Striking characters, both divine and human, enliven this leisurely story of good versus evil.
In Rohla’s fantasy novel, a god born to grant wishes uses her power to help people who’ve lost hope.
Starfall is a sovereign city-state that rests between two desert plateaus and two kingdoms, making it a “hot spot for trade and commerce.” One day, its citizens’ collective wishes and dreams, quite astoundingly, give birth to a female god. She can hear all of their yearnings and quickly finds 19-year-old Ellie, whose longing is the loudest. The teen is skeptical but mentally expresses her desire for her sickly little brother Sterling to be well again—a wish the god grants. Ellie deems the god, whom she names Freya, a “miracle worker” and ambles through Starfall’s bazaar to track down others with wishes. Freya delights a few locals, including a seller who yearns for a more glamorous stall and Sterling’s doctor, who wants the perfect ring to propose with. It’s hardly surprising when the surrounding kingdoms send royal messengers to invite Freya to their respective nations, but the god prefers living quietly with Ellie and Sterling. Ellie, meanwhile, dreams up weekly “wish fairs” in which Freya grants a limited number of wishes via a lottery system, with the option of turning down anything inappropriate or potentially harmful. Sadly, there are slaves in Starfall, like all of the nurses at a hospital, whose wishes Freya can’t hear, rendering her unable to help them. When Freya realizes the city-state has far more slaves than most people can see, she, Ellie, and Sterling make it their mission to free these captives.
Rohla’s bare-bones prose streamlines the physical details of characters and settings; this approach keeps the narrative moving at a steady clip as it unfolds (for the most part) in Starfall. Descriptions of emotions and temperaments are also effectively concise (“Dread slides its serrated teeth along the back of the god’s neck”). At the same time, the main cast virtually bursts with personality and backstory—Ellie and Sterling’s mother abandoned them, forcing young Ellie to care for her ailing brother on her own. Freya displays several humanlike traits, starting with her naïveté; she has an innate ability to converse with locals but learns many things as she goes along, including social greetings and what a “concubine” is. She’s also not quite as powerful as readers may anticipate, as she can only utilize her amazing abilities (like materialization and teleportation) for so long before she needs rest. The story introduces a handful of curious moral dilemmas, from the horrid treatment enslaved people suffer to a consideration of what, exactly, a dying girl would wish for. As Freya, Ellie, and Sterling slowly gather allies, it’s the villains who truly stand out. Starfall’s sleazy Governor Hensley, for one, drapes himself in flashy garb and laughs obnoxiously loud, and a nefarious, well-organized gang steals water from the poor. These thieving gangsters, along with other diabolical sorts secretly up to no good, ignite the final act as the story builds to a gratifying denouement.
Striking characters, both divine and human, enliven this leisurely story of good versus evil.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 979-8670287180
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.
After 500 years, the Grief of Ages is a distant memory—until dragons hellbent on destruction begin to wake again.
In this relatively brief prequel to the epic The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019), the kingdoms of Virtudom have experienced centuries of relative peace. Marosa Vetalda, the Princess of Yscalin, spends her days behind castle walls under the gaze of her overprotective father, awaiting the date when she’ll be wed to Aubrecht of Mentendon, her ticket to freedom. While the book’s main focus is initially on the political threads weaving the Western kingdoms together, the frailty of best-laid plans is exposed when evidence of the reemergence of draconic beings reaches castle ears. These tales often come from the cullers who make their living slaying these creatures, and who are often blamed for intentionally waking them for profit. No one alive remembers the Grief of Ages, so no one’s prepared when Fýredel, the great High Western dragon, surfaces from the volcanic mountain that towers ominously over Yscalin’s capital city of Cárscaro. What follows is the backstory of how the devoted Yscali kingdom comes to shift allegiance to Fýredel and his master, the Nameless One, a main catalyst to events in The Priory. Overall, this book reads more like history lesson than fantasy adventure, but the sheer terror that befalls the Yscali people as they face Fýredel’s pure evil is both powerful and relevant. Marosa’s plight further solidifies her as a hero worth remembering; her strength and defiance shine through as hope for the future she’s dreamed of slowly flickers out.
Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781639736010
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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