A creative and sensual novel that doesn’t disappoint.
A magic portal transports an overworked entrepreneur to a fantasyland in a loose, erotic spin on a classic tale.
In this steamy, contemporary reimagining of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—the first in a planned series—Alice Hightower was abandoned as a child and now, at 49, insists on controlling every aspect of her life. As the ambitious CEO of Excellcardia, a revolutionary biomedical company about to launch a breakthrough cardiac device, she’s found great career success. However, her cynicism toward love has kept her single, and she regularly discusses her anxieties with her psychiatrist. As with Rea’s rousing second novel, Conjuring Casanova (2016), the author doesn’t waste much time on narrative exposition. Instead, she quickly sends her protagonist through a time-travel portal, located just behind Alice’s balcony door, through which she visits bygone eras and fantastical dimensions. Alice dons outfits that mysteriously appear in her mirrored closet at home, dressing in 1970s bell-bottoms to tour with a British rock band, satin lace to attend a Roman orgy, and a formal ball gown to enjoy a Venetian carnival. Everywhere she goes, her sexual desires are described in meticulously detailed scenes. Leaving behind “the serious, conservative CEO that was Alice in the daylight,” she revels in her new, secret persona. Running alongside these adventures are clinical notes from her psychiatrist, who suggests that Alice may be suffering from inherited, high-functioning bipolar disorder, which has a sobering effect on the novel’s hypersexual fantasy. Still, the vast majority of this work is lavishly embellished with descriptions of historical locales and sexy, insatiable characters, making it an explicit, erotic treat for adults. Whether Alice is tickled by the affections of twins named Don and Dan or washed ashore with swashbuckling pirates, open-minded readers will appreciate and savor Rea’s literary creativity. The author’s fresh, flirtatious take is provocative and lucidly described; eventually, though, reality catches up with and even surpasses Alice’s imagination, forcing her to reevaluate her career and her capacity for love.
A creative and sensual novel that doesn’t disappoint.Pub Date: July 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-953735-76-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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