Questions of trust, trauma, loyalty, and territory, for readers who enjoy lie-infused romance.
An elite soldier and the head of an unacknowledged dynasty fall in love while telling each other lie after lie.
Six years after the war described in The Beauty of Darkness (2016), the queen of Venda sends three top soldiers to hunt down a war criminal. One soldier is 17-year-old Kazi, formerly “an invisible street rat” of Venda, who honed her consummate thieving skills after her mother was kidnapped into (probable) sex slavery. The war criminal may be hiding at Tor’s Watch, where the ancient Ballenger Dynasty is newly led by 19-year-old Jase Ballenger. Tor’s Watch is politically unrecognized by the other kingdoms, and although the Ballengers refuse to demarcate their borders, they’re fiercely territorial. There are ongoing, possibly rogue, threats to their home, city, and trade arena. Kazi and Jase’s meet-cute is a meet-slam (her knife at his throat), and, of course, while chained together by kidnappers and deceiving each other incessantly, they fall in love. The action and reveals have strong content but little punch, and the romance is overwritten (“I was dancing with fire and hoping not to get burned”). However, Pearson’s plotting is solid, and the last section picks up steam, ending on a cryptic cliffhanger that begs the sequel to hurry. Kazi and Jase seem white by default; a few characters are noted as brown-skinned.
Questions of trust, trauma, loyalty, and territory, for readers who enjoy lie-infused romance. (Fantasy/romance. 14-17)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-15901-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
A fresh and compelling voice.
A second chance prompts a deadly game of wits.
Lu Mingshin is about to be executed. Her fiance, Prince Ren, has ordered her death after using her family’s wealth to vie for the position of crown prince from his half brothers, each of them born to one of the widower king’s Royal Ladies. If that wasn’t enough, Mingshin learns that her Uncle Yi arranged her mother’s murder, and Aylin, her two-faced noblewoman cousin, will be marrying Ren instead. On the verge of death, Mingshin desperately wishes for another chance—only to see flashes of light and wake up two years in the past. With her memories of the future intact, Mingshin intends to not become a victim again, training in combat and vowing to endear herself to King Reifeng to secure her family’s safety. Strange dreams reveal the source of the magic that allowed her to jump back in time. A powerful mage is also on Mingshin’s tail, along with the ruthless enemies she’s already aware of. As Mingshin starts to rewrite her life’s story, new individuals come into play: a visiting Elder with questionable motives; Princess Yunle, who becomes a new best friend; and Prince Jieh, one of Ren’s rivals for the throne. Set in a fantasy world reminiscent of imperial China, this debut novel’s structure has a few oddities, but the clever premise and intriguing and suspenseful plot will keep readers engaged.
A fresh and compelling voice. (Fantasy. 14-17)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781454949923
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one.
Teens become astronauts in record time for an inaugural space mission.
After losing his family to “the greatest flood Rome has ever known,” skilled white Italian swimmer Leo Danieli would never have expected that in his darkest moment he would be drafted by the European Space Agency to attend the International Space Training Camp, where teens will train to terraform and colonize Jupiter’s moon Europa for human settlement. California native Naomi Ardalan, a second-generation Iranian-American, has also been chosen for her expertise in science and technology. During a period of violent climate change worldwide, Earth’s governments are desperate to draft teens for a space mission for which they have only a few weeks in which to prepare. Twenty-four teen finalists, many orphaned by cataclysmic natural disasters, have been chosen from all over the world to compete for this space colonization mission. Warnings come to Leo and Naomi that there is a more sinister aspect to this mission, especially after things go tragically awry with other candidates during the training. The relationship that develops between Naomi and Leo feels forced, as if their meeting necessitates speedy deployment of a romantic cliché. The use of predictable plot devices, along with the fundamentally ludicrous premise, undermines any believability that would make a reader invest in such an elaborate space journey.
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one. (Science fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-265894-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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