A toxic polyamorous romance that revels in dark eroticism.
Ancient fae magic bewitches two friends as they become stranded in a mysterious manor with its seductive inhabitants.
Best friends Adam Lancaster and Nicola Fairweather have been yearning for each other for years, but neither one has made the first move. Following the death of his beloved grandfather in Michigan, Adam decides he wants to find Craigmar, a house that was the location of his grandfather’s magical bedtime stories. The clues his grandfather left behind lead to a small village in Scotland, and Nicola agrees to accompany him there. Both believe that this trip will be just the setting they need to confess their feelings for one another. Their quest takes them to a manor run by Eileen Kirkfoyle and her groundskeeper, Finley Buchanan; a letter left behind by Adam’s grandfather reveals a connection to Eileen’s late grandmother Arabella. When a storm impedes them from driving back to town, and with the promise of searching through the Kirkfoyle family records, Adam and Nicola agree to stay the night. The mood in the manor immediately begins to shift when Adam catches Finley striking Eileen’s bare back with a riding crop in the library, and Nicola’s morning walk with Finley ends in both a “ravenous” kiss and the appearance of a pale figure lurking in the woods. With a mix of kinky sexual exploration and Gothic fae mystery, Gibson knows how to tease in more ways than one. Tension oozes out of every page as the quartet’s attraction becomes more tangled and twisted. A large list of content warnings signals that this is a romance on the darker side, with Eileen assuming the role of puppet master, determined to keep the American tourists close. The book feels like a delicious melodrama, in the most complimentary sense of the term; it’s a magical bacchanalian soap opera where love and hate flip like a switch, with deviance and lust underscoring every interaction.
A toxic polyamorous romance that revels in dark eroticism.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780316575898
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Redhook/Orbit
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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