Not groundbreaking, but fans of the genre will thoroughly enjoy.
A young man finds himself trapped between the forces of heaven and hell in Netto’s latest queer romantic fantasy novel, the first in a series.
Bellwound Throvar has just had his 18th birthday, or, as it is known in his village, his Blood-date. According to tradition, he is now a man, but Bellwound doubts some of the traditions and fables he grew up believing. “Stories change as they’re passed down,” he tells his mother regarding their religious belief that their deity, the Pale Lion, cast down a rebellious angel, the Dove. “It’s very convenient to believe that there is an opposition and an ultimate blameless creator. Think with me. Shadow only exists because an object blocks the light.” When he wakes up the morning after his Blood-date, however, he discovers that his parents—as well as the parents of his best friend (and secret crush), Arnon Helvug—have been kidnapped…or, if the blood stains are any indication, something much worse. Bellwound soon learns that he’s bound up in a prophecy connecting him to the very Dove whose existence he doubted. What’s more, beneath the floorboards of his own house is a secret religious document whose message could undo everything people have believed for thousands of years. With some help, Bellwound embarks on a quest to fulfill his part in the war to come while pursued by a deadly sect of body-hopping immortals known as the Fallen Stars. Netto’s prose is urgent and bold, particularly in its more carnal moments: “I tossed my satchel on the floor and fell on the bed. I pulled up my shirt. A throb between my legs. My fingertips trailed over my stomach, making their way past my belly button, following the soft trail of hair that disappeared underneath my pants.” The mythology is dense, but its basis in the traditional story of Lucifer (indeed, the Dove is named Lucifer) makes it easier for the reader to grasp.
Not groundbreaking, but fans of the genre will thoroughly enjoy.Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-578-36809-2
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Nettoverse
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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