An exciting but uneven fantasy series installment that sets the stage for an explosive conclusion.
A woman seeks her place in a tangled web of secrets and family history in Webb’s fantasy novel, one in a series.
Freya O’Neill has just begun to grapple with the immense powers she’s inherited (“I continued to struggle with the idea that I’d been given an intense power as a healer, but could be responsible for intense destruction if left untrained”). Pregnant with twins, she and her family and friends in Everglenn in British Columbia delve into historical research to unravel her family history. When an old enemy abducts Freya from a family wedding, her loved ones follow cryptic clues to discover her location. Meanwhile, Freya endures a brutal journey overseas, winding up in rural Ireland in the hands of ruthless clan leaders who are intent on using her to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Her rescuers must navigate dangerous territory to secure her release as Freya struggles to piece together her fractured family history to protect herself and her unborn twins. The multiple mysteries about the past position Freya for the final showdown to protect her daughters’ futures. This is an imaginative, vividly realized modern fantasy novel that draws heavily from Irish folklore to create the history of the clans Freya is tied to. The story barrels forward at breakneck speed, steadily increasing in tension while leaving lots of plot details for the reader to keep track of. The cast of characters is mostly familiar, as this is the second book in a trilogy, and their dynamics are well established. (Their deep bonds and interconnectedness are the story’s beating heart.) Freya is an easy protagonist to root for, but given how much focus is given to her powers, it’s frustrating that the plot frequently deprives her of agency in key moments. She spends most of the novel a captive, severely injured and ignorant of most of the backstory. Most of the action is shaped by other characters, forcing Freya into a passive role, though the ending suggests she may come into her own in the upcoming final installment.
An exciting but uneven fantasy series installment that sets the stage for an explosive conclusion.Pub Date: June 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781038345912
Page Count: 326
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A standout genre-bending adventure with a tender romantic streak.
Two women on opposite sides of a long and bitter conflict each hear a prophecy that she holds the key to victory…but not which one of them will actually triumph.
On a far-in-the-future Earth, most of the human race is dominated by the Talusar empire. The Talusar worship the Fever, a strange illness that kills all who contract it. Half of those people stay dead, but the other half return to live with some kind of psychic gift, most commonly the ability to see the past. A smaller civilization, the Cedre, believe the mortality rate is not worth the loss of life, and fight to keep themselves quarantined. The Talusar have pushed the Cedre to a few small areas of the planet and to a space station in Earth’s orbit. Elegy Ahn is the second daughter of the Sword of Cedre, the Cedre’s most powerful political figure; she’s used to being the “spare” to her elder sister’s "heir." When the “augurs,” revered (and politically neutral) Talusar people with the rare Fever gift of seeing into the future, summon both Elegy and Rava Vidar, a ruthless Talusar general, they tell the women that each has the potential to lead their nation to victory over the other. As to which will triumph? Separately, the augurs give both Elegy and Rava cryptic clues. Elegy is told of three mysterious figures she’ll need to find, including a man with whom she will fall in love. Elegy is skeptical, especially since she’s already happily married. But when Rava Vidar takes swift and violent action against Elegy and Cedre, Elegy is forced to embrace her pivotal role in her people’s survival. Roth’s worldbuilding is detailed without being overwhelming; she focuses more on dystopia in this book and promises to dive deeper into speculative SF adventure in the next installment of the duology. The romance element is seamlessly woven into the plot and comes off elegantly as a result of Roth’s excellent character development.
A standout genre-bending adventure with a tender romantic streak.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781250347909
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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