A fresh, fun romp through 10 fantasy realms that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy exploring.
Fee gathers fantasy tales that span from classic to creepy and beyond in this collection of stories.
Compiled and written by book enthusiasts who all run various YouTube channels dedicated to the art of writing, this anthology has a little something for everyone. The presence of “half-human” protagonists proves to be the common thread that runs through all 10 stories—the criteria for membership in that group vary as wildly as the plotlines. In Mason Adey’s “Dishonoured in Death,” a half-fae, half-dwarf known only as “The Woman” seeks revenge for her twin brother’s death. Dane Cobain’s darkly comedic “The Band Gets Together” features the obnoxiously named Gröin Gönadsson, who is 3 feet, 11 inches and “pretty sure” he is a vampire. Even the stories’ forms vary, as in the genuinely eerie epistolary gem “Goatman’s Bridge” by P.M. Brown, in which Marlon Timothy discovers his one eye contains special sight and uses it to save his friends from a Southern backwoods cult. While violence understandably abounds in these often conflict-heavy tales, the mayhem never proves overly graphic. Some pieces, such as David Wiley’s “The Defense of Bergond,” which features a “half-breed” named Tirlok struggling to prove himself, relish in old-fashioned epic battle scenes: “The stench of sweat made Tirlok’s nose twitch. The corpses were quickly dragged behind the defenses and plundered, reinforcing their line with superior shields and weapons in a few points.” While collections like this can sometimes feel uneven, this anthology doesn’t have a weak link in the chain. Certain stories will obviously appeal to some readers more than others, depending on how one prefers their fantasy; there are magical artifacts and druids as well as crow-human hybrids, and the tones range from funny to epic to inspirational to heartbreaking.
A fresh, fun romp through 10 fantasy realms that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy exploring.Pub Date: May 13, 2023
ISBN: 9798391502418
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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