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The Hand and the Heart #1
The Second Death of Locke
The Second Death of Locke is a devastatingly romantic epic fantasy and about the undying bond between a knight and their mage, perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and The Six Deaths of the Saint.
Love. Loyalty. Sacrifice.
Grey Flynn has dedicated her life to her mage, Kier.
She will be his blade on the battlefield, his healer and protector. The deep well of raw power inside her is Kier's to use. Grey would do anything for Kier - be anything for him - if he would only ask.
When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into the dangerous heart of their nation's war, Grey and Kier will need to decide what they are willing to sacrifice to protect their secret.
For Grey is no ordinary magical well, but heir to the lost island of Locke - the root of all power. If she dies, all magic dies with her.
Love. Loyalty. Sacrifice.
Grey Flynn has dedicated her life to her mage, Kier.
She will be his blade on the battlefield, his healer and protector. The deep well of raw power inside her is Kier's to use. Grey would do anything for Kier - be anything for him - if he would only ask.
When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into the dangerous heart of their nation's war, Grey and Kier will need to decide what they are willing to sacrifice to protect their secret.
For Grey is no ordinary magical well, but heir to the lost island of Locke - the root of all power. If she dies, all magic dies with her.
480 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 2025
4384 people are currently reading
107863 people want to read
About the author
V.L. Bovalino
3 books609 followersV.L. Bovalino is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and now lives in the UK. She loves obscure academic facts, folklore, and oversized sweaters. Find her on online as @toribovalino.
She also writes books for young adults as Tori Bovalino.
She also writes books for young adults as Tori Bovalino.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,562 reviews
October 11, 2025
3.5 stars ✨
Okay, hear me out. This was good, REALLY GOOD but the second half especially the ending kinda killed it for me. It's definitely an original and enjoyable read but there were issues that i cannot overlook now that I've finished it.
It starts off amazing tbh. I was immersed in it especially with how different it is from other fantasies. The world building, the war zone and political intrigue had me utterly captivated. The writing is beautiful though it might take some time getting used to with how slow the pacing is.
The main characters Kier and Grey have such an amazing chemistry between them. I loved the fact that Grey is the one more obsessive and ready to die for him, ready to burn for him, instead of the majority of the books where it's the man who's burning the world apart. The childhood friends to lovers trope with such painful yearning and slow burn was something that had me in a chokehold 🤌
Grey has such a fierce personality, the feminine rage in her was something I adored. Though one of my issues was Kier is caring, kind and sweet but I feel like I just know him through Grey's eyes. I feel like even after the book ended, I didn't really get to know him. He was just someone who Grey loved 😅🥴
My other issue was the fact that when they got together, I was kinda like oh, okay... Now what? Their romance flatlined after that and it definitely wavered my interest. Like the chemistry was there but so toned down.
Coming to the ending , it was extremely underwhelming for me. All that builds up throughout the book for that? Nah, not a fan of that. Overall, quite a fun book but not something I would remember in the long term especially with how it ended.
~•~•~
I've heard there's YEARNINGGGGGG. I'm ready for it 😩
Okay, hear me out. This was good, REALLY GOOD but the second half especially the ending kinda killed it for me. It's definitely an original and enjoyable read but there were issues that i cannot overlook now that I've finished it.
It starts off amazing tbh. I was immersed in it especially with how different it is from other fantasies. The world building, the war zone and political intrigue had me utterly captivated. The writing is beautiful though it might take some time getting used to with how slow the pacing is.
The main characters Kier and Grey have such an amazing chemistry between them. I loved the fact that Grey is the one more obsessive and ready to die for him, ready to burn for him, instead of the majority of the books where it's the man who's burning the world apart. The childhood friends to lovers trope with such painful yearning and slow burn was something that had me in a chokehold 🤌
Grey has such a fierce personality, the feminine rage in her was something I adored. Though one of my issues was Kier is caring, kind and sweet but I feel like I just know him through Grey's eyes. I feel like even after the book ended, I didn't really get to know him. He was just someone who Grey loved 😅🥴
My other issue was the fact that when they got together, I was kinda like oh, okay... Now what? Their romance flatlined after that and it definitely wavered my interest. Like the chemistry was there but so toned down.
Coming to the ending , it was extremely underwhelming for me. All that builds up throughout the book for that? Nah, not a fan of that. Overall, quite a fun book but not something I would remember in the long term especially with how it ended.
~•~•~
I've heard there's YEARNINGGGGGG. I'm ready for it 😩
January 23, 2026
Wait wait wait a damn minute. THIS WAS SOOOOOOOO GOOD?!!!!! Bye. I devoured this. MEN WHO YEARN IS SO BACK!!! God this story was beautiful and heart breaking and captivating and so so beyond addicting. This is why I want to see from a fantasy romance story. It’s been so long since I’ve read about Mages I forgot how much I ADORE THEM! Was it perfect?? No it definitely had its flaws. I do have some issues with the ending and how the FMC was acting quite childish at times but it didn’t at all take away from my reading experience. I do wish the slow burn was slower little bit of a missed opportunity but I did love this!
August 1, 2025
Don't look at me and my criminally low rating for this book, because I'm the problem here, probably. I'm on a mission to read all the lady knight books that are brought to us this year and I already got to five or six vastly different stories, but this one didn't work for me at all. At first I wanted to rate it 3 stars, but I actually can't think of a single thing that I truly liked in here. (Also, there's very little lady-knighting and maybe I had the wrong expectations regarding that in general, but the cover just screams lady knight in my opinion.)
Grey is the hand to her childhood best friend and mage Kier, meaning that she protects him with her life and that she serves as the source of his magic. They are basically part of the military and live in an unstable land at war. Peace can only be brought by the lost heir of Locke, but no one knows who they are or if they are still alive at all. Grey and Kier get involved in the whole lost-heir situation when they are sent on a mission to escort the presumed heir. But they also know fully well that they are escorting an imposter, because Grey is the real lost heir of Locke. Not gonna lie, I was gagged by this revelation, but it literally says so in the synopsis. The plot sounds appealing when I write it out like that, but in reality nothing about this story was intriguing in any way for me:
- the characters: In one word – bland. Grey had the most potential, being a warrior and a healer and the heir, but she still didn't have an actual personality and I couldn't stand her as a protagonist. She's obsessed with Kier for some reason, a man I know like three things about. He's a mage, his brother is dead and he's dull … I mean kind.
- the romance: I saw other reviews praising the slow burn friends to lovers romance, and I'm happy that people liked it, but it was not working for me. Grey has been in love with Kier since forever and how lucky that after 15 years or so, he finally says that he loved her all along too. You may call it yearning, but I call it being in denial for no reason. They are both adults and they undoubtedly have a connection and there's a lot of physical touching before they ever get together, so what is their problem? It was also kinda criminal how the lady knight main character was not embracing in a sapphic relationship, but Grey is actually bisexual, so that did check out in the end.
- the world building: There's one big infodump in the very first chapter and it made it really hard for me to care, because the characters just sit around in tents for a long while after that. I think there's a good concept at the basis of it all with singular people representing an entire nation and them being the power source for the whole land, but it also lacked depth. The book is really heavy on the political part and nothing about that was presented in an intriguing way.
- the pacing: In the first half of the book they talk and then they walk for a sheer endless amount of pages, and then it's politics time for the whole second half of the book. The thought that this story is a trilogy is kinda outrageous to me when I think about how little substance this book actually had. A book this boring should not get a sequel, let alone two.
- the plot: I can't speak of the political stuff, because I just didn't care enough to make any notes, but the whole lost-heir situation in the beginning was so confusing to me. Apparently anyone can claim to be the heir and everyone will just believe it. Grey – an adult woman - is the actual heir, so why would anyone believe that a 15-year-old girl is the heir? I probably missed the explanation for this, but the age component of this whole situation didn't make sense to me at all. And later Kier claims to be the heir to protect Grey and that is also believed right away. Like, give me a break.
- the fantasy elements, or more so, the lack of them: There's barely any fantasy in here and when magic appears after all, it really lacks description. There's only ever talk of "the power". Grey feels the power rise inside her, and Kier uses her power, and the power has to be restored, and she calls on her power, and the power exploded out of her. Do you maybe care for literally any deeper explanation? No? Well, ok. I guess I will not care either then.
Overall, this book missed the mark in every possible way for me. Sure, I expected something else, but I still can enjoy a story even if it's different from what I thought. But what I got here was really not enjoyable for me and I will remember nothing except that it was one very boring book.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK / Orbit Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
-----
Pre read: Yet another lady knight book for 2025 has entered the chat. Good. *rubs hands*
Grey is the hand to her childhood best friend and mage Kier, meaning that she protects him with her life and that she serves as the source of his magic. They are basically part of the military and live in an unstable land at war. Peace can only be brought by the lost heir of Locke, but no one knows who they are or if they are still alive at all. Grey and Kier get involved in the whole lost-heir situation when they are sent on a mission to escort the presumed heir. But they also know fully well that they are escorting an imposter, because Grey is the real lost heir of Locke. Not gonna lie, I was gagged by this revelation, but it literally says so in the synopsis. The plot sounds appealing when I write it out like that, but in reality nothing about this story was intriguing in any way for me:
- the characters: In one word – bland. Grey had the most potential, being a warrior and a healer and the heir, but she still didn't have an actual personality and I couldn't stand her as a protagonist. She's obsessed with Kier for some reason, a man I know like three things about. He's a mage, his brother is dead and he's dull … I mean kind.
- the romance: I saw other reviews praising the slow burn friends to lovers romance, and I'm happy that people liked it, but it was not working for me. Grey has been in love with Kier since forever and how lucky that after 15 years or so, he finally says that he loved her all along too. You may call it yearning, but I call it being in denial for no reason. They are both adults and they undoubtedly have a connection and there's a lot of physical touching before they ever get together, so what is their problem? It was also kinda criminal how the lady knight main character was not embracing in a sapphic relationship, but Grey is actually bisexual, so that did check out in the end.
