Part historical, part fantasy, all top-notch queer romance.
A midsummer night’s Regency.
Miss Maelys Mitchelmore doesn’t understand why her dress is falling apart at a society ball. (It’s not even fairy-made!) Though the situation seems at first to be a social disaster, her predicament leads to adventure when Lady Georgiana, better known as the Duke of Annadale, comes to her rescue. Everyone fears the Duke, who became the sole heir to a dukedom thanks to a series of mysterious deaths. She doesn’t mind, as she is generally happy to be left on her own. Miss Mitchelmore, for her part, is grateful to be saved from ruination and then surprised when the Duke’s kiss on her hand leads her to a sudden realization that perhaps her lack of passion for any eligible young man this season (or last) is due to the fact that none of them are women. When Miss Mitchelmore is struck by yet another magical attack, she starts to look for the cause and to see if the Duke will help her fix it—assuming the Duke is not the cause herself. And so the story begins, accompanied by a great deal of additional commentary from our petulant narrator, Puck (yes, that Puck), recently banished from the court of Oberon, now forced to write to make ends meet. He proves to be an enchanting and delightfully petulant storyteller, repeatedly winking at the reader as the paranormal meddling continues and a beautiful romance between Miss Mitchelmore and the Duke begins to bloom. The cast is rounded out nicely by Miss Mitchelmore’s brother and best friend, both trying their best to help Maelys solve her magical mystery, but it may ultimately be only the women who can save each other. This is a lovely, pitch-perfect romance, with an alternate Regency setting that is well developed and has tremendous charm. The intimacy is relatively tame, for Hall, but the story still contains all the delicious tension and wry humor that he writes so well. Hall continues to prove himself to be one of the best romance writers working today.
Part historical, part fantasy, all top-notch queer romance.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780593497562
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.
When Vis is copied into two other realities, he must stop a god from repeatedly culling almost everyone back home.
Thousands of years ago, to prevent the Concurrence from enslaving everyone, the world was split into three near-identical copies: Res, Obiteum, and Luceum. To exist in all three worlds, to wield Will there, is to achieve synchronism. After the events in The Will of the Many (2023), which cost Vis his arm and the life of his friend, Vis achieves Synchronism. While Res-Vis must continue to play Hierarchy politics to find his friend’s killer, Obiteum-Vis finds a ruined world, where the dead are reanimated and used by Ka, the Concurrence, and the only other person to exist in synchronism. Meanwhile, Luceum-Vis is forced into a dispute between druids, their High Council, and their kings—with one king intent on killing him—and Vis has no idea why. On all worlds, Vis is as shrewd as ever, weighing his options, planning ahead, and doing what he must to survive. However, he, too, slowly diverges, doing things he swore he never would: cede his Will, use Will to control someone else, and reveal his true name. If at least one Vis cannot use his synchronism and power of Will to kill the Concurrence, no Vis will be safe, and another Cataclysm will cull those he loves on Res. Book Two of the Hierarchy series is a speculative fantasy that is at once Egyptian post-apocalyptic, Celtic medieval, and Roman dystopian, thanks to the multidimensional setting. Although the sprawling narrative at times overextends itself, Islington rewards patient readers with a compelling story, a cast of complex and diverse characters, and a glimpse into how far a good man can go before he’s lost. A symbol at the start of each chapter delineates which world and Vis it’s about. Readers should read The Will of the Many before attempting this volume, or they may be confused for the first several chapters and beyond.
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781982141233
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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