A selection box of candy-sweet fairy-tale tropes.
A naïve young noblewoman sails from the New World into several European fairy tales.
Selah has spent her sheltered life as the heiress to Potomac, a small territory in an alternate-timeline America, reading fairy tales and chastely longing for Peter, a childhood friend, oblivious to the political intrigues that surround her. But when Peter refuses her proposal, her conniving stepmother sends her on a sudden mission to Europe to court more politically useful romantic connections. Selah boards the Beholder armed with a book of fairy tales and the blessings of her godmother, a nun—and soon encounters Arthurian legend, Nordic mythology, Baba Yaga, and other fairy-tale motifs aplenty. An array of charming princes provide swooningly romantic moments, and Selah’s attraction to multiple boys is written as normal, not shameful. Selah is white, and Peter and many secondary characters are racially diverse, but the book’s idealized multiculturalism is severely undercut by erasure of the Indigenous population in Potomac, an oversight that makes Selah’s criticism of other land-hungry empires ring hollow. Winking nods to various tales and their tellers—Selah’s entourage includes Homer, Perrault, Yasumaro, and Lang, to name a few—are sometimes twee but always entertaining. Selah is at first tiresomely naïve and sugar-sweet but begins to rise into maturity and complexity that, the cliffhanger ending suggests, will be explored more thoroughly in a sequel.
A selection box of candy-sweet fairy-tale tropes. (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-284542-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy.
A war between gods plays havoc with mortals and their everyday lives.
In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world.
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-85743-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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
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