A well-developed enemy-to-lovers fantasy.
An athlete is swept into a world of dragons and finds new passions in Baker’s first installment of a fantasy romance tetralogy.
Thirty-something Liz Chadwick is an up-and-coming Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter in Houston. After Gideon Evans—Liz’s childhood friend, training partner, and crush—leaves to join the military, she attends the local elementary school’s fundraiser carnival with her mother and her three siblings, Jade, Coral, and Sammy. Out of the blue, the carnival is attacked by dragons searching for an artifact known as the “Heart.” Liz’s mother is “ensnared” by an electro dragon named Ocharta, who has electrically based powers, and Liz is later ensnared by Axel, a shape-shifter and the prince of earth-affiliated dragons. In the context of the novel, ensnared refers to dragons who connect themselves to special humans, known as brights, with a magical pact that provides mutual benefits and powers, with the caveat that their lives depend on each other’s well-being; if one of the ensnared is hurt or killed, then so is the other. Liz leverages this last aspect to protect her siblings and Gideon. Meanwhile, Axel routinely saves Liz from harm by apparently requesting help from the powerful dragon Azar; later, Axel’s secret is revealed, which changes Liz’s status in the society she finds herself in. Her suppressed memory may hold the key to finding the fabled Heart. Over the course of this fantasy romance novel, Baker excels at stoking the passion that Liz and Axel share as well as describing the competition that arises between Axel and Liz’s would-be suitor, Gideon. Baker effectively marshals a large cast, including Azar’s siblings, who allude to Azar’s betrothed, Asteria, whom he’s expected to marry soon; later in the novel, the main characters begin a journey to another country. However, the narrative sometimes abruptly resolves key plot points or leaves them dangling; presumably, some may be picked up in planned future installments, but some readers may initially be confused. Overall, though, this book lays the foundation for complex and engaging worldbuilding and introduces a tough-minded and appealing protagonist.
A well-developed enemy-to-lovers fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2023
ISBN: 978-1949655742
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Purple Puppy Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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