Series fans will be pleased by the continuing saga of conflicted love amid devastation.
Isla Crown’s world trembles on the brink of destruction even as she struggles to find a way to save it without killing either of the men she loves—Oro, the king of Lightlark, and Grim, the ruler of Nightshade—as a prophecy predicts.
Threatened on the one hand by wildly destructive storms of mysterious origin and on the other by an unkillable Wildling who’s commanding armies of the dead, Isla and her shadow-wielding lover, Grim, nonetheless find time for both a second wedding and plenty of steamy scenes in this follow-up to 2023’s Nightbane. Catering to fans who like their fantasies literally awash in gore, Aster has Isla at one point falling into a deep pool of blood—as well as carving power-enhancing sigils into her own body, decapitating an assassin, and personally cutting the hearts out of multiple rapists and other bad actors in order to pay an augur for glimpses of her seemingly inevitable doom. Though Isla’s other heartthrob, Oro, just gets a supporting role this time through, Isla does acquire a dragon to ride into battle, along with even mightier magic that she’s ready to unleash. The love triangle’s intense sparks give the wholesale slaughter a run for its money on the way to a game- and locale-changing climactic twist. Isla and Grim have pale skin and dark hair; Oro has amber eyes and golden hair.
Series fans will be pleased by the continuing saga of conflicted love amid devastation. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781419773785
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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