A well-developed and thoroughly entertaining fantasy novel that combines traditional and original lore.
A young sorcerer enters an intense and brutal training academy to restore her powers and learn the truth about her family in Cassidy’s fantasy novel.
Twenty-one-year-old Anamaya Onyx’s matriarchal side has been cursed for generations. Her great-great-grandaunt, Dharma Onyx, committed the heinous crime of destroying an incantor’s bloodline, compelling the ruling Arcanum Imperium to lock away the sorcerous powers of the entire Onyx bloodline. Dharma’s crime made the Onyx name an anathema; Anamaya and her mother Ariana have adopted the fake surname Denton in order to avoid complete ostracization. After Ariana dies following a long battle with a terminal illness, Anamaya finds Dharma’s journal, in which the disgraced ancestor claims she was framed and that a book called the Libra Veritas will prove her innocence. The Libra Veritas, according to Dharma’s journal entries, is hidden away in the library vaults at Nightsbridge Academy. Anamaya discovers a law that prohibits allowing an Arcanus (magical) bloodline to die out in order to protect all Arcanus bloodlines’ connection to the central source of magic known as the Weave. As Anamaya is the final member of the Onyx bloodline, she realizes she can make a case to have her powers restored. To do so, as well as learn the truth about Dharma Onyx, she’ll need to go to Nightsbridge Academy—a fortress and training center that conscripts members from certain magical and human bloodlines to contain and control the Horrors that have crept into their world. Anamaya attends classes on combat, Horrors, and the history of Nightsbridge, but her last name stokes the ire of many at the academy, and the Horrors seem to be targeting her, specifically. Cassidy delivers a spellbinding fantasy story that incorporates traditional lore from a plethora of cultures alongside original creatures and magic systems. Readers will be captivated by the author’s meticulous and richly detailed worldbuilding and entertained by narrator Anamaya’s wry humor (“Serendipity, you beautiful bitch”); the supporting characters are equally engaging. While the main story is compelling, readers may find a romantic subplot, which often relegates the otherwise self-sufficient protagonist to damsel-in-distress status, to be predictable and cliched.
A well-developed and thoroughly entertaining fantasy novel that combines traditional and original lore.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781964264295
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Page & Vine
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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