An emotionally nuanced, character-driven medieval fantasy.
A princess thought dead by her family grows up to stymie her father’s evil plans in this fantasy series opener.
Edmund VI, known as the Dark King, rules Bounten. He’s obsessed with finding stores of the rare, powerful metal tarilium, which would help him conquer surrounding kingdoms, such as Attaveer and Northland. He’s also due an heir from Queen Ava. When she births a pale, sickly girl with white hair, Edmund suspects a demon’s curse. He summons Storm, his magical Valomere wolf, to strike at the newborn’s soul, killing her. However, Nurse Meriden and the castle servant Faye smuggle the miraculously living child outside. Meriden names the girl Sarana and brings her to Attaveer, to the home of her sister Allison and her husband, William, who are farmers. Sarana grows into a capable young woman. She loves sparring and exploring the land and knows nothing of her true origin. She also pairs with her own Valomere named Halo, a golden, bear-sized wolf. Edmund, meanwhile, closes in on the locations of several maps created by the deceased wizard Terabin. The maps will reveal the location of tarilium and embolden the Dark King to invade Bounten’s neighbors. Can Sarana, having become a messenger for a network of spies, help save her family and friends from a tyrannical king? Keating’s medieval fantasy is a coming-of-age tale that employs subtle magic and uncluttered worldbuilding to let the characters shine. Sarana shares the stage with Edmund, whose evil is palpable throughout much of the narrative. He’s a smooth liar, especially to Queen Ava regarding the whereabouts of his mistress, Lahna, whom he imprisons in a tower. Yet his villainy is balanced by the joy others experience; Meriden, nearly a spinster approaching her 30s, finds love with Richard, a fisherman. Sarana also meets Cabe, a Bounten soldier who frees her after she’s been captured. Skillfully placed time jumps carry Keating’s hero to adulthood and place her on course to face the Dark King. Halo has a unique skill that, when combined with Sarana’s drive for justice, makes them a formidable pair. The finale’s much-altered status quo promises a rousing sequel.
An emotionally nuanced, character-driven medieval fantasy.Pub Date: June 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77155-979-9
Page Count: 261
Publisher: Champagne Book Group
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
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
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
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