Characterization reigns supreme in this layered, gripping historical fiction tale set in Britain.
Three individuals from two warring religions begin to form a family in this debut adventure.
This historical fiction series opener is set in 788 in Britain, a nation that has largely been taken over by Christian Germanic Saxon invaders from the Indigenous Druids. At the novel’s center is a man on a mission. After the Druids are forced to abandon their hidden sanctuary, Caelym, a young priest, is sent to find Annwr, the sister of the supreme priestess Feywn. Annwr was abducted 15 years prior by a Saxon war band. He discovers Annwr on the grounds of a convent, where her charge, Aleswina, the dead king’s teenage daughter, resides. The teen was banished by her cousin King Gilberth. Caelym also has his own secret crusade: to find his two young sons, Arddwn and Lliem, who were sent away with a faithful servant two years ago. When the cruel Gilberth’s men come for Aleswina because he has decided to marry her, she throws in with Annwr and Caelym in an effort to escape that fate. The trio, rife with conflict, must cross unknown territory for three purposes: to locate Arddwn and Lliem, to find a safe place for Aleswina, and finally to connect with the remaining Druids en route to their new homeland. Linden’s well-researched tale eloquently brings to life a lesser-known period of transition in Britain. The riveting story illustrates that religious strife has been woven into that country’s tapestry for centuries. And life was difficult for the underclass even back then. The author has created a strong foundation for her series with well-developed characters whom readers can embrace. Still, with all those Welsh-sounding Druid names missing some vowels, the book could have used a pronunciation guide to go with its cast of characters. But that’s a small quibble. What’s important is that readers will care about what happens to Annwr, Caelym, Aleswina, and the others in future volumes. In the interim, this installment is a sterling exploration of a tumultuous era.
Characterization reigns supreme in this layered, gripping historical fiction tale set in Britain.Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64742-114-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
The lives of vividly drawn characters illuminate a lesser-known part of 20th-century history.
This engrossing historical novel focuses on the lives of three Black Americans in the aftermath of World War II.
In 1948, Ozzie Philips is a newly enlisted young soldier from Philadelphia who arrives at his station in occupied Germany just in time for the order by President Harry Truman desegregating the U.S. military. It’s inspiring news, but Ozzie will find it’s a rough transition. In 1950, Ethel Gathers is a journalist and the wife of a U.S. Army officer posted to Mannheim in occupied Germany. Unhappily childless, one day she sees a group of young biracial children tended by nuns and ends up volunteering at their orphanage. When Ethel discovers thousands of these children, born as the result of relationships between American soldiers and German women, she’s fired with purpose. In 1965 in Maryland, Sophia Clark is the ambitious teenage daughter of a hardworking farm family. When she’s unexpectedly selected for a scholarship to a fancy boarding school, she’s eager for the opportunity, if unprepared for what she’ll face as one of the first Black students to attend. The novel traces each character’s life in separate chapters, eventually revealing the connections among them. Their stories are firmly grounded in meticulous research, from the current events of each period down to details of clothing styles. Ozzie copes with the infuriating indignities imposed on “colored” soldiers despite their essential contributions, and Ethel and Sophia each learn to navigate arcane hierarchies—for Ethel, the scorekeeping of military wives and the barriers of bureaucracy, and for Sophia, the perils of boarding school. Their individual experiences are all part of the larger historical force of World War II and its influence on the Civil Rights Movement. At some points the dialogue can be stilted in its efforts to convey history, but the characters and rich details are warmly engaging.
The lives of vividly drawn characters illuminate a lesser-known part of 20th-century history.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781668069912
Page Count: 464
Publisher: 37 Ink/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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