An engaging medieval fantasy that’s also, at times, a refreshingly candid tale of desire.
In Hunt’s fantasy adventure, a queen with a secret sends away her most loyal warrior only for him to return years later.
Eleven years ago, Sir Ezra, a knight, entered the Queen’s chambers after hearing her scream in terror. His protective instinct apparently caused him to unleash a secret power—one accompanied by “a sound like ringing thunder.” The Prince of Erle, who’s the Queen’s husband, and his knights were all killed during the incident, and the Queen, whose name is Rose, sent Ezra into exile. Now, in Province, he serves Lady Kristen while struggling to keep his obsession with the Queen in check. Rachel, Lady Kristen’s 17-year-old daughter, is infatuated with Ezra; when she takes her flirtation to the next level, it again activates his hidden power. Ezra, it turns out, is an Elysian Bell—a legendary figure who can broadcast his emotions outward, which affects others in unexpected ways. Lady Kristen decides to send Ezra back to the capital as her seneschal, or steward, so that he might see Rose and receive closure. There, the knight is greeted by a female knight named Sir Marigold, an old friend, but he also finds evidence of the Queen’s rocky rule. However, a bigger surprise awaits him. Hunt combines fairy-tale romance with appealingly ribald scenes in this unique medieval adventure. When Rachel dyes her hair blond, for instance, Ezra’s “bell-like tolling” sounds, which causes the young woman to literally rip her bodice, swept away with passion. The knight’s gift eventually summons other women to his bedchambers, including shopkeeper Danielle Stonehouse, and there are lively descriptions of carnal pleasure. Balancing these moments are threats to Ezra’s life and dream sequences with ethereal passages: “He dived down...to see how deep the clean, crystalline structure went and was amazed at the endless, vertiginous expanse of ice below him.” Moments of wisdom come from Sir Marigold, who tells the girls she’s training, “Don’t try to mimic your enemies and compete against their advantage. We must find our own advantages.” Rose’s revelation to Ezra provides fuel for a sequel.
An engaging medieval fantasy that’s also, at times, a refreshingly candid tale of desire.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77797-343-8
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
