An engaging love story about finding strength in vulnerability.
Maehrer presents a fantasy romance novel about a very bad man and his very good employee.
Evie Sage is the resilient and cheerful assistant to Trystan Maverine, an evil overlord known only as The Villain. Despite Trystan's numerous attempts to intimidate and drive her away—including placing a corpse on her desk—Evie’s unwavering optimism and competence gradually disrupt his office’s grim environment. Trystan is a complex character who grapples with his role as his society’s primary antagonist while dealing with various perilous situations and his own deep fear of light and color. Evie’s presence brings a spark of light into his world, challenging his perceptions and stirring long-buried emotions. The plot thickens with the introduction of King Benedict, who falsely accuses Trystan of causing a devastating illness in his kingdom, of being responsible for Evie’s death, and of keeping a mythical creature called a guvre. This leads to Trystan’s capture; later, however, Evie appears at a royal ceremony, revealing that she’s very much alive.This reignites Trystan’s determination, with the help of allies, to expose King Benedict’s true nature. The novel weaves together themes of redemption, loyalty, and the transformative power of love. Throughout, the characters navigate perilous events and heartfelt moments, leading to unexpected alliances. The narrative is marked by fun dialogue (“Nice to see you, too, boss. Might I ask why you just kicked me?”) and a good balance of amusement and seriousness. Evie emerges as a well-developed character, particularly after she and her brother, Gideon, discuss their familial history: “Her mother had loved art, had loved portraits and landscapes of people and places that held meaning to her, but her father had put nearly all of them into storage when her mother disappeared. He said he couldn’t bear to look at them, but now she wondered if his motives were less romantic and more nefarious.” The book’s motifs of personal growth, romance, and overcoming adversity will resonate well with both YA and adult readers.
An engaging love story about finding strength in vulnerability.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781649377173
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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