An engaging fantasy and romance that explores the importance of vulnerability and forgiving oneself.
Sirota’s romance-centered fantasy novel explores themes of intimacy, commitment, and coming to terms with the past.
Nineteen-year-old Estrid and her shadow-wolf familiar Rafe incapacitate a group of soldiers in an effort to protect a local village—Estrid accomplishes this with dark, powerful magic to fulfill an oath she’s taken to make up for the lives of innocents she’s claimed in the past (“a heavy debt she’s not sure will ever be repaid”). She encounters a person called Zain unconscious in the nearby wilderness and takes him in to nurse him back to health. During their time together, they discover that their combined magic has the power to resurrect the dead, which they demonstrate on a bird. They are attracted to one another, but Zain reveals he’s “Fae” and King of the Summer Court; when his companions Del and Alvey come for him, he must go with them to protect his realm from the evildoings of Rodden, the King of Nordia, who threatens his reign. Estrid helps strategize, having previously been under Rodden’s control and therefore familiar with his tactics. However, as they approach his stronghold, Estrid is captured. Zain solicits help from Del and other allies to rescue her from a dungeon. They seek help from the Shadow Court—whose King Cethin is revealed to have an intimate connection with one among the group. Sirota excels in creating dynamic characters like Estrid and Zain, with complex backstories drawn from the similarly elaborate worldbuilding. The author conveys a palpable attraction between them—their erotic scenes are treated with a deft hand and effectively convey the characters’ growing connection to each other, propelling the plot forward. However, the inception of their relationship feels a bit rushed, and some secondary characters could benefit from additional development. While Estrid’s magic is a central element, its limitations are murkily defined, which may prove frustrating for some readers. Nonetheless, this opening installment lays a strong foundation for a sequel. Fans of high fantasy and romance alike will enjoy Sirota’s tale, which successfully highlights aspects of both genres.
An engaging fantasy and romance that explores the importance of vulnerability and forgiving oneself.Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781763704701
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 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
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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