A fantasy tale bursting with excitement, fascinating characters, and emotional impact.
A deposed ruler undertakes a fateful journey to regain his stolen kingdom in Barrett’s fantasy novel, one in a series.
The realm of Imbria, divided into the three main factions of Veruca, Kymir, and Samirra, seems headed toward war as leaders jostle for power. Blaise, the Fire Keeper, burns things with his magical powers when angry, and in this book his frustration is high. He ruled Veruca, but it was stolen by his cousin Logaire when Blaise was away fighting against the blood-drinking Fomori. Adding to Blaise’s woes, his love Orabelle, the Water Keeper, perished in battle while still angry at him. Joining Blaise on his mission are Orabelle’s brother Thyrr and Guardian Damian. The group tries to enlist help and heal divides, but Blaise has many enemies: Khymir’s leader, Maialen (Orabelle’s sister), hates Blaise for personal reasons; Logaire, tasting power, doesn’t want give up Veruca; and Samirra’s half-Fomori ruler, Chaote, seeks revenge for his imprisonment in a cave. Blaise’s staunchest ally is Kaeleb, an orphan he rescued, but Kaeleb’s just a kid. On the journey Blaise encounters another child, Eolande—the most powerful person in the kingdom. Eolande is the “Solvrei,” the chosen one foretold through prophecy. Blaise tries to help Eolande control her magical ability. She wants no part of it, but others hope to harness her power for their own gain. Barrett tells a vivid story never lacking in surprises or plot twists. Creative imagery overflows—there are giant eagles transporting people, Sirens “singing out a tender lullaby” in the water, and an ancient dog god seeking Eolande’s help to die. There are also abundant compelling characters. Blaise starts out arrogant, impatiently incinerating people, but he grows by caring for Kaeleb and Eolande. The queens of the rival territories, though seeking war, have understandable motivations. Even the minor characters are intriguing, like the ambitious fake seer Sybylla. Perhaps because it’s the third book in a series, the beginning chapter overwhelms readers with a tangle of names and relationships. But the exciting flow of the narrative takes over, gaining more clarity as it hurtles forward.
A fantasy tale bursting with excitement, fascinating characters, and emotional impact.Pub Date: Dec. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9798988889151
Page Count: 339
Publisher: Anthem in Art
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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