A sharp, fast-paced fantasy driven by witty characters, impressively complex worldbuilding, and emotional gut punches.
A young man finds himself caught between the demons of Hell and the Queen of All Fae in Givler’s fantasy novel.
In the second installment of the author’s Debt Collection series, Matthew Carver has already lost his soul after having it unlawfully taken by a representative of Hell. Now he works for the immortal Orion, “master of the Hunt,” taking down demons and attempting to get his soul back. During one of these hunts, Matthew is about to be killed by the demon Zagan when he manages to blow on a dandelion, which calls the Faeries and transports him to their world: “The dandelion seeds in the ball-like head waved for a moment, as if my life’s last breeze was merely music for them to dance to…A few heartbeats later, the white head of the dandelion exploded, and seeds shot everywhere, thrown around like nature’s shrapnel. Impossibly, I felt something reach up and hook into my chest through the ground, and suddenly I was pulled downthrough the gravel as if it were water.” There he discovers, via his anthropomorphic fire friend Willow, that he is actually a Lord of Fire—the first in almost 400 years. And Gloriana, the Faerie queen, wants to strike a bargain: In exchange for marrying one of her four daughters and thus strengthening their bloodline, she will help Matthew regain his soul. Doing so is the best chance they have of preventing a “giant supernatural war” that Hell seems determined to ignite. As Matthew navigates the increasingly dangerous world of Fae politics, he begins to suspect that there’s a traitor in their midst. With the discovery that demons are more invested in the Faerie world than it seemed at first, Matthew faces some impossible choices—including whether to finally rescue his soul in exchange for damning his previously dead sister back down to Hell.
Matthew’s wit carries him far, with plenty of quips and self-deprecating jabs to keep readers amused even as his life crashes down around him: “All things considered, I’d like to congratulate myself on exceeding expectations. I killed an Immortal and survived a year on Lucifer’s Most Wanted list. If Vegas had been running odds on me, I could have made a fortune betting on myself. Granted, given that this was looking like my untimely demise, I wouldn’t have gotten to spend it, but I could have died with a smug sense of superiority, which would have been nice.” That being said, Givler still manages to imbue Matthew with a level of emotional depth that belies the steady stream of one-liners—evidenced mainly by his agony over the fate of his previously dead sister, who is now comatose and kidnapped. Meanwhile, the extensive discussions of soul-selling legality and its various loopholes prove delightfully absurd as they add a grounding mundanity to various fantastical scenarios. The novel’s action is steady but not rushed, while its scenes of violence (and there are quite a few) never become overly graphic. The book has a couple of stray typos, but nothing that would get in the way of readers immersing themselves in the intricately woven universes of mortals, demons, and Fae.
A sharp, fast-paced fantasy driven by witty characters, impressively complex worldbuilding, and emotional gut punches.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2023
ISBN: 978-1958204061
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Sad Seagull Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.
A woman must undergo fearsome trials to free the imprisoned Titans of Greek myth in Owen’s fantasy novel, the second in a series.
Advancing from minor office clerk in the Order of Thieves to Queen of the Underworld, Lyra Keres’ star should be rising. But thanks to Cronos, King of the Titans, she and her longtime friend and fellow thief Boone have been ensnared in a new challenge beneath the earth: Hot on the heels of winning the twisted Crucible Games, Lyra—who has recently been granted goddess powers—finds herself trapped in Tartarus. Separated from her beloved Hades, she must liberate the fearsome Titans from seven Locks to restore the cosmic balance. As Lyra progresses through the Locks engineered by the Gods—each as tricky and lethal as the last—the pressure mounts as the Titans repeatedly remind her, “You will be our savior.” Rhea, the wife of Cronos, reveals that Lyra began this quest “a hundred and fifty years ago,” adding further devastation to the task at hand; the knowledge is helpful, but also painful, as Lyra reflects, “Suddenly, I don’t want to know that it’s real. Because then I have to contemplate how many times I might have ended up in Tartarus already.” As she materializes in and out of time pockets, Lyra sees Hades’ troubled childhood unfold and struggles not to intervene to save the man she loves. In this second entry in the author’s Crucible series, following The Games Gods Play (2024), Lyra’s cynical quips continue to make her an engaging protagonist. Her inner monologues are balanced with hope, love, and longing for Hades as she meets various versions of him. While resilient, Owen’s heroine is also vulnerable (“Was I his pawn in more ways than I ever realized?”). Her introspection effectively contrasts with the simmering rage and restraint in Hades’ chapters. The supporting Titans are given more depth than the traditional myths allow, weaving a knotty family fabric for the reader to navigate alongside Lyra.
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781649378538
Page Count: 500
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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