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
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
A clever and inspiring reimagining of a little-remembered time and place.
Medieval history and Celtic mythology merge in an enchanting tale.
Arden, best known for her Winternight Trilogy, here turns from medieval Russia to Europe during the same period. Anne of Brittany—a real person—is 19 when the novel begins in the late 15th century, a sovereign duchess whose father, the duke, has been dead since she was a child. Described as “small and glossy as a cat in a dairy,” she’s desperately trying to avoid marrying Charles VIII, the king of France, which would mean the dissolution of her country. She conceives a plan to conduct a unicorn hunt in the ancient, haunted forest of Broceliande, thinking she will be able to secretly arrange a proxy wedding to Maximilien of Austria, heir to the Holy Roman Empire. While there, she encounters not only an actual unicorn but an evil enchanter who has designs on her kingdom. With the unlikely aid of the chivalrous (and undeniably attractive) Louis of Orleans, who has been sent by Charles’ sister Marguerite to betray Anne, as well as Anne’s spunky younger sister, Isabeau; a clever peasant girl, Elesbed; and a cat named Butter, Anne works feverishly to protect her people from sinister forces both political and supernatural. Arden takes her time immersing the reader in this thoroughly and intricately imagined world, where historical figures bump up against an enigmatic korriganed queen, at least one monstrous sea-dragon, a herd of undead “anaon,” and a whole Breton city that has been trapped in time. This is an alternate history in which the admirable Anne, freed from the confines of textbooks, gets to ask the question, “Shall we not write our own story?” Here, love and duty reach an understanding, and courtly romance makes friends with a steamier variety of physical contact. Fans of jousts, spells, dark magic, and brave women will find plenty of each here.
A clever and inspiring reimagining of a little-remembered time and place.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9780593128282
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
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