An exquisitely written and gut-wrenching masterpiece of a fantasy novel.
The descendent of a goddess reclaims herself after a decade of captivity and exploitation in Burgess-Smith’s fantasy novel.
In the House of Est, the female descendants of the goddess Looklema have reigned supreme for centuries. Known as Wasters, they possess the ability to manipulate others’ bodies—to help heal them, mutilate them, or kill them. They also have the power to affirm a ruler’s right to the throne. The Wasting power passes from mother to daughter, and each generation of Waster Women has resided in the Sacred Wood…until now. Ten years ago, the Waster Liama was lured out of the Sacred Wood with her then-infant daughter Maarja by Kurat, the son of the Estian Chieftain Tuskjas, whom she was forced to marry. Kurat, who has the power to erase and rewrite memories, makes it impossible for Liama to remember certain things about her past—a directive from Tuskjas to make her more pliable. As Chieftainess, Liama, like Kurat, is essentially a tool for Tuskjas to enforce his iron-fisted rule over the House of Est. Liama must do his dirty work and never Waste without his express permission. If she doesn’t comply, Maarja, who’s all but completely disconnected from her heritage and power, will pay the price. But little by little, Liama’s memories are starting to return, and Kurat comes to her with a shocking and high-risk proposal: to form an alliance to kill Tuskjas and rule the House of Est side by side. Burgess-Smith’s debut novel is a masterfully crafted exploration of womanhood, motherhood, legacy, sacrifice, and righteous fury. Through first-person narration, readers gain an intimate understanding of the shrewd and resilient Liama and the well-developed supporting characters. The book’s steady pace and lush prose are captivating, even during scenes of misogynistic brutality. Readers will be enthralled by the author’s complex worldbuilding and the inclusion of some universal truths about motherhood, such as “A mother sees her child’s death in a thousand ways and at a thousand times…For every wonderful moment, every breath of gladness, there is the threat of sorrow.”
An exquisitely written and gut-wrenching masterpiece of a fantasy novel.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798993957203
Page Count: 403
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
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
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