A cozy, atmospheric fantasy for bibliophiles.
In this fantasy, a bookstore owner discovers a magical portal to literary wonders.
Kelsey Willoughby is the owner of the Chestnut Street Book Emporium, though perhaps not for much longer. Business is slow; she’s behind on the property taxes; and an aggressive buyer is waiting in the wings to absorb the store into a planned hotel complex. The Emporium has been in the family for over 60 years, and Kelsey will feel as if she’s betrayed her declining Gran—the woman who raised her—if she sells the shop. Kelsey has tried everything to save the business, but she’s running out of ideas. “Stories have power, you know, Kelsey,” Gran tells her during a visit to her assisted living facility. “But perhaps you just need some inspiration. That’s what the garden is for.” Kelsey doesn’t know what garden Gran is talking about—until one night she sees something shimmering in the empty, walled-off lot beside the store. There, she finds an impossible, lantern-lit garden party attended by 50 costumed revelers who already seem to know her. In this enchanted garden, Kelsey finds not only an escape from the pressures of her real life, but also an opportunity to meet her long-dead literary heroes like Agatha Christie and T.S. Eliot. With their guidance, she maybe can become the storyteller she’s always wanted to be and even discover the secret about the parents she’s never known. The story, narrated by Kelsey, embraces its fantastic aspect, and even the more realistic spaces are rendered in dreamy, loose prose: “I lean against the counter and allow myself the luxury of scanning the bookshop, bathed in the honeyed afternoon sunlight spilling through stained glass windows set high in the wall to my right, above the murals of famous authors. Dust motes dance in sunbeams to the soft strains of Vivaldi, tiny Tinkerbells darting through Neverland.” Higley evokes a specific mood quite masterfully, transforming the experience of browsing in an old bookstore into a novel. It may strike some readers as overly cloying, but others will undoubtedly fall in love.
A cozy, atmospheric fantasy for bibliophiles.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2022
ISBN: 9781737057970
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Stonewater Books LLC
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A freewheeling, action-packed fantasy with a dash of romance.
Kova offers a fantasy novel set beyond the Nightgale Mountains in the walled fortress of Vinguard where citizens live in fear of the next deadly dragon attack.
Vinguard’s residents are always on guard against the threat of dragons, but they must watch more than just the skies. Living among them, hiding in plain sight, are the “dragon cursed”—people who, at any moment, may transform into terrifying winged beasts and destroy the city from within. For most of Isola Thaz’s life, she’s been told she’s the reincarnated savior of Vinguard. But just as she begins to suspect that she may be dragon cursed, she’s tossed into Vinguard’s Tribunal—a contest in which every 18-year-old competes in tests of skill and might to separate loyal citizens from the dragon cursed. As she’s sequestered for this rite of passage, Isola hesitantly allies herself with a handsome fellow competitor named Lucan. However, as the teens face such trials as fire-breathing automatons (“The silver beast comes to life with a swing. Its claws shear through the dim light”), starvation, and actual dragons while unarmed, Isola begins to feel that Vinguard’s traditions come at a cost that’s too steep. Meanwhile, Vicar Darius, Lucan’s father and the leader of Vinguard’s shadowy theocracy, the Creed, is desperate to take Isola’s powers for himself—and, to that end, he puts her into increasingly tortuous situations. However, neither he, nor Isola’s teenage rivals, are very compelling antagonists; instead, they come across as caricatures of cruelty. Still, the novel is fast-paced and action-oriented with a punchy prose that prioritizes movement over fantasy aesthetics. A sometimes-fraught romance between Isola and Lucan slowly blooms, but Isola’s relationship with her family forms the true emotional core of the narrative. Although the worldbuilding in fairly simple, the story sets up a massive mystery that promises big payoffs in a potential future installment.
A freewheeling, action-packed fantasy with a dash of romance.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781649377838
Page Count: 448
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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