A clever, tongue-in-cheek romantasy about workplace opposites attracting.
In Maehrer’s comic fantasy romance, a bubbly underling continues to rise even as she crushes on her evil boss.
Evie Sage has always been an odd fit for the role of apprentice to Trystan Maverine, who, in his role as The Villain, is responsible for causing mischief and mayhem in the kingdom of Rennedawn. Trystan is, as one might expect from a Villain, curmudgeonly and misanthropic, while Evie is as bright and cheerful as a ray of sunshine. Despite their vast differences in personality, it is becoming clear to everyone who works at Trystan’s Massacre Manor—especially Trystan’s best friend, Alexander William Kingsley (who used to be a man but has spent the last 10 years trapped in the body of a frog)—that Trystan and Evie have developed an unacknowledged romantic connection. Far from making for a productive working relationship, the tension is causing problems around the Manor, as “the two would sooner knock their heads together than confront their unspoken feelings.” The mutual crush could not come at a worse time, since the magic in Rennedawn is waning and the Villain is racing against King Benedict to fulfill a prophecy and become the “true prince” who restores magic to the kingdom. Can a Villain ever accept love and become a true prince…and can a Villain’s accomplice do her job without losing her sunny disposition? In this installment of her Assistant to the Villain series, Maehrer continues to effectively mine the fantasy setting for sendups of contemporary office culture, from uncooperative Curse Consultants to form-obsessed Human and Magical Creature Resource officers. “Trystan knew when he became The Villain that he would always be the one to make the hard decisions, even the unpopular ones,” writes Maehrer with typical wryness. “It was a job he rather enjoyed, in all honesty, but there was one standard office practice even he vowed never to adhere to. Meetings.” The busy plot may prove difficult for new readers to enter, but fans of the series will appreciate this latest episode.
A clever, tongue-in-cheek romantasy about workplace opposites attracting.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781649378545
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
