This delightfully brisk, magical story thrives with an indelible cast.
A young man’s return to his magic-infused home country may put the entire land in peril in Cunningham’s fantasy novel, one in a series.
Mick Dairner, head cook at the Governor’s manor in Iptin Province, dreams of visiting his homeland of Kartha. His beloved great-uncle Dimitri provides incentive when he gives his nephew a mysterious blue-green stone and tells him it’s time he went back (“Kartha is where you belong, and you know it as much as I do”). Mick hasn’t been to Kartha since he was a baby. His parents moved away because his secret magical ability ties him to a prophecy foretelling Kartha’s descent into a catastrophic “sickness.” After the corrupt governor coerces Mick into staying on as the cook indefinitely, Mick strikes a deal that sends him across the sea to Kartha. He quickly makes friends, but some underhanded individuals recognize him, as he’s the spitting image of his grandfather (Dimitri’s twin). Some want his power, or the gifted stone he carries; they threaten and assault Mick and even throw him in a dungeon. When it seems the prophesied sickness has reached Kartha, Mick and his new allies fight to protect their land. Cunningham, in this standalone follow-up to Blood Bound (2023), drops readers into the midst of this swiftly-paced tale. The plot turns keep coming—Mick has no choice but to make alliances with dangerous people, undertake precarious tasks, and suffer double-crossings. He’s just learning his magic capabilities and is, despite studying Kartha maps, unfamiliar with the landscape, so this naive 20-something becomes a virtual punching bag for villains. Fortunately, Mick is surrounded by reliable (and vibrant) characters, from the elderly Dairner twins to the charming Boone, who longs to meet Kartha’s alleged Witch, to Laila, the powerful Witch in question. They all face off against formidable foes, igniting an exhilarating final act and a worthy ending.
This delightfully brisk, magical story thrives with an indelible cast.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781068955822
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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
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