This story is brimming with potential, but the various plot threads fail to coalesce.
A student at a magical school discovers a new form of magic as the institution is threatened by outside forces in Oey’s fantasy novel.
Lina Arnoult, who hails from a prominent magical family, is excited to begin studying at the elite Taliesin Academy—but she is humiliated when the entry assessment of her magic rates her a 29 while the other students score in the 70s and 80s. She is stripped of her noble status, shunned by her teachers and other students, and her parents refuse to speak to her. While struggling to improve, Lina discovers alternative ways of performing magic that challenge the way the subject is usually taught. In her second year, she is determined to prove the school and her detractors wrong. Meanwhile, a group of non-magical commoners called Novus Vetus is attacking magical schools to challenge the superiority of magicians; Lina’s newfound skills may be more important than she realizes. Pacing issues bedevil this novel, mostly because it is trying to do too many things at once. Lina’s first difficult year at Taliesin is skipped over, thought it forms the basis for her motivations. The second half of the story focuses on the attacks by Novus Vetus and their political implications, despite the fact that the author has not developed the fictional world of the narrative much beyond Lina’s school. The magical system is an inventive one, but its role in the story is bogged down with overly wordy descriptions and exposition-heavy scenes discussing magical theory. (“Wordless magic is called ‘wordless’ because it isn’t spoken, but that is a misnomer. Words are technically used if only in thought to cast a spell internally.”) Lina discovers a new avenue of magic, but the conventional approach to the art isn’t sufficiently described to illustrate how her method is different, or why she is the only one who’s discovered it. (The magical action scenes work better than those describing its practice in dry, textbook language.) Still, Lina is a stubborn, strong-willed, and occasionally ruthless character who is nevertheless likable and fun to read about.
This story is brimming with potential, but the various plot threads fail to coalesce.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2024
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 clever and inspiring reimagining of a little-remembered time and place.
Medieval history and Celtic mythology merge in an enchanting tale.
Arden, best known for her Winternight Trilogy, here turns from medieval Russia to Europe during the same period. Anne of Brittany—a real person—is 19 when the novel begins in the late 15th century, a sovereign duchess whose father, the duke, has been dead since she was a child. Described as “small and glossy as a cat in a dairy,” she’s desperately trying to avoid marrying Charles VIII, the king of France, which would mean the dissolution of her country. She conceives a plan to conduct a unicorn hunt in the ancient, haunted forest of Broceliande, thinking she will be able to secretly arrange a proxy wedding to Maximilien of Austria, heir to the Holy Roman Empire. While there, she encounters not only an actual unicorn but an evil enchanter who has designs on her kingdom. With the unlikely aid of the chivalrous (and undeniably attractive) Louis of Orleans, who has been sent by Charles’ sister Marguerite to betray Anne, as well as Anne’s spunky younger sister, Isabeau; a clever peasant girl, Elesbed; and a cat named Butter, Anne works feverishly to protect her people from sinister forces both political and supernatural. Arden takes her time immersing the reader in this thoroughly and intricately imagined world, where historical figures bump up against an enigmatic korriganed queen, at least one monstrous sea-dragon, a herd of undead “anaon,” and a whole Breton city that has been trapped in time. This is an alternate history in which the admirable Anne, freed from the confines of textbooks, gets to ask the question, “Shall we not write our own story?” Here, love and duty reach an understanding, and courtly romance makes friends with a steamier variety of physical contact. Fans of jousts, spells, dark magic, and brave women will find plenty of each here.
A clever and inspiring reimagining of a little-remembered time and place.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9780593128282
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
