An ardent slow burn that will leave readers yearning for more.
Power-hungry, magic-wielding noble houses fight for supremacy in the first installment of Lee’s new romantasy series, which follows a headstrong young woman with a mysterious destiny.
At age 25, Arden Icaros, the eldest daughter of a powerful patron house in the kingdom of Antares, travels to the capital city of Wintour to attend the Kindling ceremony, where she’ll receive her birthright: sacred magic bestowed by the Stars to members of noble families like hers. On the day when she’s fated to receive her inherited magic, a vesper (“part priestess, part oracle, and part scientist”) presents Arden with a golden cage, a jewel-encrusted dagger, and ambiguous instructions to “do what needs to be done.” Weapon in hand, Arden understands that she’s expected to make a sacrifice when she sees a beautiful black bird trapped inside the cage. After deciding to make the merciful yet blasphemous choice to set the bird free, Arden must contend with the consequences, which include the appearance of a raven-shaped constellation mark on her chest, officially marking her as “the harbinger”—a portentous omen that foretells the coming of war. As this news spreads across the continent, Arden attracts the attention of Bishop, one of the highest-ranking officers in Antares’ military order, whose newly appointed duty is to protect Arden from those who want her dead. Readers will quickly find themselves eager to discover what the Stars have in store for Bishop and Arden as the narrative unfolds. Within her realm of celestial magic, Arden Icaros joins the ranks of Violet Sorrengail of Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing (2023) and Feyre Archeron of Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) as romantasy’s newest tough female protagonist. Overall, Lee has successfully crafted a lively, banter-filled novel with an engaging premise, complex characters, and satisfying erotic scenes that complement rather than overpower the finely woven plot. Although the narrative occasionally relies on familiar tropes of the genre, Lee’s fresh perspective ensures that they don’t feel overly predictable or overdone.
An ardent slow burn that will leave readers yearning for more.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
ISBN: 9781682816738
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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