A brilliantly executed installment in a series about vengeance and self-determination.
In Brower’s second fantasy-series entry,a demigod learns how to wield her powers, but her teacher has ulterior motives.
Following an attack on the safe-haven dimension of Taria, the dark magic that demigod half-siren Renna Strongborn has suppressed for years awakens within her. In her agony, she accidentally opens a portal leading to Sethos, a fae with whom she had been close during her first lifetime and who’d declared himself her “soul guardian” seven years ago. Renna trusts Sethos, so she enters the portal and joins him in his fortress in Daya. She learns that she and Sethos were both abused by Renna’s father, Am-Re, the god of darkness, chaos, and ruin, and despotic ruler of the Vasarys dimension. Eight years ago, Sethos overthrew and killed Am-Re, who’d adopted him, and not only gained his throne, but also some of his powers, which flow through Renna’s veins, as well. When Sethos tells Renna that he intends to avenge his mother and homeland, Renna promises to help. He helps her learn how to wield her powers to their full, lethal potential. Their relationship becomes more intimate, but when he tells Renna about the destruction of Isyos, where Am-Re once ruled, he leaves out a vital detail: The attackers, whom he aims to kill, were the Celestial Gods who had sheltered Renna in Taria—including Khellios, her past-life love interest. While Sethos manipulates Renna, Khellios leaves Taria and goes on a quest to find her. Brower’s sequel is a captivating tale of betrayal, vengeance, and love, primarily told through the perspectives of Renna, Sethos, and Khellios; this gives readers a keen and sometimes-devastating understanding of each character’s motivations, which they sometimes hide from others. The masterful worldbuilding features well-developed systems of both magic and governance. Readers may be mildly disappointed that Renna doesn’t have any meaningful interactions with other women, but her journey—during which she learns to accept and control her powers while maintaining a sense of right and wrong—is truly compelling, as is Sethos’ relentless desire for revenge.
A brilliantly executed installment in a series about vengeance and self-determination.Pub Date: July 30, 2025
ISBN: 9798991248204
Page Count: 440
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.
After the events of Book of Night (2022), Charlie Hall is forced to hunt down the perpetrator of a terrible massacre.
Charlie Hall is the Hierophant: It’s her job to be tethered to a powerful, independent shadow—a “Blight”— and hunt down other Blights for the Cabals, the heads of their respective shadow-magic specialties. The Cabals use the difficult job of Hierophant as a punishment, but Charlie agreed to take it on so she could be the person tethered to Vince, aka Red, the Blight who posed as a human and ended up dating and falling in love with Charlie. The Cabal leaders used magic to steal the part of Red’s memory that contained his relationship with Charlie, and so Charlie is determined to steal Red’s memories back. And she needs to move fast, because if Red doesn’t remember loving her, he just might be OK with Charlie being killed if it means his own freedom. Meanwhile, Mr. Punch, a terrifying Cabal leader who specializes in using shadow magic to possess other people’s bodies, has a job for Charlie: He wants her to find the culprit behind a terrible massacre that was attributed to a cult. He suspects that the people were actually killed by a Blight, and he doesn’t want the Cabals to face the blowback if the truth becomes public. Mr. Punch could do terrible things to Charlie if she fails, but if she succeeds, he’ll help Charlie and Red be free of the Cabals for good. The sophomore novel in a series is always tough, but this sequel proves that the second book can be even better than the first. Black turns the screws on the magical world she set up in Book 1, creating complicated political motives between Charlie and the Cabal leaders and making the question of what it means for a shadow, like Red, to have their own consciousness more interesting. Veteran con artist Charlie makes some truly brilliant moves, especially toward the end, where the last few chapters have one terrific surprise after the other.
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250812223
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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