A fresh take on a familiar fairy tale.
A woman must escape the clutches of a reclusive creature to rejoin the rebellion against a tyrannical ruler in O’Bryan’s fantasy novel, a radical retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Lydia Brightwood is a captain in the resistance against the Crimson Lord, the new ruler of the fantastical realm of Samar, who keeps her small, downtrodden country under his cruel thumb. All the citizens live in fear of him and his personal army, the Crimsons, who suppress any challenges to their brutal rule. Lydia has lost everything––her home, her parents, her comrades––and she fears that one day she might lose her brother, Thomas, too. Lydia struggles to convince the oppressed seven clans who make up Samar to join the fight, but without a prince to rally behind, they refuse to put aside their distrust. Lydia sets off to find the last living person who could legitimately inherit the crown, but the desperate quest is cut short by Lydia’s capture by the Crimson Lord and his demand for her hand in marriage. She escapes into the northern mountains, only to end up at a ruined castle populated by an old woman and a monstrous creature beyond her wildest nightmares. (“Its snouted mouth was crammed with fangs, two of which rested outside so they could be seen even when its mouth was closed.”) The beast, Adam, has shut himself away in seclusion as penance for his failure to protect Samar, barely fighting off the more animalistic aspects of his curse in his despair. The two find themselves in a stalemate: Adam won’t let Lydia leave, fearing she’ll give away the secret of his existence; Lydia won’t give up on returning to the fight. O’Bryan turns the classic fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast on its head in this blood-soaked and bracing fight for freedom as the characters stand up against an oppressive regime. The romance is slow to start but is hard-won, with each of the characters slowly letting their guard down. Unraveling the mystery of Adam’s circumstances is a pleasant exercise that contrasts well with the many action sequences.
A fresh take on a familiar fairy tale.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781957899732
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Quill & Flame Publishing House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A freewheeling, action-packed fantasy with a dash of romance.
Kova offers a fantasy novel set beyond the Nightgale Mountains in the walled fortress of Vinguard where citizens live in fear of the next deadly dragon attack.
Vinguard’s residents are always on guard against the threat of dragons, but they must watch more than just the skies. Living among them, hiding in plain sight, are the “dragon cursed”—people who, at any moment, may transform into terrifying winged beasts and destroy the city from within. For most of Isola Thaz’s life, she’s been told she’s the reincarnated savior of Vinguard. But just as she begins to suspect that she may be dragon cursed, she’s tossed into Vinguard’s Tribunal—a contest in which every 18-year-old competes in tests of skill and might to separate loyal citizens from the dragon cursed. As she’s sequestered for this rite of passage, Isola hesitantly allies herself with a handsome fellow competitor named Lucan. However, as the teens face such trials as fire-breathing automatons (“The silver beast comes to life with a swing. Its claws shear through the dim light”), starvation, and actual dragons while unarmed, Isola begins to feel that Vinguard’s traditions come at a cost that’s too steep. Meanwhile, Vicar Darius, Lucan’s father and the leader of Vinguard’s shadowy theocracy, the Creed, is desperate to take Isola’s powers for himself—and, to that end, he puts her into increasingly tortuous situations. However, neither he, nor Isola’s teenage rivals, are very compelling antagonists; instead, they come across as caricatures of cruelty. Still, the novel is fast-paced and action-oriented with a punchy prose that prioritizes movement over fantasy aesthetics. A sometimes-fraught romance between Isola and Lucan slowly blooms, but Isola’s relationship with her family forms the true emotional core of the narrative. Although the worldbuilding in fairly simple, the story sets up a massive mystery that promises big payoffs in a potential future installment.
A freewheeling, action-packed fantasy with a dash of romance.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781649377838
Page Count: 448
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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