The first in a serviceable new fantasy series might disappoint those looking for a stronger romantic arc.
A woman frees a powerful warrior from a century of stasis and they band together to fight Thyran, a fearsome god set on vengeance.
Darya is a sentinel, a special class of warrior charged with fighting the monsters that ravage her homeland. Sentinels are gifted with magically charged talents and weapons; for example, Darya is impervious to poison and can elude any human-made trap. Sentinels also carry soulswords, weapons that have been mystically infused with the souls of people who chose to serve the gods even after their deaths. Her soulsword is inhabited by Gerant, a powerful wizard who has been an adviser, guide, and friend in their decade of service together. When Darya finds Gen. Amris in the stasis spell, Gerant immediately knows how to undo the spell because he was the one who created it. A century ago, he and Amris were lovers, and Gerant created it for Amris to use as a last-resort protection. Amris quickly rebounds from stasis and agrees to help Darya and Gerant strategize for the coming battle with Thyran. At first, Darya is an unlikely conduit between the two former lovers, but eventually Gerant finds a way for all three of them to bond together to fight Thyran and his armies of undead. They travel back to Darya’s home base to gather other fighters and prepare for war. Darya and Amris are physically drawn to each other, but they each worry they will be betraying Gerant, who is a presence in their lives even though he is no longer human. Although Cooper might have intended for this unusual love triangle to be symbolic of the human desire to gain approval from those who have passed on, it makes for a profoundly weird romance.
The first in a serviceable new fantasy series might disappoint those looking for a stronger romantic arc.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2928-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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