An effortlessly grand fantasy that should ensnare young and older fans alike.
This YA novel sees a young god in danger of breaking his pantheon’s oath for the sake of a mortal.
In ancient Egypt, the falcon-faced Horus, God of the Sky, has come of age. At his coronation in the palace courtyard, he’s to receive an amulet of power from Amun Ra, God of the Sun, that bestows miraculous power. Horus chooses to don the face of a mortal. Ra sees the young deity with the wheat-colored hair of a Northerner and becomes enraged. He drops the garnet amulet, cracking it and vastly reducing its power. Horus vows to prove himself to Ra and goes among the worshiping mortals for the first time. The warrior goddess Bastet, a friend, suggests that he “learn about your people and gain their faith.” Yet Horus must abide the Oath of the Gods, which warns against altering a mortal’s fate, showing favor, causing death, or granting life. This proves challenging when Horus notices the enchanting Zahra, head priestess at the Temple of Ra. While she can’t see Horus, Zahra begins to feel his curious presence. Horus wonders why she’s so devoted to the cruel Ra, who ignores even her, the most devoted and bewitching mortal the young god’s yet encountered. In this sensual fantasy, Anastasia (Fates Awoken, 2018, etc.) skillfully balances an epic romance against a crafty magic system that demands Horus perform miracles to regain the power denied him by Ra. When Zahra thanks Horus for bringing shade to the Temple, “warm, yellow light emanated from beneath” his skin. She grows ever harder to resist: Horus finds that “her companionship provided me with a sense of wholeness and belonging.” Complicating matters is Set, God of Chaos, who’d love for Horus to break the oath and leave him a path to the throne. Readers should enjoy the constellation of twists that makes this a shimmering heroic romance with a message of hope through transformation.
An effortlessly grand fantasy that should ensnare young and older fans alike.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9974485-8-0
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Jackal Moon Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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