- the world building: There's one big infodump in the very first chapter and it made it really hard for me to care, because the characters just sit around in tents for a long while after that. I think there's a good concept at the basis of it all with singular people representing an entire nation and them being the power source for the whole land, but it also lacked depth. The book is really heavy on the political part and nothing about that was presented in an intriguing way.
- the pacing: In the first half of the book they talk and then they walk for a sheer endless amount of pages, and then it's politics time for the whole second half of the book. The thought that this story is a trilogy is kinda outrageous to me when I think about how little substance this book actually had. A book this boring should not get a sequel, let alone two.
- the plot: I can't speak of the political stuff, because I just didn't care enough to make any notes, but the whole lost-heir situation in the beginning was so confusing to me. Apparently anyone can claim to be the heir and everyone will just believe it. Grey – an adult woman - is the actual heir, so why would anyone believe that a 15-year-old girl is the heir? I probably missed the explanation for this, but the age component of this whole situation didn't make sense to me at all. And later Kier claims to be the heir to protect Grey and that is also believed right away. Like, give me a break.
- the fantasy elements, or more so, the lack of them: There's barely any fantasy in here and when magic appears after all, it really lacks description. There's only ever talk of "the power". Grey feels the power rise inside her, and Kier uses her power, and the power has to be restored, and she calls on her power, and the power exploded out of her. Do you maybe care for literally any deeper explanation? No? Well, ok. I guess I will not care either then.
Overall, this book missed the mark in every possible way for me. Sure, I expected something else, but I still can enjoy a story even if it's different from what I thought. But what I got here was really not enjoyable for me and I will remember nothing except that it was one very boring book.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK / Orbit Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
-----
Pre read: Yet another lady knight book for 2025 has entered the chat. Good. *rubs hands*
October 7, 2025
Move over Ross + Rachel, Cher + Josh, Harry + Sally. Grey + Kier are like:
“I’d die for you.”
“Cool, me too.”
… “Anyway, guess we’re just friends.”
The yearning with these two co-dependent stubborn magical medieval jerks who think it would be easier to die for one another than admit they’re in love starts immediately, right from chapter one. I wish we’d had a dual POV, because half the time I could hear Kier pining off the page and I really wanted to get inside his brain too. But even from Grey’s one POV, the way Kier worships her is outrageous.
But TSDOL goes beyond romantic love.
It’s about all kinds of love from platonic devotion to familial and found family. The ways we protect and hold onto each other. There’s banter and wit, grief and pain, enveloped in some kind of Scottish-or-Icelandic-inspired world of towering cliffs, forests, wild oceans and obsidian isles. And through it all is a reflection of choice, autonomy and carving your own path even when the world puts impossible expectations on your shoulders.
I laughed, I may have teared-up, I squealed. I had the urge to throw my book every time someone almost confessed their feelings and then didn’t. But it paid off. It broke me and healed me in one go. And I’d do it all again. FRIENDS TO LOVERS DONE RIGHT.
Thank you so much to Hachette Australia & New Zealand & NetGalley for the ARC!
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
When your lady knight situationship insists it’s “just duty” but she’s making heart eyes.
“I’d die for you.”
“Cool, me too.”
… “Anyway, guess we’re just friends.”
The yearning with these two co-dependent stubborn magical medieval jerks who think it would be easier to die for one another than admit they’re in love starts immediately, right from chapter one. I wish we’d had a dual POV, because half the time I could hear Kier pining off the page and I really wanted to get inside his brain too. But even from Grey’s one POV, the way Kier worships her is outrageous.
But TSDOL goes beyond romantic love.
It’s about all kinds of love from platonic devotion to familial and found family. The ways we protect and hold onto each other. There’s banter and wit, grief and pain, enveloped in some kind of Scottish-or-Icelandic-inspired world of towering cliffs, forests, wild oceans and obsidian isles. And through it all is a reflection of choice, autonomy and carving your own path even when the world puts impossible expectations on your shoulders.
I laughed, I may have teared-up, I squealed. I had the urge to throw my book every time someone almost confessed their feelings and then didn’t. But it paid off. It broke me and healed me in one go. And I’d do it all again. FRIENDS TO LOVERS DONE RIGHT.
Thank you so much to Hachette Australia & New Zealand & NetGalley for the ARC!
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
When your lady knight situationship insists it’s “just duty” but she’s making heart eyes.
September 24, 2025
all the best fantasy novels feature a ragtag group of people on a quest (including two people repressing their feelings) and one feral child.
in yearning and tori bovalino we trust
becoming the weapon to protect your love from danger who is also made a weapon in your hands???
yearning of the year!!
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing the advance review copy. full review to come
Bookstagram | Blog
in yearning and tori bovalino we trust
becoming the weapon to protect your love from danger who is also made a weapon in your hands???
yearning of the year!!
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing the advance review copy. full review to come
Bookstagram | Blog
December 15, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
I dare say we need more lady knights in literature!!! The yearning in this was fantastic and once you get into the story, is so hard to put down!! Loved!!
I dare say we need more lady knights in literature!!! The yearning in this was fantastic and once you get into the story, is so hard to put down!! Loved!!
October 3, 2025
this book have a PHD in yearning😝
August 28, 2025
thank you so much to netgalley for providing this arc!
oh this was absolutely WONDERFUL. when i said bring back yearning, this was exactly what i meant - some of the quotes from this had my jaw on the floor. i am honestly astounded that this is a debut novel!!
just some of the things i absolutely loved about this book:
- the atmosphere - this was so moody and gothic, and i feel like the setting was literally jumping off the page. a lot of this takes place on the battlefield and i literally felt like i was there in places. i love me a good medieval fantasy, and this felt like one of the most authentic ones
- the ROMANCE!!! this was the definition of written-in-the-stars, meant to be, mutual pining and obsession, but in the most beautiful way. some of the quotes surrounding the romance were absolutely gorgeous (again - in shock that this is a debut!!!! v.l. bovalino is clearly incredibly talented). although i have been known to love the more contemporary/spicy books, there is always space in my heart for these profound, beautiful love stories. i have a strong suspicion these characters are going to live in my head for a very long time
- the found family aspect - i know this gets thrown around a lot, but the dynamic of this group was so so heartwarming to me
- the magic system - i found the magic system in this book to be so unique and wonderfully thought out. i always love when i pick up a fantasy book and it is able to shock and intrigue me when it comes to the magic and the world building - this did exactly that
- the representation - if you are someone who values seeing characters with varying gender indentities/sexualities, you will also adore this book. we had so many characters that were trans/bisexual/non-binary etc., and it was just a fact of life in this book, which i always find super comforting
- the writing in this was STUNNING. i feel like i have said my piece regarding the fact that some of the quotes in this had me in shambles, and also the fact that this being a debut novel is insane
- the lady-knights - need i say more
overall, this book was an absolutely wonderful gothic, lady-knight centric, romantic masterpiece. i would highly, highly, highly recommend that you pick this up when you can. i now totally understand all of the glowing reviews i have seen for this book so far. i implore you to read it!!!
vibes:
- quest story
- lady-knights
- written in the stars, childhood best friends to lovers romance
- found family
- some of the most stunning writing i have read in a while
oh this was absolutely WONDERFUL. when i said bring back yearning, this was exactly what i meant - some of the quotes from this had my jaw on the floor. i am honestly astounded that this is a debut novel!!
just some of the things i absolutely loved about this book:
- the atmosphere - this was so moody and gothic, and i feel like the setting was literally jumping off the page. a lot of this takes place on the battlefield and i literally felt like i was there in places. i love me a good medieval fantasy, and this felt like one of the most authentic ones
- the ROMANCE!!! this was the definition of written-in-the-stars, meant to be, mutual pining and obsession, but in the most beautiful way. some of the quotes surrounding the romance were absolutely gorgeous (again - in shock that this is a debut!!!! v.l. bovalino is clearly incredibly talented). although i have been known to love the more contemporary/spicy books, there is always space in my heart for these profound, beautiful love stories. i have a strong suspicion these characters are going to live in my head for a very long time
- the found family aspect - i know this gets thrown around a lot, but the dynamic of this group was so so heartwarming to me
- the magic system - i found the magic system in this book to be so unique and wonderfully thought out. i always love when i pick up a fantasy book and it is able to shock and intrigue me when it comes to the magic and the world building - this did exactly that
- the representation - if you are someone who values seeing characters with varying gender indentities/sexualities, you will also adore this book. we had so many characters that were trans/bisexual/non-binary etc., and it was just a fact of life in this book, which i always find super comforting
- the writing in this was STUNNING. i feel like i have said my piece regarding the fact that some of the quotes in this had me in shambles, and also the fact that this being a debut novel is insane
- the lady-knights - need i say more
overall, this book was an absolutely wonderful gothic, lady-knight centric, romantic masterpiece. i would highly, highly, highly recommend that you pick this up when you can. i now totally understand all of the glowing reviews i have seen for this book so far. i implore you to read it!!!
vibes:
- quest story
- lady-knights
- written in the stars, childhood best friends to lovers romance
- found family
- some of the most stunning writing i have read in a while
October 8, 2025
"What is love, without freedom?"
"What is life, without you?"
After spending literal months trudging through disappointing romantasy after disappointing romantasy, I am so incredibly happy to say I finally found something that completely blew me away. And I don't say this lightly—out of all the romantasy novels I've read this year, I can literally count on one hand the ones that haven't let me down, and The Second Death of Locke now sits proudly at the top of that list. This is by far the best romantasy I've encountered all year, and it's honestly become one of my favourite reads, period. For a debut novel, this was incredibly impressive.
