A spellbinding start to a promising new horror/fantasy series.
An American fortune seeker’s foray into London high society gets weird when a mysterious woman beckons him to Murder Alley in Wigham’s supernatural adventure novel.
Jeremiah Dalton is a penniless young man from North Carolina who’s trying to stay on the good side of boorish, wealthy patron Sir Thomas. The stodgy upper-crusters in Sir Thomas’ crowd enjoy having the pistol-toting American around, and Jem is happy to oblige their curiosity and accept their largesse, as long as it lasts. Marrying the innocent Cecily Watson could solidify his social standing, but Jem is conflicted about stringing her along with promises of love. He’s also troubled about being on the run and leaving his beloved sister Nellie back home in the States. These are just some of the existential questions rolling around Jem’s muddled head when he crosses paths one night with Felicity Archer, a compelling woman who’s determined to embark on an ill-advised venture into the darkest haunts of London’s underworld. The meeting represents a superbly rendered narrative shift that plucks Wigham’s hapless protagonist from his thoroughly conventional milieu of wealth and privilege and plunges him deep into a region of horror and magic. Someone, or something, is turning London’s dead into slobbering homicidal monsters, and Felicity and her tightknit band of friends, including the irrepressible Alistair McLaren, willful Odessa Morgan, and scholarly Rashid Selim, are determined to confront the evil. As he’s drawn deeper into the group’s supernatural intrigue, the author effectively reveals how Jem learns as much about himself as he does about the denizens of the fantastical world of Cradle. She also shows that, as dysfunctional and secretive as the group may be, they’re also a found family that comes to exert a powerful hold over Jem—one that’s more profound than any witch or warlock could hope to attain. High action and intricate plot twists are woven through the magical tapestry that Wigham conjures here, but the real sorcery comes from how she brings the characters and their relationships to vivid life.
A spellbinding start to a promising new horror/fantasy series.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781039483125
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2024
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
SEEN & HEARD
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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