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
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
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
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