A cozy, witchy hug of a book about the power of acting locally and thinking cosmically.
Page weaves benevolent witchcraft, folksy animism, and environmental activism into a fantasy novel that offers practical optimism in the face of relentless evil.
Iris Barnes, a recently divorced middle-school librarian, moves to the town of Cottonwood, New Mexico, to try to rebuild her life anew. Her house comes with surprises, including a mysterious letter from its former occupant, Joan Flores, and a strangely persistent cat, whom she names Xena the Warrior Princess; as it turns out, the feline is more than she seems—and who narrates part of the tale: “I am here as a helper; well, more than a helper. I just got a promotion. Now, I’m a bodhisattva….Kind of like a warrior princess, but no.” Iris soon finds herself embroiled in the town’s biggest controversy: The mayor and other powerful players want to open their namesake cottonwood forest to development. Iris joins with Joan, Joan’s niece Annabelle, and an adorable, kind locksmith named Ezra to resist the deforestation. They’re not alone in their mission; unbeknownst to them, the Fae and the animals are also marshaling forces to resist encroachment. Page’s approach to all these magical elements allows them to be both fantastical and refreshingly familiar. The history and depth of the powers at play are epic, but the scope of the story is intimate and personal. The stakes feel simultaneously global and local, evincing an understanding that the ley lines channeling the powers of good and evil may crisscross the world, but are always encountered on one’s own corner of the earth. The book is not overtly political beyond its clear environmentalist stance, but there’s something timely and empowering about a novel in which the heroes are a librarian and a young girl armed with the powers of research, kindness, and determination. Page’s care for all of her characters, and her clear optimism for the kinds of change they might effect, will carry the reader to the end of the book—and, maybe, into their own lives and actions.
A cozy, witchy hug of a book about the power of acting locally and thinking cosmically.Pub Date: June 30, 2025
ISBN: 9798286039920
Page Count: 280
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Another gem from Lippman, with a heroine who elevates being ordinary to an art form.
An ordinary woman finds extraordinary adventures on a river cruise on the Seine.
Muriel Blossom acknowledges that she’s a “no-frills” person, a trait that served her well when doing surveillance for Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan. When she gets an unexpected upgrade on her British Airways flight to Paris, she finds herself not only in business class, but on the other side of the looking glass. Allan Turner, a handsome stranger, befriends her in the Chesapeake Lounge, which her upgrade allows her to access. She misses her connection at Heathrow because of the weather, so he invites her to share his luxurious suite in a London hotel, paid for, he insists, by his firm. Then he sends her off on the Eurostar train to reach Paris via the Chunnel in time for her ship’s departure. Once in Paris, she meets another stranger, younger but equally attentive. Danny Johnson takes her to a friend’s atelier in the Marais where the plus-sized Muriel can find the fashionable clothing she deserves. A mysterious man in a bellman uniform knocks on her hotel-room door and invites her to leave her luggage in the hallway so it can be transferred overnight to her ship, but of course she realizes that’s nonsense. She also receives the news that Allan died in a fall from his balcony the night after she left London. When Danny turns up on her cruise, she knows something’s off, but she can’t put together the pieces. That’s because Lippman is unrivaled in her ability to lay out clues in a way that makes them seem not only mysterious, but downright surreal. Only at the end does everything fit together so naturally that it all seems blazingly obvious. Like Muriel, who’s patient and sensible to the end, you’ll just have to wait.
Another gem from Lippman, with a heroine who elevates being ordinary to an art form.Pub Date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: 9780062998101
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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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