An expertly crafted page-turner with unpredictable twists, steamy romance, and magical creatures.
A princess and a gladiator join forces amidst political intrigue and bloody carnage in Robson’s fantasy novel.
For the citizens of the wealthy kingdom of Arrow, the most exciting entertainment can be found in the arena—for the gladiators from the surrounding kingdoms, it’s a relentlessly brutal series of fights to the death. The combatants hope to win enough matches to earn the royal title of “Bloodguard,” which will allow their families to immigrate to Arrow. Leith, a gladiator in his mid-20s, is a skilled fighter driven by his desperation to support his mother and two younger sisters (and by the rage built from years of killing his peers for an audience’s delectation). After killing the arrogant Lord Filip (who challenged him to an impromptu duel) and subsequently emerging victorious in a surprise melee with a group of his peers and a dragon, Leith is getting closer to becoming a Bloodguard. He attracts the attention of Princess Maeve, a 20-year-old healer. Now that her fiance, Lord Filip, is dead, she’s in dire need of a noble spouse so that she can claim the throne when she turns 21. Maeve proposes a deal: She’ll help Leith achieve the Bloodguard status in exchange for his hand in marriage. But as their relationship blossoms, problems arise when royal secrets are revealed and government corruption is exposed. Soon, they’re not just vying for a title and a crown—they’re fighting for their lives. Robson’s novel is an exciting blend of action, palace intrigue, and romance in a high fantasy setting. The story unfolds through the perspectives of Maeve and Leith, who are both compelling and well developed, with flaws, foibles, and distinctive voices. The supporting characters are equally intriguing. Readers will love the richly detailed worldbuilding and combat sequences, as well as the use of snarky, modern language (“Of course the only royal offering me help is one who’s clawing her way to the throne, not already sitting pretty on one. That tracks,” Leith gripes). The book’s thoughtful queer representation and exploration of oppression and exploitation are also noteworthy.
An expertly crafted page-turner with unpredictable twists, steamy romance, and magical creatures.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781649374059
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 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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