The intriguing beginning of a promising fantasy series.
Kuster’s fantasy novel, the first installment in the Weaver series, follows three siblings as they navigate a tumultuous realm that sees supernatural abilities as inherently evil.
Triplets Emiel, Meliana, and Kerick DeLuvena own a successful vineyard on the island of Isthius. Emiel, the head of the family at 22 years of age, is the youngest winemaker on the island. With his wedding looming, Emiel and his siblings are preparing for a monthlong celebration. But the island’s populace quickly devolves into chaos when squads of Breakers show up, searching for Bloodweavers—those with the ability to manipulate living things. (“The touch of a talented Bloodweaver could incapacitate a person in seconds. Stop a heart. Destroy a mind.”) Kerick, who’s over seven feet tall, knows he has the ability to weave, and he’s terrified that he’ll not only put his own life in jeopardy, but those of his brother and sister as well. When he tells Emiel about his power, he demonstrates it for him and accidently creates a massive sinkhole into which Emiel disappears, presumably dying in the fall. Kerick and Mel soon become targets of the Breakers, who’ve heard rumors about the triplets’ grandparents’ weaving powers. Kerick vows to somehow find a safe haven with the Ravel, a resistance movement that sees those with weaving abilities as beneficial to society. Mel attempts to save her lover, Ismene, after she is tested and imprisoned by the Breakers. Fantasy fans will find a lot to like here. The rich worldbuilding is arguably the novel’s biggest strength, but the well-developed dynamics between the main characters, particularly Mel and Ismene’s complex relationship, are also compelling. The narrative has an impressive pace fueled by intertwining and action-packed plotlines that maintain the pedal-to-the-metal momentum. Unfortunately, the conclusion is both predictable and somewhat unsatisfying, as it’s more of a cluster of cliffhangers than an ending.
The intriguing beginning of a promising fantasy series.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9798347018512
Page Count: 440
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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
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
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