystic uprising, and he'll do whatever it takes to win freedom for his people—even if that means using Aria.

But Aria is no one's pawn. She believes she can bring the two warring sides together, save the city, and win back the Hunter she fell in love with.

Before she can play peacemaker, though, Aria will need to find the missing heart of a dead mystic. The heart gives untold powers to whoever possesses it, but finding it means seeking out a fierce enemy whose deepest desire is for Aria to be gone—forever.

Review

I'm always reluctant to read a second book in series as it can often be disappointed. However his is not the case with Toxic Heart.
Toxic heart is a fantastic sequel to Mystic Heart. Picking up right where Mystic City left off, Aria is being trained by Shannon, one of Hunter's "friends", a girl who adds little to the overall story besides some background information, plot movement and minor conflict.
Toxic heart is primarily about Aria discovering and accepting who she is. As she learns more about herself , she also  learns more about the mystics.

Hunter does a complete 180 from the last book, he's roll in this story seems to be very minimal. He appears to be manipulates Aria and at tines controlling her moments.   In the last book he was passionate and willing to die from her, but in this book he acts like an entitled person.

On the upside, a lot of characters changed for the better and we also get to meet some other new interesting characters. In Toxic Heart, the bright light at the end of the tunnel was Turk. In the last book, he was a glorified sidekick, but here, we learn much more about him. He seems to genuinely care for Aria more than Hunter does, and he seems to have his head on his shoulders.

At times Aria still seems to be  naive and kind of ignorant. She often complains that Hunter is focusing too much on the war and not enough on her.

Overall, I liked the tone of the book. There were some interesting plot twists, I really enjoyed the epilogue and I will wait for the arrival of book three.