bookshelf

THE RELUCTANT KING

Name: THE RELUCTANT KING
Author: K'wan
ISBN: 978-1-63614-014-8

by K'wan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2021

Suspenseful, gritty, and (sometimes painfully) macho.

bookshelf

A crime family prepares for a birthday party.

K’wan focuses on a powerful, violent family in his latest urban thriller. The Kings live in a large home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, but control a political and criminal syndicate in Manhattan's Five Points neighborhood. The novel takes place during a single day in which the family prepares for a birthday party for the matriarch, Maureen, that will also serve as an announcement by her husband, Chancellor, that he’s running for Brooklyn borough president. The book focuses on the couple’s three children: Ghost, a violent sociopath and gangster (“Men who ran afoul of him left the world of the living”); Lolli, a savvy and ambitious nail salon owner; and Shadow, a 17-year-old with ”little stomach for the family business.” Ghost spends the day taking care of the criminal side of his family’s business, while Lolli tries to convince a politician to endorse her father’s campaign, and Shadow goes in search of a missing family member at his mother’s request. It won’t surprise readers to learn that the birthday party, when it happens, doesn’t go quite as planned. K’wan is exceptionally gifted at ratcheting up suspense, and his dialogue rings mostly true to life. Some readers might be put off by the novel’s unending machismo, in particular two sex scenes that read like transcripts of male-fantasy porn clips (“Mike plowed into her like he was drilling for oil”), but there’s no denying the writer’s talent for dark, gritty fiction. It’s a page-turner.

Suspenseful, gritty, and (sometimes painfully) macho.

Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-63614-014-8

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Akashic

Review Posted Online: July 9, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021

bookshelf

THE CRASH

by Freida McFadden ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 2025

Soapy, suspenseful fun.

bookshelf

A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.

Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.

Soapy, suspenseful fun.

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025

ISBN: 9781464227325

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Poisoned Pen

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025

Categories:

SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE

bookshelf

IRON FLAME

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 2

by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

bookshelf

A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.

Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.