An original and heartwarming fantasy that will leave readers pining for their own enchanted worlds.
A man unable to move past the grief of losing a loved one finds himself transported to a world of magic in Litwack’s fantasy novel.
Lucas Mack has decided that he’ll explore the strange vortex that appears above the surface of the lake for three days each year. For many in the town of Queen’s Hill, it’s become a rite of passage to jump into the strange maelstrom, only to land on the other side of it as if nothing’s happened. Lucas, unable to move on past the untimely death of his beloved Addy, has decided he has nothing left to lose and might as well test his luck. But he never expected the vortex to be a portal, or for it to shrink into nothingness behind him as soon as he goes through. (“While I stared at the last link to my old world, the orb diminished, shrunk to a size I could cover with my hand, and then to that of the tip of my thumb. Before I sloshed more than two steps closer, it winked out.”) Lucas finds himself alone in a strange forest that seems to go on forever and is too quiet—there are no bugs, no birds, and no one else around. Just as he grows weary of his loneliness and strange journey, he happens upon the home of “the custodian,” who explains that Lucas has found himself in the Borderlands, a blank-slate realm in which Lucas can learn to do magic to conjure up whatever he might want or need and decide if he wants to move on to the enchanted land beyond. In this forest he meets Mia, another lost, grieving soul, and together they create a quiet life for themselves…until the time comes for them to take the next step into the enchanted lands to become true sorcerers. Their first encounter with another sorcerer goes poorly, so they seek an apprenticeship with “the healer,” who will teach them how to use their magic for good to make a truly positive impact upon their new world.
In this fantasy novel, Litwack has created a magical realm that those who are feeling adrift may wish to find themselves falling into. The idea of the Borderlands, in which people may play with magic to test and explore their newfound abilities, is a fascinating one. While both Mia and Lucas continue to develop their abilities throughout the course of the novel, the author adds depth to their characterizations by not having them use magic for everything—they’re still willing to put in manual labor and sweat to achieve a goal. Readers will get out of this book what they want to find; the narrative can be read as some grand metaphor about power corrupting if not used wisely, or just as easily as a fun fantasy frolic through a fantastical world. Whatever readers hope to get out of the story, the triumph of good over evil and the uplifting conclusion will leave them with a warm feeling in the end.
An original and heartwarming fantasy that will leave readers pining for their own enchanted worlds.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9798890250414
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Evolved Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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