Robust worldbuilding and a millennia-spanning romance make this fantasy series finale a compelling read.
This final volume of an epic fantasy trilogy spans thousands of years and features a multitude of characters.
Julia O’Brien and her husband, Domhnall, are holed up in a cabin in Saskatchewan, hiding out while they lick their wounds. Ronan Gallagher, the man Dom thought of as a brother and someone Julia considered family, betrayed them and is now working with their greatest enemy—Marcus Cassius Longinus. Cassius has been alive for over a millennium, and Julia and Dom have spent countless lives trying to defeat him. Julia, the victim of a curse, is reborn every time she dies. Dom chose to be cursed so he could regenerate and find her again. At one point, Julia recalls: “To him, our love had always been a cause worth dying for.” Now, after so many rebirths, she’s noticed that her memories of her past lives have been deteriorating. There’s something about this life cycle that might end the curse. Julia wants to have a normal life with Dom—to start a family—and the only way to do that is to ensure Cassius’ demise. Julia must develop and fully control her magic. With the help of her friends, found family, and a collection of Druids, Wielders, and Knaves, she must annihilate the evil Cassius and his army of Wraiths. In this third volume, Gateley delivers the epic ending that readers are surely clamoring for. The novel relies heavily on the audience being familiar with the previous books, since characters are known by multiple names and titles that are used interchangeably. For example, Cassius is also called “the Sorcerer” and “the Child of Rome,” with Julia and Dom having similar titles. But despite the work’s heavy backstory and use of multiple names, Gateley skillfully weaves an enthralling tale starring remarkable players on a dangerous mission. The author’s fantasy world is rich and varied, with different types of magic users, including Druids, Bearers, and Wielders, to name a few. These elements, combined with Julia and Dom’s engrossing love story, will please fantasy and romance fans alike.
Robust worldbuilding and a millennia-spanning romance make this fantasy series finale a compelling read.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 289
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.
The conclusion to the Villains trilogy asks, In a world where there are no heroes, what does victory really mean?
Schwab’s world is one where violent near-death experiences can engender ExtraOrdinaries, people who come back to life with a new superpowered ability, but lacking empathy, patience, and a variety of other, gentler qualities. In this installment, Victor Vale is becoming increasingly desperate; ever since Sydney Clarke used her power to bring him back from the dead, control over his own ability to cause and dampen pain has been slipping. Sydney herself is chafing against her life on the run with Victor’s protective ex-cellmate, Mitch Turner, and struggling with missing both Victor and her dead sister, Serena, whom she might not be able to resurrect—and definitely shouldn’t. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Gray, discovers the existence of ExtraOrdinary people and seeks to harness their power for himself with tragic consequences for himself and many other people. Because the narrative skips around in time, it becomes clear fairly early that a final conflict is looming at EON, a high-tech facility where ExtraOrdinaries are imprisoned and experimented upon. This series has really lived up to its title; while antiheroes and villains have been popular protagonists for quite some time, not every writer is willing to lean into the darkness as hard as Schwab does. Some of her characters were psychopaths even before their near-death traumas, which means they didn’t have much moral fiber to begin with. And even the people who are basically good do a lot of bad and often foolish things when faced with a crisis…and there are a lot of crises. The strength of this series lies in Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary power to make you care for many of these incredibly rash, ethically dubious—some verging on irredeemable—characters anyway. As a result, the story rises above the usual grimdark cynical slog; instead, this is a gripping and nuanced saga with an ending that feels both inevitable and well earned.
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781250192233
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
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