An absorbing, character-driven tale with supernatural touches and series potential.
In Troy’s debut novel, two families in the late 19th century bring secrets and magic to an island.
Amadeo Roselyn, worried about his family’s safety in the era just after Reconstruction, moves them from New Orleans to the isle of Touperdu, where vacant buildings await them, one for a home and the other for a restaurant they plan to open. Amadeo has the money to set up a business, but he doesn’t necessarily want the locals to know the source of his funds. Around the same time, the Duday family, hailing from a French village, make their way to the island as well. Mathieu and Gwennoelle, along with their children, harbor special abilities—for one thing, they can see ghosts, including the previous owner of their new house. Their magic isn’t common knowledge, but it’s also not something they can keep from their fellow islanders indefinitely; soon, Gwennoelle is known as a “seeress.” Troy’s intriguing, eclectic cast is fleshed out with distinctive details; Gwennoelle saves the family money by swiping small items, while Amadeo’s wife, Hortense, seems to suffer from an undiagnosed mental condition tied to anxiety. There’s also Madame Reckoner, who found the spot for Amadeo’s restaurant and whose family has long been engaged in a well-known feud with the Bonneys, an old island clan. The supernatural elements are organically woven into the story; interactions with ghosts (or other bits of magic) are everyday occurrences for the Dudays. The various subplots include several unexpected turns, from mysterious deaths to an outright murder. Some narrative threads don’t really lead anywhere, however, and some of the characters either fade into the background or disappear altogether. Still, the welcome lightheartedness of the kids, predominantly young Laurette Duday and Peony “Pinny” Roselyn, couples well with the author’s wry humor. (Madame Reckoner’s idea of a compliment: “You are not a miserable whining sot like my son.”)
An absorbing, character-driven tale with supernatural touches and series potential.Pub Date: June 9, 2026
ISBN: 9798897400089
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Sibylline Press
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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