A taut fantasy tale of bloodshed and politics with a complex hero battling her own personal demons.
In Barrett’s fantasy novel, a young ruler attempts to keep the four realms of the kingdom from falling apart but faces enemies, both known and unknown, at every turn.
This second installment of The Keepers of Imbria series finds magic-wielding royal Maialen, the Keeper of Earth, still reeling over the death of her rebel half sister, Orabelle, the Keeper of Water, ten years earlier. While Maialen can control the element of earth, even she is powerless to make crops grow in the parched and struggling land of Samirra, one of the four realms of Imbria. As Imbria’s four constituent kingdoms desperately cling to a tenuous peace, Blaise, the Keeper of Fire (whose obsession with Orabelle lives on even after her death), wants nothing but war. The appearance of Thyrr, Orabelle’s brother from the lands of the savage Fomori (or “blooddrinkers”), throws an already unstable situation into complete chaos as he attempts to claim the throne of Lehar, another Imbrian realm, as the legitimate heir to Orabelle. (While Thyrr doesn’t possess the Pearl that would grant him elemental powers, he does have the mythical Warding Stone, which strips powers from others.) Orabelle’s young son also comes out of hiding to stake a claim to the throne, forcing Maialen to find a path forward to save Imbria from itself. To do so, she’ll have to join forces with an unexpected ally and face a shocking betrayal from someone close to her. Barrett once again weaves together heart-pounding action and complex characters to create an epic tale that tackles themes of grief, forgiveness, and self-determination. Naturalistic dialogue and descriptive prose combine for a fantasy world that feels completely plausible, even with such outlandish creatures as the Sirens: “They approached me almost timidly and I stared at their awful, beautiful faces, so amorphous, like liquid barely holding its shape. One of them tilted its head and made a mournful sound, reaching out to touch my face. I slapped its hand away, my fingers slipping through the seawater body and making me shudder in revulsion.”
A taut fantasy tale of bloodshed and politics with a complex hero battling her own personal demons.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9798988889137
Page Count: 315
Publisher: Anthem in Art
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2024
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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