In this debut YA fantasy, a woman with the ability to control fire is kidnapped and drawn into a conspiracy against her kingdom.
The magically powerful Elemental Children shape their world by choosing the kings who rule its four sections: the desert, the ice regions, the woodlands and the grasslands. The people of the ice kingdom grieve when their elemental child, Lady Blue, is found drowned in a fountain. Suspiciously, her apprentice has vanished, as have the grasslands’ Sir Yellow and his apprentice. When two armed intruders invade the desert castle, Lady Red (also known as Ada) stands ready with her golden dagger. However, Phesoj, one of her adversaries, negates her fire abilities with an enchanted necklace, and she’s captured as well. As she travels the desert wastes with her enigmatic kidnapper and his teenage companion, Olem, she’s summoned via teleportation by Sir Black and Sir White, twin protectors of the woodland kingdom, who are under siege by a cloaked man in an evil-looking mask. Strangely, Sir White soon returns Lady Red and himself to Phesoj, who grudgingly begins to reveal his past, including his involvement in Lady Blue’s death. Can Ada trust him? She may have no choice if she wants to thwart the masked man’s plans. Debut author Acosta envisions a lively world with many intriguing, interlocking elements, including the Phoenix Beads, each with a value equivalent to a box of diamonds, and the islanders, whom nobody dares cross. Ada and Phesoj’s spirited dialogue helps to keep things entertaining, as when he asks her, “What goes through your mind that makes you act so freakishly?” Much of Acosta’s world, however, is unevenly described, and readers may occasionally find themselves disoriented. A stronger edit might have cleaned up lines such as, “This were her only warning before she pulled Olem away from Phesoj and jumped out of the with him.” Also, concepts such as the Phoenix Beads might have been better explained in the story itself rather than in footnotes.
An enthusiastically conceived, if awkwardly executed, debut.
Pub Date: April 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1493198344
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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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