There are plenty of other (and far better) fish in the sea.
It’s a race against the clock for 16-year-old Gemma in the third installment of the Watersong series.
Still desperate to stave off her thirst for a beating heart (preferably one belonging to a hot teenage boy) and to protect the ones she loves from the wrath of her evil siren sisters, Gemma must figure out how to break the siren curse before Penn finds a more suitable and willing replacement and kills Gemma herself. If only it were as exciting as that all sounds. The aptly titled novel ebbs and flows between present and a mythical past in a failed attempt to anchor the story and the characters in a history that may or may not be destined to repeat itself. While Penn is still deliciously evil, and her love-hate relationship with Daniel remains one of the best parts of the series, most of the characters feel two-dimensional at best. Others, including Lexi and Alex, who are absent for the bulk of the novel, feel like afterthoughts. As for the plotlines, far too little time is spent on Penn’s search for a replacement siren and too much time spent digging around in the sirens’ past. The result is that the urgency of Gemma’s situation is given good lip service, but readers will be hard-pressed to actually feel it.
There are plenty of other (and far better) fish in the sea. (Paranormal romance. 14 & up)Pub Date: June 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-00811-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
PROFILES
The well-paced romantic tension is a highlight of this enjoyable duology closer.
Even a war driven by gods can’t sever communication between journalist lovers Iris and Roman in this steampunk-adjacent romantic adventure.
A prologue sets the scene: Dacre, a god strummed to sleep by magic in Divine Rivals (2023), will not slumber forever. His willingness to wage war to acquire more powerful magic leads him to lay waste to entire towns, and Inkridden Tribune journalist Iris Winnow and war correspondent Roman Kitt can no longer be assured the other is safe—or even still alive. In Iris’ world of cigarette smoke, copper pipes, and driving goggles, colleagues affectionately call each other by their last names, watch each other’s backs, and face danger on the front lines. Though Underling Correspondent Roman is traveling with Dacre’s army, he questions why he was healed of his grievous wounds, while at the same time, he gradually recovers memories of Iris and recalls that she was special to him. Their magically connected typewriters allow for the rediscovery of their love and for communicating potentially deadly information about the invasion of Hawk Shire. The story primarily unfolds from Iris’ and Roman’s viewpoints, and while the prose occasionally uses well-worn phrases, Anglophiles will particularly enjoy the worldbuilding, and returning readers will welcome appearances from Capt. Keegan Torres; her wife, Marisol; and Dacre’s archnemesis—and wife—the goddess Enva. Main characters present white.
The well-paced romantic tension is a highlight of this enjoyable duology closer. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250857453
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Truly fantastic.
This dark fantasy duology opener has a magic school, a death, and five students who find themselves stranded in the wilderness.
Ren Monroe is a promising student wizard at Balmerick, a private school in the city of Kathor. Along with her best friend, Timmons, Ren is one of the few welfare students attending on a scholarship, and despite being one of the most accomplished people at the school, finding a placement in one of the top houses is proving difficult and is a hurdle in the way of the secret mission Ren has set out to accomplish. When a portal spell goes awry and Ren, Timmons, and four other students from different walks of life are thrown together into the Dires, an uncharted land where the last dragons lived, one of them ends up dead and the rest need to learn to work together to make their way back home before they succumb to the harsh environment or the terrifying revenant following them. This may well be the chance Ren was looking for to prove her worth. Placing elements of a locked-room mystery and an original magic system within the familiar trappings of a school for magic, this is a no-holds-barred tale of revenge, atonement, and the pursuit of justice set in a world diverse in skin color and social classes. Ren is a protagonist for the ages: equal parts smart, calculating, and ruthless, forming a lethal package as an avenging angel.
Truly fantastic. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66591-868-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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