Chatty, lively worldbuilding in a rollicking fantasy.
A fantasy explores the magic of midlife fresh starts.
When Jessie Evans’ husband tells her that he wants a divorce, she’s thrilled (to his surprise). With her son starting college, Jessie is tired of being a housewife and ready to start a new chapter. But when Jessie winds up back at her childhood home north of Los Angeles, she realizes that staying with her parents while she gets back on her feet is not a viable option. Jessie’s childhood friend Diana suggests that she become the caretaker of Ivy House, a family property that the two of them visited on a childhood vacation. Jessie jumps at the chance. While Diana was scared of the “dark and foreboding” mansion, Jessie hadn’t wanted to leave its secret passageways, trap doors, and air of mystery. Soon, Jessie is in the small mountain town of O’Briens, where wineries’ tasting rooms dot “the itty-bitty downtown strip like chicken pox.” She settles into Ivy House with the help of its longtime butler and gardener as well as Niamh, the talkative Irish neighbor, who dishes about everything from the area’s tourist trade to Austin Steele, the town’s hunky bartender and unofficial mayor. When Jessie goes wine tasting with Austin, she learns that the locals of O’Briens are all living magical double lives and that powerful forces are vested in preventing her from understanding her new home. Will Jessie and her new friends be able to preserve the peace in O’Briens and allow her to truly master the powers of Ivy House? Readers looking for a less-scholarly companion to Deborah Harkness’ novel A Discovery of Witches will enjoy Jessie’s magical reawakening. Her slow exploration of Ivy House’s secrets is absorbing and entertaining. Indeed, Breene’s story would have been more captivating with additional scenes focused on Jessie learning about the house and its powers and fewer long, expository conversations with supporting characters. But the ultimate clash between Jessie’s motley group of friends and the forces of evil is exciting and hilarious, and if there are a few too many references to Jessie’s post-childbirth bladder, her witty comebacks more than compensate. There are also hints of a sequel to come.
Chatty, lively worldbuilding in a rollicking fantasy.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 979-8602961201
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.
A woman must undergo fearsome trials to free the imprisoned Titans of Greek myth in Owen’s fantasy novel, the second in a series.
Advancing from minor office clerk in the Order of Thieves to Queen of the Underworld, Lyra Keres’ star should be rising. But thanks to Cronos, King of the Titans, she and her longtime friend and fellow thief Boone have been ensnared in a new challenge beneath the earth: Hot on the heels of winning the twisted Crucible Games, Lyra—who has recently been granted goddess powers—finds herself trapped in Tartarus. Separated from her beloved Hades, she must liberate the fearsome Titans from seven Locks to restore the cosmic balance. As Lyra progresses through the Locks engineered by the Gods—each as tricky and lethal as the last—the pressure mounts as the Titans repeatedly remind her, “You will be our savior.” Rhea, the wife of Cronos, reveals that Lyra began this quest “a hundred and fifty years ago,” adding further devastation to the task at hand; the knowledge is helpful, but also painful, as Lyra reflects, “Suddenly, I don’t want to know that it’s real. Because then I have to contemplate how many times I might have ended up in Tartarus already.” As she materializes in and out of time pockets, Lyra sees Hades’ troubled childhood unfold and struggles not to intervene to save the man she loves. In this second entry in the author’s Crucible series, following The Games Gods Play (2024), Lyra’s cynical quips continue to make her an engaging protagonist. Her inner monologues are balanced with hope, love, and longing for Hades as she meets various versions of him. While resilient, Owen’s heroine is also vulnerable (“Was I his pawn in more ways than I ever realized?”). Her introspection effectively contrasts with the simmering rage and restraint in Hades’ chapters. The supporting Titans are given more depth than the traditional myths allow, weaving a knotty family fabric for the reader to navigate alongside Lyra.
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781649378538
Page Count: 500
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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