A lightweight and playfully swift adventure set in a famous realm of magic and royalty.
Murray and Fahrie deliver the latest novella in their supernatural series featuring a shape-shifting time traveler from the present day.
In a previous installment, Lucy and James traveled from September 2018 to the days of King Arthur’s court. As this book opens, it’s September 518, and the two find themselves among such famous names as Merlin and Lancelot. Jousting tournaments and dinners with plenty of wine make for an entertaining existence for the pair; Merlin even has a sassy parrot who points to such things as how “James still misses his mother very much.” The idyll ends, however, when it becomes apparent that murderous vampires are on the loose in Camelot. The problem is so acute that Lucy even finds one under her bed. Luckily, James is a shape-shifter who’s able to change into a wolf whenever the need arises; not only does he save Lucy and himself from an intruding vampire, but he also rescues Queen Guenevere from an attempted kidnapping. Amid the hubbub, there’s an illicit relationship between Guenevere and Lancelot, which goes against her wedding vows. She tells Lucy that she knows that she must break things off, but she feels passion for the knight that she sometimes finds herself “unable to control.” Many other women at court find Lancelot equally attractive; indeed, it appears that a commoner named Roxanne may have killed herself because he didn’t reciprocate her advances. And if that weren’t enough, there are still all those vampires to deal with.
Murray and Fahrie present a densely packed tale in this series entry, but it’s one that moves quickly. As the entire novella is less than 100 pages long, no individual scene lasts for very long, and many chapters are dominated by action. In one notable scene, Lancelot gets punched in the face at dinner; another features two characters being forced to dance in a vampire castle, as villains chant “Dance or Die!” However, the dialogue is frequently on the nose, with characters stating how they are feeling instead of showing it through action: One character remarks after swimming in a mineral spring, “That was a delightful swim. I feel much more relaxed now”; during an attack, someone unnecessarily exclaims “We are being attacked! Kill them before they kill us.” Even Lancelot takes an opportunity to bluntly explain his actions: “I’m very much my own man and I often go away on adventures all by myself.” The earnestness of everyone involved doesn’t make for the most mysterious atmosphere, but it does result in entertainment. The fact that the monstrous vampires laugh and clap gives them an unexpectedly humorous bent, and during a confrontation with bats, Merlin uses owls in an endearingly cartoonish scene: one bird “quickly ate the entire bat whole.” Some aspects of the story are predictable, but there is always something new developing around the corner, and it may well come with a touch of silliness.
A lightweight and playfully swift adventure set in a famous realm of magic and royalty.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.
A woman must undergo fearsome trials to free the imprisoned Titans of Greek myth in Owen’s fantasy novel, the second in a series.
Advancing from minor office clerk in the Order of Thieves to Queen of the Underworld, Lyra Keres’ star should be rising. But thanks to Cronos, King of the Titans, she and her longtime friend and fellow thief Boone have been ensnared in a new challenge beneath the earth: Hot on the heels of winning the twisted Crucible Games, Lyra—who has recently been granted goddess powers—finds herself trapped in Tartarus. Separated from her beloved Hades, she must liberate the fearsome Titans from seven Locks to restore the cosmic balance. As Lyra progresses through the Locks engineered by the Gods—each as tricky and lethal as the last—the pressure mounts as the Titans repeatedly remind her, “You will be our savior.” Rhea, the wife of Cronos, reveals that Lyra began this quest “a hundred and fifty years ago,” adding further devastation to the task at hand; the knowledge is helpful, but also painful, as Lyra reflects, “Suddenly, I don’t want to know that it’s real. Because then I have to contemplate how many times I might have ended up in Tartarus already.” As she materializes in and out of time pockets, Lyra sees Hades’ troubled childhood unfold and struggles not to intervene to save the man she loves. In this second entry in the author’s Crucible series, following The Games Gods Play (2024), Lyra’s cynical quips continue to make her an engaging protagonist. Her inner monologues are balanced with hope, love, and longing for Hades as she meets various versions of him. While resilient, Owen’s heroine is also vulnerable (“Was I his pawn in more ways than I ever realized?”). Her introspection effectively contrasts with the simmering rage and restraint in Hades’ chapters. The supporting Titans are given more depth than the traditional myths allow, weaving a knotty family fabric for the reader to navigate alongside Lyra.
An engrossing, action-packed sequel with a compelling cast.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781649378538
Page Count: 500
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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