The story centres on Grey Flynn, a knight whose devotion to her mage Kier runs soul-deep. She's bound to him as warrior, healer, and guardian. Their bond faces its ultimate test when they are thrust into the brutal centre of a raging war where everything they hold dear is at stake. As danger mounts, they both must grapple with how much they're prepared to lose to keep Grey's true identity hidden.
I'm completely obsessed with the moody, gothic atmosphere that V.L. Bovalino created throughout this entire world. The medieval fantasy setting, particularly those brutal and vivid battlefield scenes, felt so immersive that I could literally picture myself standing alongside these characters, feeling their fear and determination. You know you've discovered exceptional romantasy when you're able to picture the world so clearly that it feels like a place you could actually visit.
The world-building does take its time to unfold at the beginning, but I was never once bored because the writing was so beautifully crafted that I didn't mind the gradual way the world revealed itself. I appreciated how the information about this world isn't dumped in massive, overwhelming chunks, but instead, relevant knowledge is shared between characters who realistically wouldn't otherwise know all the answers.
The magic system was so unique. The concept of wells and mages created a power dynamic that felt both intimate and dangerous, and the storyline surrounding the mysterious island of Locke had me captivated from the moment it was first mentioned. I kept finding myself craving more and more details about this magical framework.
The mystery behind Grey's powers and the way the pieces of this intricate puzzle are revealed piece by piece throughout the story was very satisfying to experience as a reader. Each chapter features an epigraph that provides tantalising clues about the secrecy surrounding Grey's origins and homeland, and it's all done in a way that never weighs down the story or confuses it; it's just an example of perfectly balanced storytelling that builds suspense while respecting the reader's intelligence and ability to piece things together.
Grey is absolutely everything I've ever wanted to see in a protagonist, and I mean that with my whole heart. Her unwavering strength, fierce determination, and protective instincts toward those she loves made her incredible to follow on every single page. She's ruthlessly efficient and courageously bold—truly a force of nature with killer instincts, but beneath that surface, there's this vulnerability where she speaks the language of grief with a fluency that only comes from lived experience. She's forever carrying the weight of sacrifices made by others to ensure her survival, and my heart broke for her while I simultaneously cheered her on with every decision she made.
Watching her character development was so awe-inspiring because we get to witness Grey slowly learn to open her heart and allow others to truly know her, learning not to be afraid of being seen and understood in all her complexity. I really appreciate how she's not just an insanely badass character who's somehow flawless—she's a fully realised person with flaws that feel fitting with the life experiences we see her navigate through. I love how the author portrays her flaws as completely understandable given everything she's endured and survived. Her character arc of learning to release the pain she's been holding onto and gradually learning to trust others beyond Kier is something I found so cathartic. I was genuinely impressed by how smoothly Grey's emotional transitions felt throughout the story and how authentically she learned and grew from her mistakes.
Now, Kier—the man that he is! He shows such complete, unwavering care and genuine respect for Grey in every single interaction they share, treating her like the extraordinary person she is. He truly loved Grey with his entire heart, holding absolutely nothing back, and his love confessions quite literally wrecked me emotionally in ways I'm still recovering from. He doesn't have quite as visible a character arc as Grey does since we mostly follow Grey's pov throughout the story, but that didn't stop me from completely adoring his character—he's easily one of my favourite male love interests I've ever encountered in romantasy.
Now onto my absolute favourite part—the romance! It was pure perfection, and I seriously mean that with every fibre of my being. Friend to lovers is rarely encountered in romantasy, which is honestly criminal because when it's executed right, it's pure magic, and this book delivered on every single promise the trope holds. The streets definitely weren't lying when they said this book had top-tier yearning, because wow, there was YEARNING—so much beautiful, aching yearning combined with trust and protection that made me desperately want a bond with someone the way Grey and Kier have it.
Their connection was represented so beautifully throughout every moment of the story. The sheer amount they loved each other before ever finding the courage to admit those feelings was blindingly obvious to everyone around them, except themselves, and even their magical binding, which wasn't inherently romantic in nature, felt very romantic because of the profound emotional connection that already existed between them long before.
Their shared history stretching back to their childhood was beyond beautiful—the way their actions consistently spoke louder than words, the selfless things they continuously did for each other, their eventual confessions, and the way they'd do absolutely anything for each other had me actively tearing up toward the end because I love these characters so much. These two are truly equals, matching each other perfectly in strength, intelligence, loyalty, and love in ways that felt completely natural and unforced.
We're talking about two souls who spent literal years yearning desperately for each other, carefully hiding their true feelings, aching with the beautiful agony of loving someone so intensely while believing that love could never be returned or acted upon.
The found family aspect woven throughout this book was something that I was surprised to find that I ended up appreciating so much. All the side characters played genuinely important roles, each bringing unique, well-developed personalities that felt memorable. I have to mention how wonderful it was that the author incorporated queer characters so naturally into this world, making diversity feel organic and realistic rather than performative. I loved how this was a world where acceptance was simply the norm, which felt both refreshing and hopeful.
I could honestly spend hours talking about how amazing this book was and analysing every beautiful detail, but here's what I know for certain: after finishing this book, I have developed an urgent need to read more books featuring lady knights who are allowed to be complex and vulnerable. I'm also really thrilled that this didn't end on some cruel cliffhanger designed to manipulate readers, and I'm so excited knowing that it's planned as a series of interconnected standalones, which means we'll get to explore more of this incredible world while still having complete, satisfying stories that don't leave us hanging!
If you're looking for a romantasy that features a truly unique magic system and yearning that'll make your heart physically ache then you absolutely need to read this book! Trust me when I say the emotional payoff is worth every single page of beautiful, agonising buildup.
Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC.
Thank you to my love, Maria, for reading this with me, even though I finished before her because I was so obsessed I literally couldn't stop reading 😭
_________
this was so good 😭😭😭😭😭 rtc!!!
__________
this is one of my most anticipated reads because it sounds like it has everything I want in a romantasy—especially since the yearning is apparently immaculate 🤭
br with my fav girl maria💓
December 1, 2025
thank you V.L. Bovalino for reminding me that i love romantasy!!!
January 27, 2026
’But perhaps love was a little bit of sacrifice, after all; and perhaps a bit of sacrifice could be allowed, as long as they were together’
Excuse me whilst I wipe away my tears 🥹
This was so refreshing to read and I absolutely loved it! 4.5 🌟
A fmc knight x a mage mmc, with an interesting and unique magic system, mixed with a gothic atmosphere. ACTUAL, REAL YEARNING!!!!!!!! A queer normative world with found family, alliances, sacrifices, love & heartache. The world building pulled me into a new and interesting world & the mystery of the plot had me constantly captivated.
A romantasy that feels fresh, epic in so many ways and breathtakingly romantic.
This romance was one of my favourite types to read!! It was quiet, yet deep and unwavering. It was woven throughout every part of their lives and this story - it felt so tangible and powerful. Their love, devotion and years of yearning and longing for one another… goddd I literally have a lump in my throat thinking about it. All those years of love built off the foundation of friendship and trust, I felt it so deeply. It might not have always been thrown in your face but the subtleties of it made it feel even more real & this always feels like the loudest type of love to me. However, that declaration was giving Mr Darcy levels of passion 😩
Grey and Kier’s love is so beautiful that I literally feel an ache in my chest.
‘His gaze softened, and there was something unfair about the way he looked at her, like she was the central point in his universe—she did not know how to convey, with word or look or deed, that he was the central point in hers’
I cried like a baby multiple times. I wasn’t expecting that… the epilogue has me crying about thinking about it. Oh god, I love them so much 😭
”Everything I have is yours. Everything I am is yours”
Gray and Kier are both such strong characters and stand on their own but together they show time and time again they are really are just two people, wanting to do life together. They sacrifice all they have to give to one another over and over. Grey is a fierce woman faced with so much, her behaviours and actions made her feel so much more real. Kier is steadfast and loyal. I know I should probably elaborate on these two individually some more, because they are both great characters. But for me they don’t exist without one another. This is basically my love letter to their love 💌
I will admit there is something missing in this for this to be 5 stars for me. I cannot quite pin point what it is. Perhaps at times the pacing wasn’t fully balanced but not to the point of taking away any of my enjoyment. I was set on giving this 4 stars for most of the book but honestly the epilogue really got me. It just hit me how well done this story was so I felt like 4.5 stars sits better with me. I also absolutely loved the writing and I’m so happy to know there will be more stories set in this world but HORRAY for an incredible standalone fantasy!!!
__________________________
I’m yearning for some yearning
Excuse me whilst I wipe away my tears 🥹
This was so refreshing to read and I absolutely loved it! 4.5 🌟
A fmc knight x a mage mmc, with an interesting and unique magic system, mixed with a gothic atmosphere. ACTUAL, REAL YEARNING!!!!!!!! A queer normative world with found family, alliances, sacrifices, love & heartache. The world building pulled me into a new and interesting world & the mystery of the plot had me constantly captivated.
A romantasy that feels fresh, epic in so many ways and breathtakingly romantic.
This romance was one of my favourite types to read!! It was quiet, yet deep and unwavering. It was woven throughout every part of their lives and this story - it felt so tangible and powerful. Their love, devotion and years of yearning and longing for one another… goddd I literally have a lump in my throat thinking about it. All those years of love built off the foundation of friendship and trust, I felt it so deeply. It might not have always been thrown in your face but the subtleties of it made it feel even more real & this always feels like the loudest type of love to me. However, that declaration was giving Mr Darcy levels of passion 😩
Grey and Kier’s love is so beautiful that I literally feel an ache in my chest.
