A concentrated burst of monster-loving, enemies-to-lovers fun.
Hijinks abound when a prickly dragon-shifter accidentally claims his fated mate without wooing her first.
Fiery and a little reckless, Cherry Hotpepper has spent the last five years cooped up in an aging dragon-shifter’s island tower. Her captor has never said a word to her, and she isn’t entirely sure why he hasn’t eaten her. Yet every escape attempt ends the same way: with someone forcefully returning her to the dragon’s keep. So when another dragon-shifter shows up and offers to help her get home, Cherry leaps at the chance, but she’s already drugged the newcomer with a powerful hallucinogen. Little does she know that Dante Remnac can barely keep his hands off her—and that was even before he was doped up. In the aftermath of a monumental war, Dante’s few remaining friends have all found human women to love. Even so, he hasn’t been actively looking for a bride; stumbling upon his fated mate while visiting his father’s old friend Gideon was merely a happy accident. Still riding high on an ayahuasca trip that sees him chastised by a talking banana after his arms crawl away from him, Dante bites Cherry’s neck, sharing his magic with her and jump-starting their honeymoon...before he’s even learned her last name. Readers in search of character-driven stories will find much to love here, as Cherry, Dante, and a wide cast of secondary characters are all fully realized people. Unwilling to put her family in danger by telling her new husband where they live, Cherry waffles between wanting to escape and yearning for more of Dante’s—literally—electrifying touch. Neither of them realizes her sister is married to his friend, leading to an abundance of miscommunication that never betrays the novel’s overall coziness. Lemming’s latest is a gleefully flirty romp through a fantasyland tinged with shades of Diana Wynne Jones and Heather Fawcett.
A concentrated burst of monster-loving, enemies-to-lovers fun.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780316570350
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Slow and plodding.
A young woman with a magical ability to harness light discovers she is royalty.
Talasyn is a foot soldier for her homeland of Sardovia, which has been under attack for the past decade by the powerful and evil Night Empire, a conflict known as the Hurricane Wars. Talasyn is an orphan with no knowledge of her family, but she assumes they might be the source of her rare, magical Lightweaving talent. During a battle with the forces of the Night Empire, Talasyn spars with Prince Alaric, a fierce warrior who is the son and heir to the Night Emperor. Talasyn is sent on a covert mission into Nenavar, a nearby matriarchy that has remained neutral during the Hurricane Wars, to try to access a Light Sever which could hone and refine her magic. Instead, she discovers she is the heir to their royal throne; she and her mother, now presumed dead, disappeared under mysterious circumstances when she was a year old. Alaric follows her into Nenavar, and they discover his magical ability to cast darkness and shadows produces shocking results when mixed with her Lightweaving. A few weeks later, the Night Empire defeats Sardovia and ends the Hurricane Wars, and the novel transitions to a tedious, slow-moving story of court intrigue and diplomacy. A group of Sardovian soldiers and refugees seek asylum in Nenavar, but Talasyn’s grandmother agrees to protect them only if Talasyn agrees to join the royal court and marry Alaric. The politics surrounding the impending wedding is the primary plot for the rest of the novel, and it’s a slog. The glacially slow pacing only serves to highlight the confusing world building and underdeveloped characters. It’s unclear why Alaric and Talasyn are attracted to each other, and their tentative romance is just as stuck in a rut as the plot.
Slow and plodding.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780063277274
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Maniscalco fans will enjoy, but it will be hard for new readers to find their footing.
An artist with a secret and a Lord of Hell must work together to solve a puzzle in this romantic fantasy adventure.
Miss Camilla Antonius has a lot on her plate. She’s a talented artist, but is barely keeping her late father’s gallery afloat while being blackmailed by a local lord who knows a potentially ruinous secret about her. Envy, one of the seven princes of hell, is also trying to keep up appearances while a terrible malady slowly decimates his court. When he’s invited to play a dangerous magical game with a prize that could save his people, he goes all in. When one of his clues involves Camilla, the two must work together, becoming partners as they cross realms, dealing with human, demons, and Fae in order for both to win what they most covet—all while doing their best not to fall in love. Though this is a standalone novel, it’s set in the same universe as Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy, and certain elements, character dynamics, and plot points will be harder to follow for readers unfamiliar with the earlier books. This is also Maniscalco’s adult debut, and it shows: Steamy scene follows steamy scene as characters use extremely coarse language, like a teenager at last gleefully free of parental supervision. The story itself, an adventure filled with riddles to be solved and problems to be overcome, is fun and interesting but overshadowed by the need to push every boundary. Despite its length, the book reads quickly, switching back and forth between the two leads’ points of view, though the voices aren’t distinct enough to be clear. It’s all quite jumbled.
Maniscalco fans will enjoy, but it will be hard for new readers to find their footing.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780316557290
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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