Dynamic characters headline this fascinating retelling of the Helen of Troy tale.
A woman fights to become queen to save a dying Sparta in Jane’s historical romantasy.
Ever since King Menelaus drove out the gods, the land of Sparta has suffered. Its people have endured a famine as well as the Dread, a relentless sickness. Helena, a “famed beauty” from the village of Amyklai, sees a chance to help Sparta. Menelaus will choose a new queen from several candidates, including Helena; she’ll just have to make it through the Trials, whatever those may be, and then she can ensure that the Spartans outside Menelaus’ palace walls will have enough to eat (something that undoubtedly doesn’t concern the king). While Helena catches nearly everyone’s attention, it’s Achilles, captain of the king’s guard, who quickly grabs hers. (“His hair had been pulled back in Spartan fashion, revealing a face both terrible and divine, cheekbones like the edge of a drawn bow, a mouth made for commands.”) But neither can act on how they feel, since queens, even prospective ones, must be “untouched.” Further complicating matters, a cloaked stranger with magical abilities arrives in Sparta at a time when only Menelaus has such powers. Jane’s novel, which opens a planned trilogy, moves at a deliberate pace, which allows for a meticulously developed potential romance between Helena and Achilles. The supporting cast members, from Menelaus to Anysa, Helena’s fellow queen candidate, continually reveal surprising layers. While this first installment largely unfolds in the palace, the Spartan setting is vivid. The Dread’s “red mist” is outright horrifying, and the story is flush with bizarre creatures, such as the tentacled Karybdis and the tiny, mouselike Roz, who becomes Helena’s endearing companion. As the story rolls along, Helena faces myriad dilemmas, not knowing whom she can trust, worrying over the perpetually raging Dread, and unearthing a devastating secret. It all builds to a tense, memorable ending that will leave readers craving a sequel.
Dynamic characters headline this fascinating retelling of the Helen of Troy tale.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9798347004867
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2026
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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