A sweet, sexy story about healing and love.
One of the last remaining unmated human women on an ice planet hopes to stay single.
Tiffany was one of a group of women kidnapped from Earth by evil aliens intending to traffic and enslave them. Their ship crash-landed on a small, icy planet where they were saved by a welcoming community of kind blue aliens consisting mostly of men. In order to survive the unbearably cold temperatures, both blue aliens and humans must implant themselves with a symbiotic creature called the khui, which has a secondary function of “resonating” when two people are a perfect match. It’s now 18 months after the crash, and almost all of the women have found mates and started having babies. Salukh is different from the other men fiercely competing for Tiffany's attention because he treats her like a friend instead of an object to be won. He's patient, kind, and sure that Tiffany is his mate even if they haven’t yet resonated. However, she is terrified of being mated after having been sexually assaulted by the aliens who kidnapped her. For Tiffany, the very thought of resonating and being forced to accept a mate is abhorrent. She’s tired of her choices being taken from her and is determined to learn how to survive on her own. Tiffany’s journey involves letting herself recover at her own pace, which includes slowly trusting Salukh with both her story and her body. Salukh, like most of the aliens in the series, is a perfect fantasy of a romantic partner, willing to patiently provide whatever his lover desires. Dixon’s world continues to evolve, with the newly blended community of human women and alien men struggling with the problems of feeding and housing their growing clan. Tiffany and Salukh’s romance shows how even in a world of fated mates, consent and willingness to enter into a relationship are still important.
A sweet, sexy story about healing and love.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9780593639450
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh, arresting entry in the vampire genre that revels in violent, bloody delights.
An orphaned teenager tries to connect her sister’s disappearance to their family’s decadeslong relationship with vampires.
Nineteen-year-old Kidan Adane wants nothing to do with her family’s horrifying rules and traditions, which stipulate that Kidan and her sister, June, who are Black girls of Ethiopian heritage, must honor soul-binding contracts with dranaics, or vampires. After their parents died, the sisters were placed in foster care with Mama Anoet. For years, Kidan had thought they were safe from evil—until Silia, their maternal aunt, unexpectedly died, and June and Kidan became the last two living members of House Adane. When June is abducted in the middle of the night by an unknown assailant, Kidan traces the clues to Uxlay University, where worthy leaders are taught how to protect a hierarchical society in which humans and vampires harmoniously coexist. Kidan believes that June was taken by Susenyos Sagad, the formidable vampire who’s bound to her family’s bloodline. As she dives deeper into this cruel new world, the line between her hatred of Susenyos and her growing fascination with him begins to blur. Debut author Girma’s trilogy opener offers a richly detailed, sweepingly imaginative narrative that artfully explores the dark heart of desire, rage, and loss through expansive worldbuilding. Kidan’s powerful characterization is layered, and her journey toward the truth has been crafted with a cinematic eye.
A fresh, arresting entry in the vampire genre that revels in violent, bloody delights. (map, content warning) (Fantasy. 15-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780316581448
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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