A sensual and savage but nuanced epic fantasy tale.
An archer joins a group of thieves as the world teeters on the brink of war in debut author Barron’s epic-fantasy series opener.
Jethis a Del’Cabrian soldier with impeccable archery skills and heightened senses. He’s with a squad of men in the desert who are intent on stopping a marriage between the Herrani and Tezkhan tribes. If the Herrani mage and overlord Nas’Gavarr, aka “the Immortal Serpent,” marries his daughter, Saf’Raisha, to Chief Ukhuna, he’ll have enough resources to take over the world. The Del’Cabrian soldiers easily capture their prey, and while Jeth takes a turn guarding Saf’Raisha, she reveals to him that she’s really Anwarr, a thief posing as the mage’s daughter to steal the Emerald of Dulsakh from Chief Ukhuna. When Jeth accidentally kills an abusive fellow soldier, his only choice is to help Anwarr escape. After they successfully obtain the Emerald, she brings him to the City of Herran to join her commune alongside thieves Lysandros, Ash, and Istari. They take orders from someone named Snake Eye, and their next assignment, stealing the Bloodstone Dagger from Nas’Gavarr, should yield their biggest score yet. Meanwhile, Vidya, a vengeful Harpy, won’t rest until the Immortal Serpent is dead. Barron launches a racy, culturally detailed saga that examines what it is to be an outsider: Anwarr, who sleeps with multiple partners, tells Jeth at one point that “The past only serves to keep you from truly being free,” and although he misses his home of Fae’ren, Jeth chooses a life full of danger and erotic adventurousness. Barron maintains tight control over the violence, ratcheting up the gore slowly until, later in the novel, one character’s skin is “ripped away with such force, his hair, clothing, and every accessory went with it.” A steady series of twists, including the debut of a shape-shifting “Flesh Mage,” will keep readers intrigued as the tale goes on. Lurid plot elements, such as the fact that Harpies require three male sacrifices for a powerful ritual, should transfix both horror and fantasy fans. Barron hints at a tempestuous sequel.
A sensual and savage but nuanced epic fantasy tale.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-989071-00-7
Page Count: 460
Publisher: Foul Fantasy Fiction
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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