Striking characters, both divine and human, enliven this leisurely story of good versus evil.
In Rohla’s fantasy novel, a god born to grant wishes uses her power to help people who’ve lost hope.
Starfall is a sovereign city-state that rests between two desert plateaus and two kingdoms, making it a “hot spot for trade and commerce.” One day, its citizens’ collective wishes and dreams, quite astoundingly, give birth to a female god. She can hear all of their yearnings and quickly finds 19-year-old Ellie, whose longing is the loudest. The teen is skeptical but mentally expresses her desire for her sickly little brother Sterling to be well again—a wish the god grants. Ellie deems the god, whom she names Freya, a “miracle worker” and ambles through Starfall’s bazaar to track down others with wishes. Freya delights a few locals, including a seller who yearns for a more glamorous stall and Sterling’s doctor, who wants the perfect ring to propose with. It’s hardly surprising when the surrounding kingdoms send royal messengers to invite Freya to their respective nations, but the god prefers living quietly with Ellie and Sterling. Ellie, meanwhile, dreams up weekly “wish fairs” in which Freya grants a limited number of wishes via a lottery system, with the option of turning down anything inappropriate or potentially harmful. Sadly, there are slaves in Starfall, like all of the nurses at a hospital, whose wishes Freya can’t hear, rendering her unable to help them. When Freya realizes the city-state has far more slaves than most people can see, she, Ellie, and Sterling make it their mission to free these captives.
Rohla’s bare-bones prose streamlines the physical details of characters and settings; this approach keeps the narrative moving at a steady clip as it unfolds (for the most part) in Starfall. Descriptions of emotions and temperaments are also effectively concise (“Dread slides its serrated teeth along the back of the god’s neck”). At the same time, the main cast virtually bursts with personality and backstory—Ellie and Sterling’s mother abandoned them, forcing young Ellie to care for her ailing brother on her own. Freya displays several humanlike traits, starting with her naïveté; she has an innate ability to converse with locals but learns many things as she goes along, including social greetings and what a “concubine” is. She’s also not quite as powerful as readers may anticipate, as she can only utilize her amazing abilities (like materialization and teleportation) for so long before she needs rest. The story introduces a handful of curious moral dilemmas, from the horrid treatment enslaved people suffer to a consideration of what, exactly, a dying girl would wish for. As Freya, Ellie, and Sterling slowly gather allies, it’s the villains who truly stand out. Starfall’s sleazy Governor Hensley, for one, drapes himself in flashy garb and laughs obnoxiously loud, and a nefarious, well-organized gang steals water from the poor. These thieving gangsters, along with other diabolical sorts secretly up to no good, ignite the final act as the story builds to a gratifying denouement.
Striking characters, both divine and human, enliven this leisurely story of good versus evil.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 979-8670287180
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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