An absorbing novel that weaves an unforgettable tale of magic and subversion.
A British university student becomes entangled with the members of a campus secret society who inadvertently provide her access to a mysterious parallel world.
When shy Emma Curran accepts a prestigious fellowship that funds climate change–related research on river habitats, she’s catapulted from obscurity into the most elite student circles. She quickly begins consorting with young people whose lives center around “dressage clubs…[shopping] at Harrods,” yachts, and glamorous parties. Her newfound social status attracts attention from the popular leader of the secretive all-male Turnbull Society, who invites her to partake in an ancient ritual and then a human “fox hunt” that unexpectedly transports her to a domain that coexists—and sometimes intersects—with her own. Breeze demonstrates her mastery of worldbuilding by plunging the reader into the mesmerizing realm of the Night City, populated by spell-workers, healers, scholars and hybrid human-animals who, like Emma, have been “touched by magic…[and] belong to the power that claimed [them]. That saved [them], or granted [their] wish”; and where survival is dependent on the ability to see through cleverly worded “bargains” meant to trap the unwary. As Emma searches for a way back to her world, she draws inexorably closer to truths about the Turnbulls and their unspeakable bargain with the Night City that not only test her wits, mettle, and resolve, but transform her into the avenging heroine of a story she never dreamed would be hers. Smart, propulsive, and multilayered, this deftly crafted fantasy thriller immerses readers in a narrative that recalls the wonder—and horror—of Grimms’ fairy tales in a darkly elegant academic setting.
An absorbing novel that weaves an unforgettable tale of magic and subversion.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780316597388
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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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