An accomplished and well-written tale leaving readers eager to keep exploring this intriguing world.
A former soldier must confront her past and the despotic plutocrat she once served in this fantasy.
Timon, a priest of the god Taraki in Penderyn, raises a foundling he names Piper. A wild girl, Piper keeps running away to the city and eventually stays there, making a modest living with odd jobs and begging. In the wealthy quarter, Piper jumps a mansion’s fence and is challenged by its owner, Dahlia Tulan. Dahlia is the city’s guildmaster—fabulously wealthy, powerful, and ruthless—and though she intends to kill the trespasser, Piper fights back valiantly. The guildmaster instead adopts the girl, renaming her Silbrey, and has her trained as a cold, brutal enforcer. But Silbrey discovers her heart when she falls in love with Callis, a handsome shepherd in the marketplace. Disguising her violent past from him, Silbrey gets permission from Dahlia to leave the city with him. But there’s a catch: Neither can ever return. Years later, Silbrey doesn’t know how to tell her daughter and husband they mustn’t go to Penderyn market. When they do, disaster strikes, bringing Silbrey back to the city, where she will not only face off against Dahlia, but also deal with her true self. In his series opener, Hopkins writes graceful and sinewy prose that vividly describes action, emotion, and inner life. His thoughtful, captivating worldbuilding is less socially hidebound than that of many fantasy sagas, as with Silbrey’s attraction “to men, to women, and to people who didn’t fit into these crude categories.” An open-content scheme means other writers may use Hopkins’ setting and its rich ground for storytelling. Debut illustrator Decena contributes lovely, intricately crosshatched monochrome pictures that capture the book’s atmosphere.
An accomplished and well-written tale leaving readers eager to keep exploring this intriguing world.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 65
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A clever switch on the magical-school trope.
A young boy begins a classic coming-of-age adventure when he joins a secret school for training witches to fight monsters…but this story isn’t about him.
Ever since their mother died, Vic has taken it upon herself to take care of her little brother, Henry. Their mother was a witch, a member of the Acheron Order, and she fought terrible supernatural monsters before her untimely (and mysterious) death. Henry, unlike Vic, inherited their mother’s magical abilities, and so Vic is determined to hide him from the Acheron Order, and save him from their mother’s fate. She dropped out of high school and spent years caring for Henry, even becoming a skilled fighter in case she had to defend him. When an Elder of the Order finally tracks them down, he warns that if Henry isn’t taught to use his magic, he will be in danger, and it would be safest for him to go to Avalon Castle, the Order’s headquarters, and be trained. This convinces Henry to go, and Vic begrudgingly agrees on the condition that she can come with him to make sure he’s safe. But Vic is out of place as a regular human among witches, who despise her presence in their classes because they believe that her humanness makes her beneath them. But when Vic finds proof—a mauled body—that magical monsters have been able to breach the Order’s magically warded walls, it becomes clear that the Order is being targeted by a rival organization of witches, and Vic’s days of knowing she could use her fists to keep Henry safe are over. Making Vic the protagonist is a smart twist to the trope of “chosen boy goes to magic school”; Anderson skillfully sets her up as the kind of curious, determined woman who might stick her nose where she’s been told not to, and figure out that things are not as they seem with the Acheron Order. But while most of the characters are well drawn, Anderson leans heavily enough on the tropes of the genre that the surrounding worldbuilding feels thin. Still, a sharp twist right at the end will make it worth watching for Book Two.
A clever switch on the magical-school trope.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9780593976319
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
A lush, sensual page-turner for fans of urban fantasy, folklore, and dark romance.
In Lee’s paranormal romantic thriller, a young woman in New Orleans is plunged into a terrifying but intriguing underworld after striking a bargain for her brother’s life.
Twenty-four-year-old trauma nurse Cate Holloway’s life takes a dramatic turn when her 19-year-old brother, Channing, is rushed to the ER with a gunshot wound while she’s on duty.Even more shocking for Cate is the discovery that Channing is in debt to the notorious Gage crime family, who practically rule New Orleans. They distribute the street drug “clover,” pay off all the right people, and even own the hospital where Cate works. She resolves to keep Channing safe, and directly confronts crime boss Lachlan Gage at the lavish Avalon Hotel. Lachlan presents Cate with a bargain: trade her soul in exchange for her sibling’s. Cate accepts, even though she thinks the idea is ridiculous, and seals the deal by taking a bite of an apple Lachlan gives her. She’s then transported to a realm called the Otherworld, where she finds out that the Gages are fae royalty, and that getting out of a fae bargain is almost impossible. Now tethered to Lachlan, she has to figure out how to free herself; along the way, she must navigate fae politics between royal families, a blossoming friendship with Lachlan’s sister Ciara, and her own undeniable attraction to Lachlan himself, who just might be more than the monster she thinks he is. Lee’s skillfully written dark urban fantasy novel is infused with classic fae lore, humor (“So, you claim that you aren’t pixies or garden gnomes,” Cate muses), and meticulous worldbuilding. All the major characters, and especially the fiercely independent and capable Cate and the rakish yet family-oriented antagonist/love interest Lachlan, are well developed and compelling. The book’s richly detailed descriptions of clothing, architecture, and fae customs will immerse readers in the Otherworld and cause them to linger long after the final page. Readers may particularly enjoy the steady buildup of romantic tension and appreciate that the relationship resists problematic tropes, instead emphasizing consent and mutual respect.
A lush, sensual page-turner for fans of urban fantasy, folklore, and dark romance.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9781649375773
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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