Vivid characters animate a faraway world featuring romance, magic, and tangled pasts.
In Gregorsdóttir’s debut fantasy, a woman hopes to reunite with her love after decades of imprisonment.
A century in the shadowlands of the Duskhold is a grueling sentence. A woman there has forgotten her birth name and also can’t recall what transgression begat this punishment—just that she, a human, had fallen in love with a Fae. She’s finally so distraught that she walks into the Whispering Sea, convinced that a fatal drowning is her only chance at reprieve. Instead of dying, she’s somehow “remade,” and, amazingly, she travels to another realm altogether. There, a couple shows her kindness and gives her the name Lyra. But she wastes little time before heading east to the Fae realm, where she’s certain her lost love resides, and she auditions to be a performer at the Amber Palace. Lyra can manipulate shadows and can even turn them into forceful energy, courtesy of “lingering traces of Fae enchantment” in the Whispering Sea. She passes herself off as a mere illusionist, however, and quickly befriends Lysara, the court historian. But it’s the prince who truly captures Lyra’s attention—and she captures his as well. Is he the Fae whom she loved so long ago? She’ll have to be cautious if she wants answers, or a chance at rekindling the romance, because Prince Torian is currently betrothed. And, as Lyra soon discovers, something is hunting her—a daunting presence that may have the inclination and the power to pull her right back into the shadowlands.
Gregorsdóttir’s tale, which kicks off a prospective series, boasts a consistently compelling protagonist. She begins as a tortured soul with a curiously murky past before she bravely travels to an unknown (or possibly forgotten) destination despite the danger involved. As the story continues, readers learn much more about Lyra, including details about her family. The supporting cast also shines, including Lysara and the seemingly conflicted Torian, as well as Tomas and Elidra, who “monitor crossings between realms.” There’s a pleasing variety among the characters, including smaller winged faeries, an antlered forest spirit, and nods to the godly Four Pillars. (Lyra apparently resembles most Fae, although references to her distinguishing human feature of “curved ears” are abundant.) Lyra’s journey in this first installment effectively fuses genre elements of romance and suspense. She longs for what she once had, and she does, on occasion, find herself in intimate situations—including a few moments that outright sizzle. At the same time, she perpetually fears that someone from the court might recognize her Fae magic, or that the aforementioned ominous presence will make itself known to her. Gregorsdóttir’s prose is pleasingly poetic, whether describing scenes of love or magic-wielding: “I opened my hand again, skin still stinging. Red crescents bit into my flesh, encircling tiny scorches, perfect black pinpricks edged in feverish pink. The stars had left their mark before dying, branding me with their last betrayed sigh.” A twist of fate near the end will most certainly leave some readers shaken—and hoping for a sequel.
Vivid characters animate a faraway world featuring romance, magic, and tangled pasts.Pub Date: May 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798994188514
Page Count: 422
Publisher: Astral Queen Press
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.
After being murdered and inexplicably reborn, a heavy metal musician sets out on a journey of self-discovery with nothing short of the future of humankind at stake in the first installment of Sanderson and Orullian’s Strata Wars saga.
Jack Solomon is not having a good day. After moving to London from the mean streets of Los Angeles and starting a metal band called the Hounds of Winter, he’s been kicked out of the group just weeks before they’re scheduled to open for Black Sabbath at Wembley Stadium. While Jack is walking with his good friend Henry Wilkinson—a father figure of sorts who has mentored Jack over the years and owns the music venue the Iron Horse—they are both shot and (seemingly) killed. Then Jack regains consciousness and finds himself in a hellscape with a massive mountain of fire in the distance and countless human statues everywhere. After Henry appears in the vision, telling Jack, “You’ve got more to do,” Jack awakens in front of Henry’s flat, unharmed but covered in blood. With Henry’s body missing, Jack begins to understand his new reality: He’s a thanatist (don’t call him a necromancer) and Henry’s venue hides an entrance to the Strata—“several long periods of London history that have coalesced to form layers of the past.” The Strata are inhabited by gruesome creatures and millions of memories, and Jack discovers that someone wants to take over the Iron Horse, with its staircase to every level of the Strata, and begin a revolution where music (curated by a madman) can change the future of humanity. The many shoutouts to legendary bands notwithstanding, this novel is powered by two elements: the exceptional worldbuilding of the subterranean Strata, whose potential is virtually limitless; and Jack’s deeply personal healing journey, which includes forgiving others—like his mother, who abandoned him—and himself. Jack’s story arc is comparable to his adventures in the Strata: The deeper he descends into the Strata, the deeper he delves into himself.
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781668068144
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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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