Intriguing good guys struggle against ominous supernatural threats amid the lush backdrop of Maori legend.
A young woman comes of age while simultaneously realizing her Maori-related powers in Dauphin’s debut YA fantasy.
Scarlet Flint is a little different from most girls. For starters, she can read the minds and feelings of others, causing her no shortage of trouble. Her unstable life gets more chaotic once she moves from her Australian home to New Zealand. She ends up in the middle of the feud between the mysterious Sterling and his menacing brother, Manu. Her involvement turns out to be greater than she ever imagined just as her telepathic abilities increase. Scarlet is an Elemental, a half-human with supernatural abilities, a gift described in Maori legend. Sterling, another Elemental, quickly becomes her greatest ally—and possibly something more—as she struggles through the dangers she faces because of her powers. While fantasy books based on myth aren’t uncommon, stories based specifically on Maori myth are, making this novel unusual. Detailed explanations of Maori myth provide solid context—Dauphin even includes a glossary—but do not slow the narrative. The characters also help set the book apart. Scarlet is a remarkably strong young woman who faces each new challenge bravely. She is loyal to her love interest but also allows herself to be frustrated with him when he deserves it, and she aims to walk beside him, rather than chase after him. Sterling, too, intrigues. At times, he’s a charmer, evoking in Scarlet “the same feeling [she has] for stray puppy dogs,” but he also has a clouded past that he struggles with, making him a good boy with bad-boy appeal. Skillful foreshadowing appears throughout, and most chapters end with a teaser that keeps the pages turning.
Intriguing good guys struggle against ominous supernatural threats amid the lush backdrop of Maori legend.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1742841908
Page Count: 286
Publisher: BookPal
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sensitive and sincere tale told with Sachar’s inimitable wit.
This adult debut from Sachar, the singular children's book author, is a heartfelt fable about courage and love.
As Anatole—the titular magician—tells his story, he's speaking from the present day and describing events that happened 500 years ago. Tiger Castle is now a tourist destination, but in Anatole’s heyday, it was home to the king and queen of Esquaveta. As the court magician, Anatole was charged with ensuring that Princess Tullia went through with her marriage to Prince Dalrympl of Oxatania, a long-standing arrangement that was suddenly threatened when Tullia fell in love with Pito, the king’s young scribe. The queen told Anatole that if he could not convince Tullia to marry Dalrympl, she and the king would coerce their daughter into behaving. Anatole had known Tullia since she was born, and had a fatherly affection for her. He was desperate to protect the princess—as well as his own career. He decided to brew a potion that would make Pito and Tullia forget they ever knew each other, let alone loved each other, and readers will want to find out for themselves how that led to Anatole's unnaturally extended lifespan. Sachar’s wry, distinctive voice will remind grown-ups what made him such a success as a children's book author, and it translates perfectly into a book in which the middle-aged father figure is the focus, rather than the star-crossed young lovers. Sachar tells the comical story with the slight detachment of a fairy-tale narrator, focusing less on the fantasy elements than on the relationships among the characters, which are straightforward and touching. As Anatole tries to manage the youthful antics of Tullia and Pito, he grapples with more mature themes of loss, regret, and hope for the future.
A sensitive and sincere tale told with Sachar’s inimitable wit.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9780593952306
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This rip-roaring romp pivots between past and present and posits the future-altering power of love, hope, and forgiveness.
A time-toying spy romance that’s truly a thriller.
In the author’s note following the moving conclusion of her gripping, gleefully delicious debut novel, Bradley explains how she gathered historical facts about Lt. Graham Gore, a real-life Victorian naval officer and polar explorer, then “extrapolated a great deal” about him to come up with one of her main characters, a curly-haired, chain-smoking, devastatingly charming dreamboat who has been transported through time. Having also found inspiration in the sole extant daguerreotype of Gore, showing him to have been “a very attractive man,” Bradley wrote the earliest draft of the book for a cluster of friends who were similarly passionate about polar explorers. Her finished novel—taut, artfully unspooled, and vividly written—retains the kind of insouciant joy and intimacy you might expect from a book with those origins. It’s also breathtakingly sexy. The time-toggling plot focuses on the plight of a British civil servant who takes a high-paying job on a secret mission, working as a “bridge” to help time-traveling “expats” resettle in 21st-century London—and who falls hard for her charge, the aforementioned Commander Gore. Drama, intrigue, and romance ensue. And while this quasi-futuristic tale of time and tenderness never seems to take itself too seriously, it also offers a meaningful, nuanced perspective on the challenges we face, the choices we make, and the way we live and love today.
This rip-roaring romp pivots between past and present and posits the future-altering power of love, hope, and forgiveness.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781668045145
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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