Three bite-sized vampire stories that make for a tasty sampler.
This collection of three novellas explores the backstories of peripheral characters from Belasco’s Blood & Ancient Scrolls vampire series.
“Teeth are Bones” (previously published in 2022 in Together We Stand Volume 2: A Charity Anthology for Ukraine) is essentially the origin story of Zoraida, a vampire who, as a human, lived in Haiti during the Haitian Revolution in the late 1700s. After she meets a mythical, formerly enslaved freedom-fighter named Kgosi—who turns her into a vampire—they begin a timeless but tragic love story while battling against American occupation of the island. “Blood Brothers” uncovers the gruesome beginnings of Dubhghall and Wulfhram’s friendship. After the two nearly kill each other during a clash between Picts and Vikings in the 900s, they’re turned into vampires and begin an epic friendship that spans centuries. “Abyssinia” (previously published in 2023 in the Adventures in Bodily Autonomy anthology) is set in Prohibition-era Philadelphia and revolves around a factory worker named Palmina who helps other struggling young women receive abortion services. When she meets a woman named Astryiah—who happens to be a vampire—Palmina finds a new way to help women in need. It’s a surprisingly romantic love story that will leave readers with tears in their eyes, and a powerful, timely read. All three stories feature well-developed characters, impressive emotional intensity, and a dark, lyrical writing style. A fight scene from “Blood Brothers,” for instance, is described thusly: “As he rolled, blood spun out and caught in the twilight like a little whirlwind of garnets.” The only criticism is the stories’ overuse, at times, of series-specific terminology: “Maybe it is in the vhoon-anghyaa from Asdrúbal, that none of his frithaputhraish can ever recover from the loss of their patar.”
Three bite-sized vampire stories that make for a tasty sampler.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781960942067
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Immoral Influence Publications
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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