‘His gaze softened, and there was something unfair about the way he looked at her, like she was the central point in his universe—she did not know how to convey, with word or look or deed, that he was the central point in hers’
I cried like a baby multiple times. I wasn’t expecting that… the epilogue has me crying about thinking about it. Oh god, I love them so much 😭
”Everything I have is yours. Everything I am is yours”
Gray and Kier are both such strong characters and stand on their own but together they show time and time again they are really are just two people, wanting to do life together. They sacrifice all they have to give to one another over and over. Grey is a fierce woman faced with so much, her behaviours and actions made her feel so much more real. Kier is steadfast and loyal. I know I should probably elaborate on these two individually some more, because they are both great characters. But for me they don’t exist without one another. This is basically my love letter to their love 💌
I will admit there is something missing in this for this to be 5 stars for me. I cannot quite pin point what it is. Perhaps at times the pacing wasn’t fully balanced but not to the point of taking away any of my enjoyment. I was set on giving this 4 stars for most of the book but honestly the epilogue really got me. It just hit me how well done this story was so I felt like 4.5 stars sits better with me. I also absolutely loved the writing and I’m so happy to know there will be more stories set in this world but HORRAY for an incredible standalone fantasy!!!
__________________________
I’m yearning for some yearning
November 11, 2025
I often struggle with romance-centric books that have pre-established relationships, and this was no different. Would recommend without hesitation to most fantasy readers.
on-hold
February 26, 2026
update:
on hold bc my br buddy fell sick 😔
(tc gg, ilysm)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
currently reading- my thoughts
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 ch's in and I'm in love with the writing style omg.
So I knew next to nothing before starting this. And omds it's a knight×mage trope (i'm a sucker for that trope ahhhh😩)
It's also a friends-to-lovers story. and idk. i'm not so sure about that. i'm not a big fan of that trope. it rarely works for me. but here's hoping that this book turns out to be exception cs in a way, it's very clear that they are close friends, but maybe. maybe, something more too. also it's lowk slow so far. i've only read 2 ch so far so idk. maybe the pace will improve.
sidenote: omfg i just found out that the author also wrote 'the devil makes three' I loved that book omfg. it's tori bovalino?! how tf did i not notice that before.
attention, folks. my expectations have just skyrocketed :3
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
{So, gg and I decided to curate a playlist for this book (WIP)}
ˋ°•*⁀➷
PLAYLIST
✧Rang jo lagyo (atif aslam and shreya ghoshal)
Meharbaan lawo rab barsa hai jab se tu hai mil gaya
Tujhko pake aisa laage ke khud se hoon mil gaya
✧Aayat (arijit singh)
Marne talak rahegi
Tu aadat ki tarah
━━━━━━
pre-read
━━━━━━
This book was all over my feed last year and I've quite actually been dying to read it ever since. The premise already sounds sooo promising and I haven't seen a single negative review yet.
Suffice to say, my expectations are sky high rn🙂↕️🩷
Br w my loveliest gg🩷
our first br yayayayay. the world isn't ready for this. we're unstoppable aghhhhhh🥹🩷
on hold bc my br buddy fell sick 😔
(tc gg, ilysm)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
currently reading- my thoughts
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2 ch's in and I'm in love with the writing style omg.
So I knew next to nothing before starting this. And omds it's a knight×mage trope (i'm a sucker for that trope ahhhh😩)
It's also a friends-to-lovers story. and idk. i'm not so sure about that. i'm not a big fan of that trope. it rarely works for me. but here's hoping that this book turns out to be exception cs in a way, it's very clear that they are close friends, but maybe. maybe, something more too. also it's lowk slow so far. i've only read 2 ch so far so idk. maybe the pace will improve.
She slipped into place behind him. For his part, his shoulders relaxed when she was there, if only a fraction.
My love is yours, as that which beats within my heart is yours, and that which powers the fabric of the world is yours through mine own hand. Take from me, that I may be thine
sidenote: omfg i just found out that the author also wrote 'the devil makes three' I loved that book omfg. it's tori bovalino?! how tf did i not notice that before.
attention, folks. my expectations have just skyrocketed :3
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
{So, gg and I decided to curate a playlist for this book (WIP)}
ˋ°•*⁀➷
PLAYLIST
✧Rang jo lagyo (atif aslam and shreya ghoshal)
Meharbaan lawo rab barsa hai jab se tu hai mil gaya
Tujhko pake aisa laage ke khud se hoon mil gaya
✧Aayat (arijit singh)
Marne talak rahegi
Tu aadat ki tarah
━━━━━━
pre-read
━━━━━━
This book was all over my feed last year and I've quite actually been dying to read it ever since. The premise already sounds sooo promising and I haven't seen a single negative review yet.
Suffice to say, my expectations are sky high rn🙂↕️🩷
Br w my loveliest gg🩷
our first br yayayayay. the world isn't ready for this. we're unstoppable aghhhhhh🥹🩷
November 18, 2025
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. all opinions are my own.
4.5***
“She looked at him, something inexplicable rising within her. Perhaps all she wanted, after all this time, was to be soft.”
this was SUCH a good book!! for a quick review: pick this up if you want to read a story lush with longing, found family, friends to lovers in a fantasy setting, & quotes that will knock the breath out of your lungs. ALSO: for all my shadowhunter lovers, this was giving angsty parabati in the best possible way.
the writing was beautiful. the story was SO atmospheric. i really, really enjoyed the setting and the magic system. the lore was so intriguing and i LOVED reading about the FMC’s background, in addition to the little letters or journal entries we got with each chapter.
“‘Never ask me to leave you,’ she said, voice cracking. ‘Use my power well. Protect me. It has always been this; it has always been us. Let it be us until the wars end or we find our deaths - whatever comes first.’”
you’ll likely see many reviews that discuss the yearning in this book, & i’m here to add to that because the YEARNING!!! WAS SO!!!! GOOD!! from the very first pages you could feel the longing and desire that our FMC has for the MMC. i don’t think i’ve ever highlighted this many passages on my kindle before - truly amazing.
i also can guarantee that you’ll see sacrifice being discussed as a central theme. sacrifice, what it means to truly love someone, and to learn to understand that sometimes, it’s okay to accept certain sacrifices.
also i feel like i don’t often see friends to lovers in fantasy books - usually because the FMC’s male best friend tends to be the first love interest, not the end game. i was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed the romance - the author did a fantastic job at establishing their relationship and allowing the readers to feel the depth of their emotions, rather than simply telling us. it really is so beautiful to be completely seen and understood by someone (the good, the bad, the ugly) and still be loved, unconditionally.
“It’s an inevitability, in some ways, that all I am would be yours.”
ALSO THE SIDE CHARACTERS!!!! one thing about me is i LOVE an ensemble cast or an unlikely group of people that slowly, reluctantly become family. this did not disappoint. there was also one of my favorite types of scenes in this - where all of the characters planned to save one person without that person knowing. i will eat that up EVERY time.
in a similar vein, i adore when characters all rally around one person who can’t, for the life of them, figure out why someone would care for them that way, why other people would want to rally around them. chef’s kiss, truly.
“It was just…it was just, he was the same as always, her favorite person, her beloved person, and she could not fathom that he felt any fraction for her of what she felt for him, no matter how much he insisted he did.”
4.5***
“She looked at him, something inexplicable rising within her. Perhaps all she wanted, after all this time, was to be soft.”
this was SUCH a good book!! for a quick review: pick this up if you want to read a story lush with longing, found family, friends to lovers in a fantasy setting, & quotes that will knock the breath out of your lungs. ALSO: for all my shadowhunter lovers, this was giving angsty parabati in the best possible way.
the writing was beautiful. the story was SO atmospheric. i really, really enjoyed the setting and the magic system. the lore was so intriguing and i LOVED reading about the FMC’s background, in addition to the little letters or journal entries we got with each chapter.
“‘Never ask me to leave you,’ she said, voice cracking. ‘Use my power well. Protect me. It has always been this; it has always been us. Let it be us until the wars end or we find our deaths - whatever comes first.’”
you’ll likely see many reviews that discuss the yearning in this book, & i’m here to add to that because the YEARNING!!! WAS SO!!!! GOOD!! from the very first pages you could feel the longing and desire that our FMC has for the MMC. i don’t think i’ve ever highlighted this many passages on my kindle before - truly amazing.
i also can guarantee that you’ll see sacrifice being discussed as a central theme. sacrifice, what it means to truly love someone, and to learn to understand that sometimes, it’s okay to accept certain sacrifices.
also i feel like i don’t often see friends to lovers in fantasy books - usually because the FMC’s male best friend tends to be the first love interest, not the end game. i was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed the romance - the author did a fantastic job at establishing their relationship and allowing the readers to feel the depth of their emotions, rather than simply telling us. it really is so beautiful to be completely seen and understood by someone (the good, the bad, the ugly) and still be loved, unconditionally.
“It’s an inevitability, in some ways, that all I am would be yours.”
ALSO THE SIDE CHARACTERS!!!! one thing about me is i LOVE an ensemble cast or an unlikely group of people that slowly, reluctantly become family. this did not disappoint. there was also one of my favorite types of scenes in this - where all of the characters planned to save one person without that person knowing. i will eat that up EVERY time.
in a similar vein, i adore when characters all rally around one person who can’t, for the life of them, figure out why someone would care for them that way, why other people would want to rally around them. chef’s kiss, truly.
“It was just…it was just, he was the same as always, her favorite person, her beloved person, and she could not fathom that he felt any fraction for her of what she felt for him, no matter how much he insisted he did.”
September 26, 2025
⭐️ 3.5
I'm not sure why I found this book so middling, but I did. It has everything I should like. A knight-like fmc, a fantastical setting with a unique magic system, an attempt at deeper world politics and world building... These pieces are all interesting and could've made a compelling fantasy story but something is missing.
