An exciting space-opera adventure that hits all the right romance notes.
The captain of a spaceship falls in love with her sworn enemy as they search for a missing ring.
Tavi Zarola is the captain of Starlight’s Shadow, and her small crew specializes in bounty hunting and recovering stolen items around the galaxy. Drawn together by a traumatic incident that occurred when they all served together in the military, Tavi and her crew are happy with their shoestring but peaceful existence, one that keeps them firmly out of the limelight. No one is more surprised than Tavi when Torran Fletcher approaches them with a job. He was the ruthless rival general during the war, so why would he ask them to help recover the priceless family heirloom that was stolen from his home? Against her better judgment, Tavi and her team accept the job—it’s a once-in-a-lifetime payout if they can recover the item. Torran’s team joins Tavi's as they travel to his home planet to investigate. Tavi is surprised by the two crews becoming a cohesive unit, not to mention the strong attraction between herself and Torran. Tavi knows she should be wary of a man with so much power and so many secrets, but their chemistry is impossible to resist. Mihalik’s novel is a carefully plotted, engrossing space adventure with plenty of twists and turns. Tavi is a strong, interesting character who will always take a more difficult path rather than sacrificing her principles. Tavi and Torran are from different classes and cultures, so the conflict between them is richly layered. The combination of emotional, slow-burn romance and rollicking, high-stakes adventure makes for a fun, fast-paced read.
An exciting space-opera adventure that hits all the right romance notes.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-305103-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Maniscalco fans will enjoy, but it will be hard for new readers to find their footing.
An artist with a secret and a Lord of Hell must work together to solve a puzzle in this romantic fantasy adventure.
Miss Camilla Antonius has a lot on her plate. She’s a talented artist, but is barely keeping her late father’s gallery afloat while being blackmailed by a local lord who knows a potentially ruinous secret about her. Envy, one of the seven princes of hell, is also trying to keep up appearances while a terrible malady slowly decimates his court. When he’s invited to play a dangerous magical game with a prize that could save his people, he goes all in. When one of his clues involves Camilla, the two must work together, becoming partners as they cross realms, dealing with human, demons, and Fae in order for both to win what they most covet—all while doing their best not to fall in love. Though this is a standalone novel, it’s set in the same universe as Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy, and certain elements, character dynamics, and plot points will be harder to follow for readers unfamiliar with the earlier books. This is also Maniscalco’s adult debut, and it shows: Steamy scene follows steamy scene as characters use extremely coarse language, like a teenager at last gleefully free of parental supervision. The story itself, an adventure filled with riddles to be solved and problems to be overcome, is fun and interesting but overshadowed by the need to push every boundary. Despite its length, the book reads quickly, switching back and forth between the two leads’ points of view, though the voices aren’t distinct enough to be clear. It’s all quite jumbled.
Maniscalco fans will enjoy, but it will be hard for new readers to find their footing.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780316557290
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Transporting and unputdownable; an appealing combination of deep and page-turning.
An intrepid teen encounters the dark secrets of the elite in her climate-ravaged world in this translated work from South Korea.
Sixteen-year-old Jeon Chobahm is shocked to learn that Goh Haeri, the beloved reality TV star who happens to be Chobahm’s look-alike, just died by suicide—and also that she’s being asked to become Haeri’s secret replacement. In their frozen, post-apocalyptic world, Chobahm, like everyone around her, leads a bleak life. She bundles up daily against the dangerous cold and toils in a power plant. But now she’ll live Haeri’s cushy life in Snowglobe, an exclusive, glass-dome-enclosed community, where the climate is mild, and the resident actors’ lives are broadcast as entertainment for those in the open world. As glamorous as life there may seem, however, Chobahm quickly learns that there’s a sinister underbelly: People are killed off when they’re no longer useful, and there’s something strange about Haeri’s family dynamics. As she meets a host of new companions, including Yi Bonwhe, the heir of Snowglobe’s founding family, Chobahm discovers a devastating secret and embarks on a risky plan to expose the truth. Climate change, societal inequity, and the ethics of escaping from our own lives by watching others’ are addressed in this intelligent, absorbing book. Chobahm is a complex character inhabiting a strongly developed world, and her compassion, ambition, outrage, and sorrow ring true.
Transporting and unputdownable; an appealing combination of deep and page-turning. (Dystopian. 12-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593484975
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK TO SCREEN
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