Archer will hook genre fans with a likable cast and overarching plot worthy of further worldbuilding.
In the first novel in Archer’s Glass and Steele historical fantasy series, a woman who’s been cheated out of her family legacy begins working for a man with a magical secret.
In London in 1890, India Steele prepares to confront Eddie Hardacre, the scoundrel whom she nearly married. India’s father, Elliot, died recently and left his watchmaking shop to Eddie under the assumption the young man would marry his daughter. Instead, Eddie canceled the engagement, swiping the shop and apartment above it from India and rendering her destitute. Worse, because she’s a woman, India has been rejected by the watchmaker’s guild. No shops will hire her. In Eddie’s shop, her attempt to embarrass him backfires when Matthew Glass, a customer, picks her up and carries her outside. Matt then invites India to Brown’s hotel for tea. There, she learns that he’s an American in possession of a special watch made five years ago by a man named Chronos. Matt met Chronos in Broken Creek, New Mexico, but must now track him down because the watch is damaged. Matt hires India as his assistant, even allowing her a room at his lavish home in Mayfair. Yet the situation isn’t as it appears: India sees Matt’s likeness on a “Wanted” poster and witnesses the purple glow and regenerative power of Chronos’ watch. Early on, Archer establishes a bouncy, romantic tone for her Glass and Steele series, which delights in historical detail and slowly unfurls the central mystery. Sharp dialogue displays Eddie’s awfulness when India questions whether she should accept Matt’s invitation. (“You don’t seem like you’re in a position to worry about what’s proper.”) Chapters end on reliably jolting notes, as when Willie Johnson, Matt’s hard-living female cousin who eschews societal conventions, accuses India of spying. Period phrases, such as “he doesn’t want to swing for his crimes,” bolster the narrative’s Victorian aspect while Matt’s American manners often shock India; during a chase scene, he unbuttons her waistcoat so she can breathe. This first volume focuses on India’s personal woes. The mystery of the watch carries into the next installment.
Archer will hook genre fans with a likable cast and overarching plot worthy of further worldbuilding.Pub Date: June 28, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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