Seriously, the dragons breathe glitter. What more could you want?
Two middle-aged law enforcement partners finally fall in love in this slow-burn fantasy romance.
Twyla Banneker hasn’t had a date in the 13 years since the death of her husband, Doug. That’s not to say she hasn’t been busy, though. In that time, Twyla has built an illustrious career as a Tanrian Marshal, the people’s guardian and the undead’s bane. Now, a year after another marshal purged the undead drudges from Tanria, she and her partner, Frank Ellis, find themselves reduced to monitoring children’s water-pony rides. Following a dragon attack and the curious case of the dragon hatchling that attaches itself to Frank, mother-duck style, a visiting professor and dracologist shows up—with a major interest in taking the self-professedly "frumpy" Twyla out. Only after she accepts his offer of a first date does she learn the truth: Everyone, from her friends to her own children, thinks she and Frank are an item. But the two of them are just friends...right? Cue the will-they-or-won’t-they shenanigans as the marshals investigate what brought the supposedly extinct dragons out of hibernation. Bannen delivers a quippy and fun fantasy rom-com here. Although some of the dialogue tags feel a bit ham-fisted, the conversations themselves are crisp and well thought out. Readers who picked up the series’ previous installment will almost certainly have an easier time acclimating to Twyla and Frank’s world, where the cars are amphibious inventions called “autoducks” and people distinguish between the Old Gods and the New. The first few chapters may read headily to newcomers, as Bannen pulls no punches when introducing these concepts in rapid succession, but readers who can go with the flow will soon uncover a delightful story worth every minute of their time. Fans of cozy fantasy will find a lot to love here, from glitter-breathing, poodle-esque dragons to a down-to-earth romance between two middle-aged heroes on the brink of retirement.
Seriously, the dragons breathe glitter. What more could you want?Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780316568258
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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