Honestly, I think my problem with the story mainly lies in the characters. I actually enjoyed Grey as a protagonist, which is an incredible feat as I usually dislike the whole long lost princess trope, but Kier is just sort of...nice. He's nice! He's very nice and loves Grey and he's a good guy who'd do anything for her. That's it. I do like what others would call a "golden retriever boyfriend" type but Kier lacks substance, he's all sugar, which has the consequence of making him a dull character to have in basically any scene. He is so devoted to Grey in general that I never bought the idea that Grey, a woman of almost 30, wouldn't have realized that he's in love with her. It's also this overt affection that really gave me the feeling that I was missing a book and had somehow read the second installment of a series, skipping over plenty of the important building of such a relationship. Actually, there was plenty in this book that made me think it was a second book and not first. If you read it, I think you'll understand what I mean.
That being said, a good story can absolutely start with an already established relationship between the main couple but it seemed out of place in The Second Death of Locke as the romance is so heavily the focus of Grey and the plot. The woman is obsessed when there's a perfectly okay plot for her to focus on instead. And I say okay because I genuinely think it was just okay. There's nothing wrong with okay! I never really had a problem with the prose or dialog or magic or setting (although, I did sometimes find the war in general confusing), and the main plot was alright. But when there's so many books in the world, you probably could spend your time elsewhere and have a much more fulfilling time.
Just as a small aside, I didn't really ever feel Grey was a knight, per se. There's not a lot of battle in this book and I don't think she's ever called a knight? I could be wrong. She uses a sword and has armor but it didn't strike me as knight-ish. So, if you're looking for a fem!knight book, I'm not sure you'll be satisfied. If you love sugary friends-to-lovers romance, you might love it! Overall, I had a fun enough time with the book, despite my complaints.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not sure why I found this book so middling, but I did. It has everything I should like. A knight-like fmc, a fantastical setting with a unique magic system, an attempt at deeper world politics and world building... These pieces are all interesting and could've made a compelling fantasy story but something is missing.
Honestly, I think my problem with the story mainly lies in the characters. I actually enjoyed Grey as a protagonist, which is an incredible feat as I usually dislike the whole long lost princess trope, but Kier is just sort of...nice. He's nice! He's very nice and loves Grey and he's a good guy who'd do anything for her. That's it. I do like what others would call a "golden retriever boyfriend" type but Kier lacks substance, he's all sugar, which has the consequence of making him a dull character to have in basically any scene. He is so devoted to Grey in general that I never bought the idea that Grey, a woman of almost 30, wouldn't have realized that he's in love with her. It's also this overt affection that really gave me the feeling that I was missing a book and had somehow read the second installment of a series, skipping over plenty of the important building of such a relationship. Actually, there was plenty in this book that made me think it was a second book and not first. If you read it, I think you'll understand what I mean.
That being said, a good story can absolutely start with an already established relationship between the main couple but it seemed out of place in The Second Death of Locke as the romance is so heavily the focus of Grey and the plot. The woman is obsessed when there's a perfectly okay plot for her to focus on instead. And I say okay because I genuinely think it was just okay. There's nothing wrong with okay! I never really had a problem with the prose or dialog or magic or setting (although, I did sometimes find the war in general confusing), and the main plot was alright. But when there's so many books in the world, you probably could spend your time elsewhere and have a much more fulfilling time.
Just as a small aside, I didn't really ever feel Grey was a knight, per se. There's not a lot of battle in this book and I don't think she's ever called a knight? I could be wrong. She uses a sword and has armor but it didn't strike me as knight-ish. So, if you're looking for a fem!knight book, I'm not sure you'll be satisfied. If you love sugary friends-to-lovers romance, you might love it! Overall, I had a fun enough time with the book, despite my complaints.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
December 15, 2025
Obsidian born and iron made.
on-hold
February 9, 2026I’ve heard this book carries the most exquisite yearning—and just a few pages in, I already believe it.
May it fill the quiet void of longing we didn’t even know was missing, but deep down, we all know we deserve to be yearned for at least once in our lifetime.
May it fill the quiet void of longing we didn’t even know was missing, but deep down, we all know we deserve to be yearned for at least once in our lifetime.
August 4, 2025
"Blood of my blood, soul of my soul, thine hand is over my heart. When you ache, then shall I ache; when you perish, then I shall perish."
NOT ONLY one of my favourite books of the year but equally one of the best fantasies I have ever read!!!
When we said bring back yearning this is what we meant! The Second Death of Locke was so full of angst, such a warranted sense of desire, found family and a magic system that felt so fresh amongst the current wave of fantasy romance releases. I adored these characters so much and would find myself simultaneously blushing, giggling and yet, trying not to cry in SO many chapters.
I would highly recommend if you love:
- a quest
- childhood friends to lovers
- a lady knight!!!! (I need more of this in my life)
- found family
- gorgeous writing
- the dreamiest medieval fantasy setting
I'll be thinking about this one forever!
NOT ONLY one of my favourite books of the year but equally one of the best fantasies I have ever read!!!
When we said bring back yearning this is what we meant! The Second Death of Locke was so full of angst, such a warranted sense of desire, found family and a magic system that felt so fresh amongst the current wave of fantasy romance releases. I adored these characters so much and would find myself simultaneously blushing, giggling and yet, trying not to cry in SO many chapters.
I would highly recommend if you love:
- a quest
- childhood friends to lovers
- a lady knight!!!! (I need more of this in my life)
- found family
- gorgeous writing
- the dreamiest medieval fantasy setting
I'll be thinking about this one forever!
February 25, 2026
A man or a woman that yearns endlessly, immeasurably, ceaselessly—this is exactly what I want to see in a romance/fantasy novel. THIS is how you write an ethereal friends to lovers romantasy. I don’t want pent up sexual tension, I don’t want the smut—that doesn’t speak to me. I want real feelings, an unspoken connection, I want emotional attachment, I want the building blocks of a relationship. I look for unwavering and unyielding devotion through out the entire book. I want to see the flaws, the emotions, the ‘Action speaks louder than words’ part, I want a weakness that is so palpable and a vulnerability that potentiates courage, belonging, love. This is exactly what you will find in The Second Death of Locke.
Full RTF!
Full RTF!
October 6, 2025
1 ⭐️ (DNF @ 52%)
GUYS DON'T HATE ME. 😭
I couldn't subject myself to something I was so disinterested in, so here I am DNFing it. I'm not proud, and I wanted to love this, hell, even LIKE this. But unfortunately I was let down.
As always, I will be talking about the parts of the book I HAVE read, not the entirety of the book.
The fact that I only got this far in 4 days of reading this book says a lot. I really didn't enjoy it and I wasn't captivated in the slightest. Something about the writing and how the story played out just didn't appeal to me.
I didn't care about the characters, honestly. Nothing good or bad about them they just kinda felt...bland. I WILL SAY, HOWEVER, the love and angst and tension between Grey and Kier was pretty good and I did enjoy the scenes when they were together. That's about all the good I can say right now.
Now, my biggest gripe with this book was the magic system. It didn't feel all that fleshed out and I think the author meant for there to be higher stakes than what it actually felt like. I wasn't getting goosebumps; I wasn't on the edge of my seat; I wasn't anxiously turning the pages. I was, to put it plainly, bored.
I think this was more of a personal opinion rather than it being the book itself. I have seen so many people, many my friends, absolutely adore this book!! I just don't think it was for me. Please still give this a shot if you're interested though!! I can see why others would enjoy it more than me and that's totally okay. 🤎
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
𝓟𝓻𝓮-𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭: 🗡️🤎
Desperate for a good fantasy, and I've heard amazing things about this! 🤎
Please don't disappoint me 😭
GUYS DON'T HATE ME. 😭
I couldn't subject myself to something I was so disinterested in, so here I am DNFing it. I'm not proud, and I wanted to love this, hell, even LIKE this. But unfortunately I was let down.
As always, I will be talking about the parts of the book I HAVE read, not the entirety of the book.
The fact that I only got this far in 4 days of reading this book says a lot. I really didn't enjoy it and I wasn't captivated in the slightest. Something about the writing and how the story played out just didn't appeal to me.
I didn't care about the characters, honestly. Nothing good or bad about them they just kinda felt...bland. I WILL SAY, HOWEVER, the love and angst and tension between Grey and Kier was pretty good and I did enjoy the scenes when they were together. That's about all the good I can say right now.
Now, my biggest gripe with this book was the magic system. It didn't feel all that fleshed out and I think the author meant for there to be higher stakes than what it actually felt like. I wasn't getting goosebumps; I wasn't on the edge of my seat; I wasn't anxiously turning the pages. I was, to put it plainly, bored.
I think this was more of a personal opinion rather than it being the book itself. I have seen so many people, many my friends, absolutely adore this book!! I just don't think it was for me. Please still give this a shot if you're interested though!! I can see why others would enjoy it more than me and that's totally okay. 🤎
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
𝓟𝓻𝓮-𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭: 🗡️🤎
Desperate for a good fantasy, and I've heard amazing things about this! 🤎
Please don't disappoint me 😭
October 9, 2025
☆☆☆☆☆
The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino completely pulled me in from the very first page. The writing is super engaging, sharp, emotional, and just flows so effortlessly. It made it really easy to fall into the story and stay hooked the whole way through.
Grey and Kier are phenomenal main characters. This is exactly how a friends-to-lovers arc should be done: slow-burn, full of tension, and so emotionally satisfying. I was rooting for them the entire time, and their relationship felt real, earned, and just right.
The supporting cast is also incredibly strong. Each side character felt purposeful and well-developed, never just background noise. They added depth, diversity and warmth to the story without ever taking away from the central arc.
