Two main characters filled with potential make this a promising start to a fantasy saga.
This first installment of a fantasy series set in a pseudo–Middle Ages realm follows a princess as she becomes forced to battle treachery in her father’s kingdom.
Twenty-three-year-old Skylar Mandolyn’s seemingly idyllic royal life is turned upside down when her father appoints an adviser to help him rule the kingdom. Although the king trusts the judgment of his adviser, Cross Lutherus, explicitly, the princess sees the man for what he is—a manipulative snake who is attempting to isolate the monarch from his family and friends. When Skylar’s brother and heir to the throne, Brayden, dies under mysterious circumstances, she and her personal knight, Sir Harlin Brien—a soldier whose sole mission is to protect the princess—realize a meticulously planned, grand-scale conspiracy has been unleashed. With Skylar now the only heir to the throne, Lutherus begins a not-so-subtle campaign to get her to agree to marry a prince from a nearby adversarial kingdom, effectively saving her realm from war but also quite possibly dooming all of its residents to enslavement or death. Skylar has no intention of signing any nuptial agreement, even after her father is murdered and Harlin is wrongfully convicted of the crime. When Lutherus confines Skylar and attempts to torture her into signing the agreement, she realizes time is quickly running out. If she—or Harlin—can’t stop the treacherous plot, her kingdom and her people will be lost forever. While the premise and setting don’t necessarily bring anything new to the category, the dynamism between Skylar and Harlin is electric and powers Dunnewin’s narrative throughout. Additionally, both characters are identifiable and endearing in their own ways and have plenty of room to grow and evolve in future installments. Lastly, the author’s focus on description in these pages undeniably strengthens the immersive nature of the read: “The large iron portcullis was already pulled up for the wagons that would be entering later with fresh food for the kitchens, allowing Skylar and Harlin to ride out past the wall without being stopped. They continued on down through the cobblestone streets of Correnth, past the creamy cement walls and the sienna-brown and salmon-colored roofs, the green hedges and wrought-iron fences.”
Two main characters filled with potential make this a promising start to a fantasy saga.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4949-6891-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The series’ snarky noir vibe might be dwindling, but there’s something of substance in its place.
This is wizard Harry Dresden’s yearlong mourning period for Karrin Murphy, the woman he loved.
If you keep upping your protagonist’s powers throughout a series, then you must balance the scales by increasing the number and strength of their enemies—as well as seriously messing with their personal life. Over the course of the Dresden Files, Harry Dresden, Chicago PI and now one of the most powerful wizards in the world, thought his first love was dead (she wasn’t), sacrificed his half-vampire girlfriend on an altar to save their child, lost another girlfriend when they learned she’d been mind-controlled into their relationship, bound himself into servitude as the Fae Queen Mab’s Winter Knight, and, for the length of an entire book, thought he himself was dead (he wasn’t). But nothing has hit quite as hard as the death of Karrin Murphy, the former police lieutenant who was his quasi-partner, friend, and, after a slow burn across many books, lover. Chicago is in a terrible state following a battle with Ethniu the Titan and her Fomor army, and Harry is doing his best to confront the monsters, dark magic, and anti-supernatural prejudice running wild amid the slowly rebuilding city. He’s also trying to save his half brother Thomas from two different death sentences, train a new apprentice, and juggle a relationship with Thomas’ half sister Lara, the dangerously seductive vampire Queen Mab is forcing him to marry. But he’s doing all this while nearly crushed by grief that threatens his judgment and disturbs his control over his magical powers. Butcher really makes you feel the dark, depressive state Harry exists in as well as the effect it’s having on his friends. Despite all that happens in it, this book is a pause as well as a setup for the series’ planned conclusion, an epic conflict with the eldritch creatures known as “the Outsiders.” It’s a tough, redemptive pause that could be a real drag, but thankfully, it’s not, because Butcher shows balance, too: Even as the crises pile up, so do the help and goodwill from unexpected sources.
The series’ snarky noir vibe might be dwindling, but there’s something of substance in its place.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593199336
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
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