An often charming, if predictable, story featuring a main character who tackles some intriguing challenges.
In Day’s fantasy series-starter, a young woman fights the forces of evil while battling with her own depression.
Twenty-year-old Solitude “Soli” Graymind doesn’t seem special, but the careful wording of a prophecy makes her exactly who the troubled kingdom needs. She leaves a life of indentured servitude to bear the burden of a magical amulet that belongs to the goddess Artemisen, who’s trapped in a crystal tomb and communicates with Soli as the young woman goes on a journey to rescue her. Along the way, Soli battles depression as well as the machinations of evil goddess Corvynne’s henchmen. The author sets up a world where princes are orphaned, magic is alternately reviled and revered, goddesses clash, and a mere mortal struggling with mental illness must save the day. The book is, at its best, a straightforward quest adventure; the depiction of Soli’s internal battles is a bit heavy-handed, but her fight against her illness—and against the stigma that her society places upon it—will appeal to readers who have similar struggles or know others who do. The tale also features romantic elements, and they aren’t presented as a slow burn; indeed, Soli and a prince fall in love and begin a physical relationship quite quickly. Refreshingly, the prince comes with his own emotional baggage and reservations, and lovers of romantasy will enjoy the pairing. Classic fantasy fans will connect with the worldbuilding, which features exciting magical creatures, intriguing locations, and determined evildoers. The narrative only gets halfway through Soli’s quest to free the goddess in this installment, and the pitfalls that she and other heroes face come across as a touch simplistic at times, with few surprises, and villains tend to announce themselves. Hopefully, more exciting twists await readers in an upcoming sequel.
An often charming, if predictable, story featuring a main character who tackles some intriguing challenges.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9781682816707
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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