The magic system is really unique and well thought out, it's creative without being confusing, and it felt like a natural part of the world rather than something tacked on. I loved how original it was.
Having read Not Good for Maidens, I already knew Bovalino could craft an eerie, compelling world but this book takes it to another level. I truly can’t wait to see where the story goes next in books 2 and 3. There’s so much more I want to learn about this world.
Highly recommend if you’re into immersive fantasy with strong characters, great romance, and a fresh magical world. Loved it!
The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino completely pulled me in from the very first page. The writing is super engaging, sharp, emotional, and just flows so effortlessly. It made it really easy to fall into the story and stay hooked the whole way through.
Grey and Kier are phenomenal main characters. This is exactly how a friends-to-lovers arc should be done: slow-burn, full of tension, and so emotionally satisfying. I was rooting for them the entire time, and their relationship felt real, earned, and just right.
The supporting cast is also incredibly strong. Each side character felt purposeful and well-developed, never just background noise. They added depth, diversity and warmth to the story without ever taking away from the central arc.
The magic system is really unique and well thought out, it's creative without being confusing, and it felt like a natural part of the world rather than something tacked on. I loved how original it was.
Having read Not Good for Maidens, I already knew Bovalino could craft an eerie, compelling world but this book takes it to another level. I truly can’t wait to see where the story goes next in books 2 and 3. There’s so much more I want to learn about this world.
Highly recommend if you’re into immersive fantasy with strong characters, great romance, and a fresh magical world. Loved it!
July 5, 2025
5.0 ★— I’ve always loved the friends-to-lovers trope and the way it’s built upon deep familiarity, unspoken trust, and all the delicious tension that comes from the denial, fear, and hesitation in crossing those boundaries into something more. It’s a trope that’s surprisingly underused in fantasy romance, in my opinion, so I’m always happy to see it when I do.
The Second Death of Locke not only features this trope, but executes it perfectly.
Through our heroine, Grey Flynn, we learn of the world she resides in. She is a trained warrior with powers that make her the magical well of her best friend, Kiernan Seward, a mage who draws on her for power.
It’s a dynamic that’s common in this world, but it feels especially intimate between them.
From the very beginning, there’s this quiet, aching devotion between Grey and Kiernan that makes it clear theirs isn’t a simple friendship. It’s in their every glance, their every decision. They are a part of every facet of each other’s lives, and the book does a phenomenal job of slowly showcasing the sheer depth of their connection and how it came to be.
It’s bone-deep love and trust — the kind that feels foundational, inevitable — and makes their relationship quite literally the heart of the book.
I don’t think I can explain it other than saying there’s this constant sense of them looking for each other, looking at each other, and looking out for each other. Always, always each other.
Surrounding this beautiful central relationship is the mystery of Grey’s origins — her power, her home, and the secrecy wrapped around it all. The book reveals pieces of this with a quiet finesse: through letters, in-universe book quotes, and childhood memories Grey is grappling with. It’s all layered throughout the narrative, and gorgeously so! The atmosphere is rich and immersive, and it lingers.
Then there’s the worldbuilding, which is just wonderfully dense. You can feel the long, tangled history of this world and the political undercurrents running just below the surface. But even with all that complexity, love and devotion remain the book’s steady central themes — not just between Grey and Kiernan, but among the other characters as well. Family, selflessness, sacrifice, and loyalty echo throughout the story.
And I have to say, I really appreciated how queer-normative this world felt. There’s a wide range of queer characters and identities woven throughout the story, and they’re written with such warmth and care.
What else, what else? I know there’s more I want to say, because this book stayed on my mind so much as I read it, but this is the kind of story that deserves to slowly reveal itself to the readers without being spoiled.
So I’ll stop here and say: long live Year of the Lady Knight 2025. It’s truly been and continues to be such a joy literary-wise.
_________________________________________________
Thank you to Forever Publishing for the ARC in Exchange for my honest review.
The Second Death of Locke not only features this trope, but executes it perfectly.
Through our heroine, Grey Flynn, we learn of the world she resides in. She is a trained warrior with powers that make her the magical well of her best friend, Kiernan Seward, a mage who draws on her for power.
It’s a dynamic that’s common in this world, but it feels especially intimate between them.
From the very beginning, there’s this quiet, aching devotion between Grey and Kiernan that makes it clear theirs isn’t a simple friendship. It’s in their every glance, their every decision. They are a part of every facet of each other’s lives, and the book does a phenomenal job of slowly showcasing the sheer depth of their connection and how it came to be.
It’s bone-deep love and trust — the kind that feels foundational, inevitable — and makes their relationship quite literally the heart of the book.
I don’t think I can explain it other than saying there’s this constant sense of them looking for each other, looking at each other, and looking out for each other. Always, always each other.
Surrounding this beautiful central relationship is the mystery of Grey’s origins — her power, her home, and the secrecy wrapped around it all. The book reveals pieces of this with a quiet finesse: through letters, in-universe book quotes, and childhood memories Grey is grappling with. It’s all layered throughout the narrative, and gorgeously so! The atmosphere is rich and immersive, and it lingers.
Then there’s the worldbuilding, which is just wonderfully dense. You can feel the long, tangled history of this world and the political undercurrents running just below the surface. But even with all that complexity, love and devotion remain the book’s steady central themes — not just between Grey and Kiernan, but among the other characters as well. Family, selflessness, sacrifice, and loyalty echo throughout the story.
And I have to say, I really appreciated how queer-normative this world felt. There’s a wide range of queer characters and identities woven throughout the story, and they’re written with such warmth and care.
What else, what else? I know there’s more I want to say, because this book stayed on my mind so much as I read it, but this is the kind of story that deserves to slowly reveal itself to the readers without being spoiled.
So I’ll stop here and say: long live Year of the Lady Knight 2025. It’s truly been and continues to be such a joy literary-wise.
_________________________________________________
Thank you to Forever Publishing for the ARC in Exchange for my honest review.
January 3, 2026
firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!
4.75 stars — because through NO fault of this book, it took me forever to finish reading… and i’m not sure why, because i also listened to the audio (which was helpful for the pronunciation of character names), and i loved the narrator.
the second death of locke was a fantastic high fantasy novel revolving around knight grey and mage kier; their relationship was extremely complex and i appreciated the depth and yearning between the two. yes, there is romance, but while it’s not the whole novel it’s actually a rather important plot point that adds to the complexity of the characters.
there were quite a few smart twists that i will not reveal, but they helped progress the plot, so i was pleased about them.
i will allude to the fact that i hate when a female character has to lose her power, but we have not necessarily seen the effects of this sacrifice YET, so i will assume it occurs in book two?
again, i listened to the audio through libro.fm, and i really enjoyed the narrator!
——
finally getting around to reading this despite it being on my queue for literal months… 😅
4.75 stars — because through NO fault of this book, it took me forever to finish reading… and i’m not sure why, because i also listened to the audio (which was helpful for the pronunciation of character names), and i loved the narrator.
the second death of locke was a fantastic high fantasy novel revolving around knight grey and mage kier; their relationship was extremely complex and i appreciated the depth and yearning between the two. yes, there is romance, but while it’s not the whole novel it’s actually a rather important plot point that adds to the complexity of the characters.
there were quite a few smart twists that i will not reveal, but they helped progress the plot, so i was pleased about them.
i will allude to the fact that i hate when a female character has to lose her power, but we have not necessarily seen the effects of this sacrifice YET, so i will assume it occurs in book two?
again, i listened to the audio through libro.fm, and i really enjoyed the narrator!
——
finally getting around to reading this despite it being on my queue for literal months… 😅
October 30, 2025
The Second Death of Locke was a five-star prediction for me. With the comparison to Gideon the Ninth, themes of loyalty and betrayal, and promise of yearning, I thought this would be a guaranteed win. It took me a MONTH to finish this book because at no point did I actively want to be reading it. No one is more disappointed than I am that I didn't like this.
It's not that I actively disliked The Second Death of Locke . But I felt so indifferent towards this story. I didn't care about the plot, the adventure, the characters, and certainly not the romance. I kept waiting for the story to hook me, pushing through my desire to DNF it because surely I was going to start enjoying it eventually. I really couldn't be bothered to pick this up most of the time. And I think that really sums up me feelings on The Second Death of Locke. It doesn't do anything wrong, but by playing it too safe and underutilizing some fascinating concepts, the story lacks impact and threatens to bore.
I think the characters, in particular, play it a little bit too safe. To the point that they feel borderline one-dimensional. Kier is just... nice. So nice that he's boring. He's just a good guy who is obviously in love with Grey and does everything right all of the time. Even Grey almost thinks of herself as a more complex character than we actually see her to be. She just goes along with the plot while making heart-eyes at Kier and the plot moves out of the way for her. I was really disappointed in her as a "lady knight" character. I think there is so much more that could have been done with her character. I really wanted to see more from both of these characters—more moral conflict, tension, internal debate, etc.
The plot felt pretty slow, though admittedly, taking an unusually long time to read it did not help. Everything just works out for the characters. It lacks a lot of tension or significant conflict, especially considering the scale of what is accomplished in this book. Even the moments of "betrayal" lack the suspense of a misunderstanding (that's how bored I was, I yearned for MISCOMMUNICATION).
The romance, admittedly a very significant part of the book, really did nothing for me. They are in love from the beginning of the book. The only thing stopping them from being a couple is an unnatural refusal to have a conversation about their very obvious feelings. And these characters are supposed to be adults. Seasoned soldiers who spend every waking moment together and have known each other almost their entire lives. It completely kills the romantic tension to have their feelings so clearly established that early in the book. It's not yearning if they just aren't talking about it but acting like a couple anyway. There was no satisfaction to the moment they got together. I understand a crush or friends-to-lovers, but none of the romantic development actually happens on page. It almost feels like you're reading a sequel.
