A flawed but fun narrative that will appeal to fans of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse saga.
The first installment in Damore’s Mystic Inn Mystery saga follows a nonpracticing witch as she returns to her hometown after 13 years away.
A successful events planner living in Chicago, Angelica Nightingale seems to be living a life gone right. Her career is taking off, and she’s dating a well-to-do (albeit boring) accountant. But when she gets notified that her beloved aunt Thelma is close to death, she’s compelled to return to Silverlake, Georgia, a community of magical beings located in the Deep South where Angelica grew up, fell in love for the first time, and got her heart broken (“Silverlake was enchanted. No, really. You wouldn’t find the town on a map or listed on any tourist website. That is, unless you were a witch”). Returning to Silverlake dredges up memories she would rather not revisit—particularly those surrounding Vance, her ex-boyfriend. It turns out that her manipulative aunt isn’t gravely ill at all—her hotel is struggling to stay afloat, as are most of the businesses in Silverlake, and she needs her niece’s expertise to help save the magical place. As Angelica plans a fall festival to kick-start the town’s economy, her aunt becomes entangled in a murder mystery, and the young witch—who hasn’t used her powers since she left home—is forced to work with Vance, now a lawyer, to clear Thelma’s name. Blending elements of paranormal fantasy, cozy mystery, and a hint of romance, the novel is light in tone and often humorous. The mystery and romance elements are adeptly deployed, and Angelica makes for an effortlessly endearing Everywoman hero. The flaws lie in the fantasy elements, particularly the flimsy worldbuilding—if “normal folk” can’t enter Silverlake, who is supposed to attend the fall festival?
A flawed but fun narrative that will appeal to fans of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse saga.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2021
ISBN: 979-8777461353
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.
A woman must undergo fearsome trials to free the imprisoned Titans of Greek myth in Owen’s fantasy novel, the second in a series.
Advancing from minor office clerk in the Order of Thieves to Queen of the Underworld, Lyra Keres’ star should be rising. But thanks to Cronos, King of the Titans, she and her longtime friend and fellow thief Boone have been ensnared in a new challenge beneath the earth: Hot on the heels of winning the twisted Crucible Games, Lyra—who has recently been granted goddess powers—finds herself trapped in Tartarus. Separated from her beloved Hades, she must liberate the fearsome Titans from seven Locks to restore the cosmic balance. As Lyra progresses through the Locks engineered by the Gods—each as tricky and lethal as the last—the pressure mounts as the Titans repeatedly remind her, “You will be our savior.” Rhea, the wife of Cronos, reveals that Lyra began this quest “a hundred and fifty years ago,” adding further devastation to the task at hand; the knowledge is helpful, but also painful, as Lyra reflects, “Suddenly, I don’t want to know that it’s real. Because then I have to contemplate how many times I might have ended up in Tartarus already.” As she materializes in and out of time pockets, Lyra sees Hades’ troubled childhood unfold and struggles not to intervene to save the man she loves. In this second entry in the author’s Crucible series, following The Games Gods Play (2024), Lyra’s cynical quips continue to make her an engaging protagonist. Her inner monologues are balanced with hope, love, and longing for Hades as she meets various versions of him. While resilient, Owen’s heroine is also vulnerable (“Was I his pawn in more ways than I ever realized?”). Her introspection effectively contrasts with the simmering rage and restraint in Hades’ chapters. The supporting Titans are given more depth than the traditional myths allow, weaving a knotty family fabric for the reader to navigate alongside Lyra.
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781649378538
Page Count: 500
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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