An overstuffed yet engaging series opener.
Raised at sea as a pirate with her family to escape land-dwelling monsters, a 17-year-old suddenly finds herself a captive, navigating a world of magic and politics in order to survive.
Aster Oberon has lived on the Lightbringer with her parents and six siblings her entire life. Six hundred years ago, people took to the sea after Nightweavers began hunting and enslaving humans. After her family’s ship is attacked, and her oldest brother, Owen, is killed, Aster and her family are brought to shore and sold into service at Bludgrave Manor, home of the wealthy and influential Castor family of Nightweavers. Despite their lowly status, the other members of Aster’s family seem relieved to have left their hard life at sea behind; Aster is the only one with the urge to run. But the night she tries, handsome, green-eyed Will, the son of Lord Castor, stops her with a promise: He’ll help her find the monster who killed her brother. What follows is a complicated web of half-truths, political conspiracy, magic, bloody gore, and forbidden desire. The worldbuilding in this debut grows to the point where it’s challenging to keep up with the details, and readers may become confused about who’s on the side of right and who or what they’re fighting for. Aster and Will’s romance becomes a bit repetitive, but overall, the plot offers enough twists and turns to keep readers’ attention. Main characters present white.
An overstuffed yet engaging series opener. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780316587259
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593904794
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Romance
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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