I am really devastated that I didn't enjoy this more. Unfortunately, I felt like The Second Death of Locke lacked the depth and impact I was promised.
Thank you Orbit for the eARC
Links to my TikTok | Instagram | Bindery Books
It's not that I actively disliked The Second Death of Locke . But I felt so indifferent towards this story. I didn't care about the plot, the adventure, the characters, and certainly not the romance. I kept waiting for the story to hook me, pushing through my desire to DNF it because surely I was going to start enjoying it eventually. I really couldn't be bothered to pick this up most of the time. And I think that really sums up me feelings on The Second Death of Locke. It doesn't do anything wrong, but by playing it too safe and underutilizing some fascinating concepts, the story lacks impact and threatens to bore.
I think the characters, in particular, play it a little bit too safe. To the point that they feel borderline one-dimensional. Kier is just... nice. So nice that he's boring. He's just a good guy who is obviously in love with Grey and does everything right all of the time. Even Grey almost thinks of herself as a more complex character than we actually see her to be. She just goes along with the plot while making heart-eyes at Kier and the plot moves out of the way for her. I was really disappointed in her as a "lady knight" character. I think there is so much more that could have been done with her character. I really wanted to see more from both of these characters—more moral conflict, tension, internal debate, etc.
The plot felt pretty slow, though admittedly, taking an unusually long time to read it did not help. Everything just works out for the characters. It lacks a lot of tension or significant conflict, especially considering the scale of what is accomplished in this book. Even the moments of "betrayal" lack the suspense of a misunderstanding (that's how bored I was, I yearned for MISCOMMUNICATION).
The romance, admittedly a very significant part of the book, really did nothing for me. They are in love from the beginning of the book. The only thing stopping them from being a couple is an unnatural refusal to have a conversation about their very obvious feelings. And these characters are supposed to be adults. Seasoned soldiers who spend every waking moment together and have known each other almost their entire lives. It completely kills the romantic tension to have their feelings so clearly established that early in the book. It's not yearning if they just aren't talking about it but acting like a couple anyway. There was no satisfaction to the moment they got together. I understand a crush or friends-to-lovers, but none of the romantic development actually happens on page. It almost feels like you're reading a sequel.
I am really devastated that I didn't enjoy this more. Unfortunately, I felt like The Second Death of Locke lacked the depth and impact I was promised.
Thank you Orbit for the eARC
Links to my TikTok | Instagram | Bindery Books
October 7, 2025
"What is love, without freedom?" she murmured against his skin. He leaned close to kiss her shoulder, then to whisper in her ear. "What is life, without you?’
INCREDIBLE! I had such a phenomenal experience reading this book. I was **tortured** by yearning and tension, I laughed, I paced and wanted to launch my Kindle at the wall, and, oh, how I cried. And cried some more.
The writing is beautiful and immersive and it completely transported me to this gritty, perilous world with this brilliant, flawed, lovable group of characters and a magic system and plot that totally captivated me from the very first page. Don't get me started on Kier and Grey's romance. It's one for the ages.
This book wraps up in such a way that it could stand alone (so refreshing. So satisfying), but I am thrilled that there are apparently two more books planned?! I'll drop everything when the next one is released. The Second Death of Locke is now one of my favourite books. I'll be shouting from the rooftops for everyone to pick this up!
‘Why must you always sacrifice yourself, and call that love?’
Thank you so much to Little Brown and Netgalley for the earc.
INCREDIBLE! I had such a phenomenal experience reading this book. I was **tortured** by yearning and tension, I laughed, I paced and wanted to launch my Kindle at the wall, and, oh, how I cried. And cried some more.
The writing is beautiful and immersive and it completely transported me to this gritty, perilous world with this brilliant, flawed, lovable group of characters and a magic system and plot that totally captivated me from the very first page. Don't get me started on Kier and Grey's romance. It's one for the ages.
This book wraps up in such a way that it could stand alone (so refreshing. So satisfying), but I am thrilled that there are apparently two more books planned?! I'll drop everything when the next one is released. The Second Death of Locke is now one of my favourite books. I'll be shouting from the rooftops for everyone to pick this up!
‘Why must you always sacrifice yourself, and call that love?’
Thank you so much to Little Brown and Netgalley for the earc.
December 8, 2025
This is the year of the lady knights and I am 100% here for it!
LADY KNIGHT + QUEST + YEARNING <— a Jenny trifecta.
I put this book off for an embarrassingly long time after soft dnfing it, and I have two thoughts.
1 - I’m glad I waited for the right time.
2 - The hype is well deserved.
I’m a firm believer in the right book, right time school of thought. If you push through when you’re not feeling it, a book that might have been 5 stars, ends up being disappointing. But put that book down for a bit and return when you’re in the right mood and BAM it’s a knockout book.
So why did I soft dnf this originally? In my humble opinion, the beginning is a bit of a slog. There is a ton of info being thrown at you all at once, which is my least favorite way to world build, and because it’s the beginning you’re not yet invested.
So I waited for the right moment when I was feeling a bit more ready to make an investment and BAM! The Second Death of Locke was absolutely worth the initial investment (slower start)!
What’s to love…
- QUEST (my fav!)
- Really cool magic and world
- Found family
- YEARNING
- Lady knight!
- Queer normative world
- It also has another of my fav tropes but that might be a spoiler so *no comment*
What’s not to love…
- Slower paced
- A bit of an info dump commitment required right at the beginning
One last thought… This is yearning to the max (from her) and you get a bit of yearning from him via dialogue but by gawd I wanted to be in his f-ing head. I don’t typically make this kind of stmt, bc I do think the POV choices are that, a choice by the author and for good reason, and “I wish it had xx pov” isn’t really a great critique — but dang it, I wish we got a tiny, teeny, itty bitty bit of his POV. I’m manifesting his POV for book 2!
Audio Narration: 5/5 Great performance! I’m really glad I put this off for the extra benefit of getting to consume this via audio!
4.25⭐️| IG | TikTok |
Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
LADY KNIGHT + QUEST + YEARNING <— a Jenny trifecta.
I put this book off for an embarrassingly long time after soft dnfing it, and I have two thoughts.
1 - I’m glad I waited for the right time.
2 - The hype is well deserved.
I’m a firm believer in the right book, right time school of thought. If you push through when you’re not feeling it, a book that might have been 5 stars, ends up being disappointing. But put that book down for a bit and return when you’re in the right mood and BAM it’s a knockout book.
So why did I soft dnf this originally? In my humble opinion, the beginning is a bit of a slog. There is a ton of info being thrown at you all at once, which is my least favorite way to world build, and because it’s the beginning you’re not yet invested.
So I waited for the right moment when I was feeling a bit more ready to make an investment and BAM! The Second Death of Locke was absolutely worth the initial investment (slower start)!
What’s to love…
- QUEST (my fav!)
- Really cool magic and world
- Found family
- YEARNING
- Lady knight!
- Queer normative world
- It also has another of my fav tropes but that might be a spoiler so *no comment*
What’s not to love…
- Slower paced
- A bit of an info dump commitment required right at the beginning
One last thought… This is yearning to the max (from her) and you get a bit of yearning from him via dialogue but by gawd I wanted to be in his f-ing head. I don’t typically make this kind of stmt, bc I do think the POV choices are that, a choice by the author and for good reason, and “I wish it had xx pov” isn’t really a great critique — but dang it, I wish we got a tiny, teeny, itty bitty bit of his POV. I’m manifesting his POV for book 2!
Audio Narration: 5/5 Great performance! I’m really glad I put this off for the extra benefit of getting to consume this via audio!
4.25⭐️| IG | TikTok |
Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the gifted book. All opinions are my own.
November 10, 2025
I was really hyped for this book. Female knight x male mage? Sign me right up. It's also a September 2025 Illumicrate pick. But unfortunately, this joins a long list of books I've read with amazing premise, disappointing execution.
First of all, the worldbuilding doesn't make sense to me. If for 16 years no wells were being born and they're 100% necessary to fuel the mages, it's the wells who should be protected and have their own bodyguards. But nope. They're treated as something between expendables and workhorses? They need to be bodyguards, healers, soldiers, everything at once. And the mages? They're mostly portrayed as having extremely limited power, often revolving around 1 quirk they can perform, but they still jump headfirst into the fray and constantly get into trouble and need to be saved by their wells (called Hands).
Kier doesn't seem to do much with his power, he's also described as taller and with bigger hands than Grey, but somehow SHE needs to be his sword? And he constantly gets himself into trouble so she needs to save him...
That's the second biggest issue. The utter dumbassery of these characters who are theoretically veteran soldiers. People always complain about YA fantasy that characters are immature, juvenile and stupid, but this is at least 3rd book this year where the characters are mid-20s and still behave stupider than your average YA 17yo protagonist.
This isn't much of a spoiler, because it happens in the 3rd chapter iirc, but Kier does something very stupid, illogical, not supported by any good motivation, that's a plot convenience so the story can get rolling. I really hate the "mc caught the idiot ball so the plot can happen" trope.
To explain, they're on a mission to kill enemy soldiers and capture and bring back whatever they're transporting. There were so many less stupid ways to kick off the plot...
This dumbassery continues to the very end where and that forces the decision she had to make in the direction she didn't want to, but it was convenient for the plot...
The "romance" is an equal mix of stupid for plot convenience reasons. They know each other since childhood, live on top of each other, sleep on the same bedroll, have endless PDA gestures, save each other's lives, send each other feelings through their magical bond, there are scenes of sensual massage, Grey "moaning" when she eats tasty food, but nope, they refuse to discuss their relationship, they'd rather endlessly pine, make up in their heads reasons why the other one wouldn't return their feelings, and sleep around with random one night stands.
