A classic quest narrative that lovers of fairy tales are likely to enjoy.
In James’ fantasy novel, the disastrous consequences of a single kiss cause a faerie to lose almost everything.
Escala Winter wants to understand what it is to fall in love. She decides to kiss a mortal man, but when a wolf kills both that man and Escala’s best friend, Rihanna, the blame falls on Escala herself. She’s broken fey law, and her father, the ruler of the Court of Dreams, must judge her and decide her fate. Lord Rowan is torn between duty and love, while his wife, Morvena, plots the destruction of the stepdaughter who stands in the way of her own daughter Audrey’s ascendance. Rowan manages to save Escala’s life, but she’s banished from the court and forced to take on the body of an elf. She’s also condemned to live on the material plane unless she’s able to “remove the boulders from the True Cycle”—but what these boulders actually are remains a mystery: “It’s part of my sentence…I don’t know what it means.” Meanwhile, Morvena still wants the crown for herself and her daughter. She forms an alliance with Victor Graves and plans to kill both Escala and Rowan; Victor’s son, Jonathan, was the man Escala kissed, and Escala’s mother, Teresa, rejected Victor long ago. Escala, meanwhile, forges ahead on her quest and soon meets Harper and Roedyn, who initially believe her to be an elf but agree to assist her. They soon face direwolves and dragons alongside newfound friends Sticky and the Bard Wigfrith, who narrates the story. Later, it becomes clear that only Escala stands a chance of saving the Court of Dreams.
James’ novel is a high fantasy fable that draws from epic-quest myths and fairy tales to tell a story of redemption, duty, and love. Escala proves to be a compelling protagonist—the child of the ruler of the Court of Dreams and a mortal woman who left the Court, for fear that her daughter would never be accepted if she remained. The story’s dramatic stakes are established quite early on, as is the theme of Escala’s quest to understand the nature of love. The framing of the story, in which the Bard Wigfrith retells the tale for patrons at a tavern, adds a layer of narrative complexity that ameliorates some of the storytelling’s more didactic elements. It would have been intriguing if Wigfrith’s character development had a bit more depth, which might have made readers question the reliability of his narration. As it stands, however, the narrative is well paced throughout and evocative of many classic fantasy tales. The threat that Escala faces is also typical of a great many myths, and although a bit more could have been done to add nuance to the villains’ motives and to the lessons that Escala learns, the narrative arc is satisfying overall. Escala’s true quest is to learn to love and, by doing so, to aid the people who are most important to her.
Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2025
ISBN: 9798999979940
Page Count: 661
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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
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