A quietly engaging time-travel love story.
In Wiens’ fantasy sequel, a widow’s long-lost love—from more than 400 years ago—rejoins her in the present day by inhabiting another man’s body.
After someone pushed her off a cliff, nurse practitioner Karen Schmidt spent a month in a coma. During that time, she seemingly hallucinated a journey to 16th-century Antwerp, where she fell in love with blacksmith Pieter Smid. When she finally awakened, her life quickly turned tragic, as her soldier husband, Peter, died in combat. Though devastated, Karen and her two children try to move on, and she opens a medical clinic with her doctor friend, Josie Bennett, in the Palouse, a region encompassing several state borders in the Pacific Northwest. But Charlie Walden, a veteran living on the street, flusters her when he suddenly insists that he’s Pieter. Despite his deep knowledge of Karen’s days in Antwerp, she doesn’t buy his claims. Pieter, whose consciousness is, in fact, in Charlie’s body, settles into his new identity and finds a job as a ranch hand. Along the way, he struggles to adjust to the faster pace of the modern world. It’s not long, however, before his and Karen’s paths cross again, and they get a chance to rediscover the love they once shared. Wiens’ follow-up plants itself solidly in the modern day, abandoning the first installment’s tendency to shift into different time periods. This begets a slower narrative, but it enriches the focus on the main characters as well. Karen, for example, is shown to suffer PTSD–like symptoms due to losing her spouse and surviving an attempted murder. Charlie’s attempts to adapt to the 21st century result in welcome moments of humor, as he steers clear of what he sees as breakneck “self-propelled metal carriages” and despises the addictive “talking picture box.” The understated romance makes this sequel considerably less grim than its predecessor, which was set during murderous witch trials; nevertheless, there is one particularly gruesome turn. Wiens ends this sequel with a satisfying resolution and even ties off a lingering subplot from the first book.
A quietly engaging time-travel love story.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2021
ISBN: 9798987879610
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A delightful, genre-defying debut.
Historical horror? Dark fantasy? Queer romance? All of the above!
“I was hundreds of years old before I ever met him, but that day we were both young.” While visiting his Florence offices in 2013, attorney Sebastian Grave unearths a bloodstained lambskin glove that belonged to a past lover—a man he’d met in the 18th century. Nestled within this frame narrative is a tale of desire, werewolves, and the French Revolution. In telling his story, Sebastian introduces Sarmodel, the demon with whom he shares a body, and a succubus named Livia contributes chapters in which Joan of Arc, her notorious ally Gilles de Rais, and the archangel Michael all make appearances. First-time novelist Sullivan wields the tools of multiple genres deftly, but what really makes this book special is its central character. Sebastian has powerful magic at his disposal, but he’s also human enough to fall hard for a hot young nobleman. When Sebastian goes hunting for the Beast of Gévaudan, he’s not looking for adventure. The first time, it’s because he can’t resist Antoine Avenel d’Ocerne. The second time, it’s because he dreams of a reunion with his love—even though he knows this is a hopeless wish against the advice of Sarmodel. Using Sebastian as a narrator keeps things light, in part because he has a droll, contemporary voice and in part because it makes the worldbuilding feel natural. There are footnotes, but there are no infodumps. The fact that Sebastian doesn’t know exactly what he is sets the tone for storytelling that leaves a great deal unexplained while providing enough detail to keep the reader engaged. Deploying Sarmodel as a sort of alter ego and allowing Livia to offer her own perspective on Sebastian also adds both depth and charm.
A delightful, genre-defying debut.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781250362766
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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