Is their relationship forbidden? Not really, it's "not recommended" or "not customary" but not explicitly forbidden. Would it matter even if it was? Most likely not, since they already broke the law and didn't care in another aspect,
There's NO obstacle to their relationship except dragged out miscommunication / refusing to talk / making up excuses in their minds. It's just another thing that happens "for reasons" in this book, i.e. no other reason than because the author needed it to happen to drag out romantic angst.
Except that, the rest of the characters feel really flat. Around the quarter into the book, we get another D&D-esque rag-tag team road trip trope with repetitive and boring banter. Brit is supposedly "funny" but whatever they said wasn't funny at all. The amount of time the same lines were repeated in another iteration, like Kier sleeping with cartographers or Grey being angry at Sela that was getting tiring and stopped being funny after one or two repetitions. Sometimes I've felt the only thing I know about the side characters is that this person is non-binary and that person is trans. Which, good effort for diversity, but that's NOT how you write diversity with token unmemorable characters whose only defining trait is their diversity status.
The worldbuilding felt equally shallow, perfunctory, and a fantasy name soup. The island has something like 5 nations, not counting the "gone" nation of Locke in an even smaller isle, and then there's the continent with multiple other countries, but there's very little point to so many countries except having them all at war. It feels like multiplying entities for the sake of a worldbuilding flex. Reminds me of another fantasy name soup island I've encountered in The Princess Knight. On the other hand, I'm reading right now House of Dusk and in comparison the worldbuilding there feels purposeful and immersive, not just a bunch of names slapped together.
The pacing was very slow with constant embedded flashbacks from Grey's childhood. It doesn't feel like much happened across the book with the impactful events and reveals being fairly sparse. At start I thought Grey didn't know she was Locke (this isn't a spoiler, it's in the blurb), I thought she had amnesia from the trauma / ptsd (she has a lot of nightmares and flashbacks) but apparently she and Kier know it all the time, just hiding it from the rest (and from the reader for a good 50 pages). That's another baffling narrative choice to me, either we should know from the start, or Grey should have not known and had to discover her heritage across the story.
What's there to like in this book?
* Atmospheric writing style.
* Diversity representation (Grey & Kier are bi/pan, there's a non-binary and trans side character, there's a dark skinned character, the world seems to be fairly queer-normative, but at this point it feels like so many books do exactly that, a checklist of identities to include, but there's little care to make all those side characters impactful and memorable, it's hard to see oneself "represented" in a cardboard cutout of a character).
* Main romantic pairing that isn't toxic or hateful.
Overall, sadly, I must admit the book didn't do enough for me in any aspect of it. Plot, pacing, worldbuilding, characterization, romance, all of it was underwhelming. A shame.
And seriously, you can't have a word like "technicolor" used in a pseudo-medieval fantasy, it ruins immersion.
Thank you Netgalley, Orbit & Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC.
EDIT: I'm lowering the rating to 2 stars because in hindsight most of my 3-star reads just bored me, but this book was actively bad, on top of being exceedingly overrated. It doesn't work as a serious fantasy novel, and it doesn't work as a "shut your brain off and enjoy the vibes" romantasy either, it's not funny or thrilling, it's just a total nothingburger without a saving grace. But apparently the author keeps raking money in lucrative deals, next time for a trendy "horrormance" genre. Hard pass.
First of all, the worldbuilding doesn't make sense to me. If for 16 years no wells were being born and they're 100% necessary to fuel the mages, it's the wells who should be protected and have their own bodyguards. But nope. They're treated as something between expendables and workhorses? They need to be bodyguards, healers, soldiers, everything at once. And the mages? They're mostly portrayed as having extremely limited power, often revolving around 1 quirk they can perform, but they still jump headfirst into the fray and constantly get into trouble and need to be saved by their wells (called Hands).
Kier doesn't seem to do much with his power, he's also described as taller and with bigger hands than Grey, but somehow SHE needs to be his sword? And he constantly gets himself into trouble so she needs to save him...
That's the second biggest issue. The utter dumbassery of these characters who are theoretically veteran soldiers. People always complain about YA fantasy that characters are immature, juvenile and stupid, but this is at least 3rd book this year where the characters are mid-20s and still behave stupider than your average YA 17yo protagonist.
This isn't much of a spoiler, because it happens in the 3rd chapter iirc, but Kier does something very stupid, illogical, not supported by any good motivation, that's a plot convenience so the story can get rolling. I really hate the "mc caught the idiot ball so the plot can happen" trope.
To explain, they're on a mission to kill enemy soldiers and capture and bring back whatever they're transporting. There were so many less stupid ways to kick off the plot...
This dumbassery continues to the very end where and that forces the decision she had to make in the direction she didn't want to, but it was convenient for the plot...
The "romance" is an equal mix of stupid for plot convenience reasons. They know each other since childhood, live on top of each other, sleep on the same bedroll, have endless PDA gestures, save each other's lives, send each other feelings through their magical bond, there are scenes of sensual massage, Grey "moaning" when she eats tasty food, but nope, they refuse to discuss their relationship, they'd rather endlessly pine, make up in their heads reasons why the other one wouldn't return their feelings, and sleep around with random one night stands.
Is their relationship forbidden? Not really, it's "not recommended" or "not customary" but not explicitly forbidden. Would it matter even if it was? Most likely not, since they already broke the law and didn't care in another aspect,
There's NO obstacle to their relationship except dragged out miscommunication / refusing to talk / making up excuses in their minds. It's just another thing that happens "for reasons" in this book, i.e. no other reason than because the author needed it to happen to drag out romantic angst.
Except that, the rest of the characters feel really flat. Around the quarter into the book, we get another D&D-esque rag-tag team road trip trope with repetitive and boring banter. Brit is supposedly "funny" but whatever they said wasn't funny at all. The amount of time the same lines were repeated in another iteration, like Kier sleeping with cartographers or Grey being angry at Sela that was getting tiring and stopped being funny after one or two repetitions. Sometimes I've felt the only thing I know about the side characters is that this person is non-binary and that person is trans. Which, good effort for diversity, but that's NOT how you write diversity with token unmemorable characters whose only defining trait is their diversity status.
The worldbuilding felt equally shallow, perfunctory, and a fantasy name soup. The island has something like 5 nations, not counting the "gone" nation of Locke in an even smaller isle, and then there's the continent with multiple other countries, but there's very little point to so many countries except having them all at war. It feels like multiplying entities for the sake of a worldbuilding flex. Reminds me of another fantasy name soup island I've encountered in The Princess Knight. On the other hand, I'm reading right now House of Dusk and in comparison the worldbuilding there feels purposeful and immersive, not just a bunch of names slapped together.
The pacing was very slow with constant embedded flashbacks from Grey's childhood. It doesn't feel like much happened across the book with the impactful events and reveals being fairly sparse. At start I thought Grey didn't know she was Locke (this isn't a spoiler, it's in the blurb), I thought she had amnesia from the trauma / ptsd (she has a lot of nightmares and flashbacks) but apparently she and Kier know it all the time, just hiding it from the rest (and from the reader for a good 50 pages). That's another baffling narrative choice to me, either we should know from the start, or Grey should have not known and had to discover her heritage across the story.
What's there to like in this book?
* Atmospheric writing style.
* Diversity representation (Grey & Kier are bi/pan, there's a non-binary and trans side character, there's a dark skinned character, the world seems to be fairly queer-normative, but at this point it feels like so many books do exactly that, a checklist of identities to include, but there's little care to make all those side characters impactful and memorable, it's hard to see oneself "represented" in a cardboard cutout of a character).
* Main romantic pairing that isn't toxic or hateful.
Overall, sadly, I must admit the book didn't do enough for me in any aspect of it. Plot, pacing, worldbuilding, characterization, romance, all of it was underwhelming. A shame.
And seriously, you can't have a word like "technicolor" used in a pseudo-medieval fantasy, it ruins immersion.
Thank you Netgalley, Orbit & Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC.
EDIT: I'm lowering the rating to 2 stars because in hindsight most of my 3-star reads just bored me, but this book was actively bad, on top of being exceedingly overrated. It doesn't work as a serious fantasy novel, and it doesn't work as a "shut your brain off and enjoy the vibes" romantasy either, it's not funny or thrilling, it's just a total nothingburger without a saving grace. But apparently the author keeps raking money in lucrative deals, next time for a trendy "horrormance" genre. Hard pass.
January 17, 2026
yes this was everything! The longing and tension were absolutely torturous in the best way. This is what romantasy is missing. I need more books like this!
Sneak peek at review...
Sneak peek at review...
October 4, 2025
4.25⭐️
Wow what an amazing debut!! Bovalino can WRITE!
A very well thought out world and magic system with an impeccable yearning romance at the heart of the story.
The reason it wasn’t 5 stars for me is mainly because I was unaware this was a standalone so was really underwhelmed by the ending.
Even with it being a standalone it could have used a more climactic ending since the build up was so good.
I really hope the author returns to this world even if it’s with different characters because it really is a fantastic world/magic system.
This story has a lot of political warfare rather than epic battle scenes so I can see people finding it slow at certain parts but I really enjoyed the politicking aspects so didn’t mind.
So sad I won’t be seeing these characters again
Wow what an amazing debut!! Bovalino can WRITE!
A very well thought out world and magic system with an impeccable yearning romance at the heart of the story.
The reason it wasn’t 5 stars for me is mainly because I was unaware this was a standalone so was really underwhelmed by the ending.
Even with it being a standalone it could have used a more climactic ending since the build up was so good.
I really hope the author returns to this world even if it’s with different characters because it really is a fantastic world/magic system.
This story has a lot of political warfare rather than epic battle scenes so I can see people finding it slow at certain parts but I really enjoyed the politicking aspects so didn’t mind.
So sad I won’t be seeing these characters again
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