A high-stakes fantasy heist novel that readers may find hard to put down.
In Linde’s paranormal thriller, a woman goes on a dangerous quest to retrieve a rare object.
Thirteen years ago, murderous monsters of all kinds appeared from the shadows to murder countless city dwellers, including in Kierse McKenna’s home of New York City. To survive, Kierse (“It’s like Pierce but with a K,” she says) joined her late mentor’s thieving guild and became a master thief. Three years ago, the Monster Treaty was put in place, finally ending the ongoing violence and allowing humans and monsters to live together. When Kierse’s benefactor sends her on a mission to steal a diamond ring, she unwittingly finds herself inside the home of a mysterious monster named Graves. Breaking into the house means that Kierse has also broken the Monster Treaty, but Graves, after seeing an unusual necklace around her neck, offers her a job. The warlock wants her to steal a rare object hidden under the city in a place called Third Floor, which is protected by an unbreakable security system and guarded by the vilest creatures. Kierse agrees, locking herself into a bargain with Graves and entering a world of chaos involving monster gangs, magic, and a rivalry spanning hundreds of years. Throughout Linde’s lively fantasy, Kierse struggles to keep her two best friends, Gen and Ethan, safe, and she also begins to uncover important secrets about herself. The author also effectively weaves a steamy romance into the fast-moving plot. Although the story is mostly told from Kierse’s perspective, it’s occasionally broken up by short chapters titled “Interlude,” which offer intriguing insights into other characters’ thoughts. The creative premise of a monster-filled New York makes for rich, detailed worldbuilding (“Another consequence of monsters in the public eye were the trolls who managed the subway entrances”), and little mysteries sprinkled throughout the novel give readers space to piece together the truth.
A high-stakes fantasy heist novel that readers may find hard to put down.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781649374073
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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