Imaginative and compelling; a fantastically wild ride.
Leopold Berry and his friends take on powerful adversaries as they race to understand the magical mysteries surrounding his family and the world of Sunder.
It’s been just weeks since Leopold, Emmet, and Isabel battled in Book 1. Barely recovered, Leopold finds himself at a party facing a scary and aggressive creature called a Noxum. Amid the fray, a magical ring binds itself to Leopold’s chest, giving him the power to redirect a falling cascade of glass shards and prevent them from injuring his stepbrother, Hal. The friends rush off to Isabel’s uncle Norm’s place, desperate for help with the dying Noxum and the ring fused to Leopold’s body. Their search for answers leads to the library of the Lyceum, the school for sparks (magical people), where the trio come to startling realizations about Leopold’s stern and unyielding father. The rest of the story is an action-packed series of battles with a surprising enemy. This is a worthy follow-up to the series opener: Riggs deftly handles bloody fight scenes and tender moments of grappling with inner turmoil and strained relationships. Sunder itself, “LA’s magical underworld,” is gritty and full of compelling oddities. Leopold is an unpolished hero, which is exactly what makes him an appealing and likable leading character. Leopold presents white, Isabel is cued Latine, and the earlier entry established Emmet as Black.
Imaginative and compelling; a fantastically wild ride. (Fantasy. 14-17)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593530962
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh and compelling voice.
A second chance prompts a deadly game of wits.
Lu Mingshin is about to be executed. Her fiance, Prince Ren, has ordered her death after using her family’s wealth to vie for the position of crown prince from his half brothers, each of them born to one of the widower king’s Royal Ladies. If that wasn’t enough, Mingshin learns that her Uncle Yi arranged her mother’s murder, and Aylin, her two-faced noblewoman cousin, will be marrying Ren instead. On the verge of death, Mingshin desperately wishes for another chance—only to see flashes of light and wake up two years in the past. With her memories of the future intact, Mingshin intends to not become a victim again, training in combat and vowing to endear herself to King Reifeng to secure her family’s safety. Strange dreams reveal the source of the magic that allowed her to jump back in time. A powerful mage is also on Mingshin’s tail, along with the ruthless enemies she’s already aware of. As Mingshin starts to rewrite her life’s story, new individuals come into play: a visiting Elder with questionable motives; Princess Yunle, who becomes a new best friend; and Prince Jieh, one of Ren’s rivals for the throne. Set in a fantasy world reminiscent of imperial China, this debut novel’s structure has a few oddities, but the clever premise and intriguing and suspenseful plot will keep readers engaged.
A fresh and compelling voice. (Fantasy. 14-17)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781454949923
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one.
Teens become astronauts in record time for an inaugural space mission.
After losing his family to “the greatest flood Rome has ever known,” skilled white Italian swimmer Leo Danieli would never have expected that in his darkest moment he would be drafted by the European Space Agency to attend the International Space Training Camp, where teens will train to terraform and colonize Jupiter’s moon Europa for human settlement. California native Naomi Ardalan, a second-generation Iranian-American, has also been chosen for her expertise in science and technology. During a period of violent climate change worldwide, Earth’s governments are desperate to draft teens for a space mission for which they have only a few weeks in which to prepare. Twenty-four teen finalists, many orphaned by cataclysmic natural disasters, have been chosen from all over the world to compete for this space colonization mission. Warnings come to Leo and Naomi that there is a more sinister aspect to this mission, especially after things go tragically awry with other candidates during the training. The relationship that develops between Naomi and Leo feels forced, as if their meeting necessitates speedy deployment of a romantic cliché. The use of predictable plot devices, along with the fundamentally ludicrous premise, undermines any believability that would make a reader invest in such an elaborate space journey.
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one. (Science fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-265894-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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