A breezy, bloody, well-rounded send-off.
Ethical vampire librarian Amber Fang is back for a last hurrah.
Three months after her last outing, Amber Fang has a good lead for finding her missing mother, kept hostage by ZARC Industries. With the help of her boss (and romantic interest), Dermot, the dwindling forces of the League, and the ninja librarians known as the Returns, Amber has every reason to hope this time she will succeed. But a botched mission leaves Amber alone, hurt, and on the run from ZARC and its increasingly dangerous AI Hector as well as from the nonethical vampires who wish to use Amber’s fertile womb to save their species. Will Amber manage to survive—and save her mother and herself from their enemies? Amber has come a long way in this third book: She plans better, is more confident, fights more effectively, and reacts more cautiously to the dangers coming her way. With an abundance of literary allusions, librarian in-jokes, and plenty of high-stakes action, the series comes to a fitting, satisfying conclusion. With so many factions interested in Amber’s and her mother’s ovaries, though, there is a missed opportunity for a more in-depth conversation about women’s agency, especially after an unsettling connection is made between good morals and fertility in female vampires. The majority of characters are assumed white with a couple of minor Chinese American characters in the mix.
A breezy, bloody, well-rounded send-off. (Paranormal thriller. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2275-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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