The Second Death of Locke by V. L. Bovalino Review

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 wield. They are bound together by blood and magic, but there is one truth Grey dare not reveal . . . not even to Kier.
 

When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into a dangerous mission, Grey will need to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to protect her secret.
 

For Grey is no ordinary magical well, and if she dies, all magic dies with her.

The following review is based on a complimentary ARC provided by Forever, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.

A powerful female knight and partner mage, swordplay crossed with magic, and a slow burn childhood friends to lovers arc, V. L. Bovalino’s The Second Death of Locke is a fantasy/romantasy novel that makes the most of all of its appealing narrative elements and ideas. While the fantasy romance/romantasy genre has increasing moved towards romance and smut dressed in fantasy clothing (or lack of, ba dum tss), this novel instead is a true balance of its genres, a very rare epic fantasy romance novel that has the plot and world-building that earns its fantasy classification. Featuring a healthy blend of action, character drama, romance, and magical intrigue, The Second Death of Locke is a great all-arounder that despite serving as the start to Bovalino’s the Hand and the Heart series, has an adequately satisfying ending that can be read on its own.

While the romantasy genre originally was a combination of romance storylines set within a fantasy world, the genre has increasingly become associated with steamy romance, smut, and incorporating popular expected tropes. That said, many viral romantasy novels often feel romance centered but with fantasy framing feeling like an afterthought or haphazardly thrown together. Reading The Second Death of Locke feels like a proper return to the classic romance fantasy genre as it heavily focuses on the romance and relationship of its main characters. The shifting relationship between the knight/magical well Grey and her partner mage Kier is deeply interwoven into the story and plot of the book which would not work sans romance. However, what sets this novel apart is the quality of its fantasy elements and great plotting. Rather than simply settling for fantasy flavor, The Second Death of Locke tells a complex story revolving around the historic disappearance and destruction of the island nation of Locke at the hands of neighboring warring kingdoms seeking its power. With the death of the royal family of Locke, believed to be the source of all magic, the story’s premise revolves around the political power struggle caused by the sudden reappearance of a descendant and sole survivor of Locke.

Romance storyline aside, The Second Death of Locke’s main fantasy story is compelling on its own and far more ambitious than the romantasy norm. Bovalino has not only crafted a unique story covering the slow loss of magic, but one that also has a good amount of political strategizing and strong world-building. There are origin stories about Locke and source of magic, fantasy gods and goddesses, waging forces and battles, The Second Death of Locke’s impressive elements put it firmly within the epic fantasy sub-genre. While its sword/magical well and mage pairing system is straightforward when read at face value, the nuances of the system and limitations are crafted in a way that perfectly fit and strengthen the novel’s main romance storyline. It’s a perfect happy medium that’s simplistic enough for readers unaccustomed to high/epic fantasy magic systems to follow while still being flashy enough to entertain and appropriately matched to the story. Not only are its fantasy concepts solid, but the story consistently nails its plot twists and surprises at every turn, upping the stakes considerably over its five hundred plus page length.

In addition to its solid plot and story, The Second Death of Locke’s other strong selling point is its well-written and appealing FMC Grey Flynn. Being a lady knight by default already makes Grey cool, but her character is one that’s easy to root for. An accomplished soldier and knight on her own in addition to being a notably strong magical well within the Scaelan army, Grey also hits that sweet spot of being independent and strong without being grating or arrogant to read about. She’s heroic and chivalrous to those she loves but won’t throw herself to death for just anyone out there. She’s also moderately smart despite being the more emotional and volatile half of their pairing and the recurring themes of self-sacrifice and survivor’s guilt through life are well-written. Her banter and partnership with Kier feel easy and natural, which is appropriate since the story starts years after they’ve known each other since childhood compared to most other romantic stories that would start with a meet-cute or insta-attraction setup. Kier is likewise a nice compliment to Grey, particularly his cheeky confidence while also nicely slotting into the childhood best friend role. He checks the necessary box of being an appealing love interest without resorting to stereotypical hulking chiseled, tall dark and edgy look and instead has a more restrained and approachable air to him. Outside of Grey and Kier, the novel also has a very diverse group of personalities, notably featuring many queer supporting characters including a transgender soldier, a non-binary mage, Kier having two mothers, and Grey’s occasional off-the-page and referenced F/F trysts. The side characters that make up Grey and Kier’s party are also easy to enjoy and are a lot of fun, in addition to serving as thematic material for Grey’s resilience to trust others and history of keeping them at a distance. The novel’s good and natural representation feels specially catered towards the romantasy community which most should find appealing.

As previously mentioned, every storyline and plot development are designed to highlight or deepen Grey and Kier’s bond and the fantasy elements fully supporting the romance. A major focus of the novel, their romance is a slow burn chock full of pining and longing, at least on Grey’s end as this the book only features her perspective. Although the central pair is more of a “when will they” rather than a “will they/won’t they”, that’s not necessarily a drawback as their unique well/mage magical power bond as well as their dependence on each other grows as the gravity of their situation grows more dire. The secrets to destruction of Locke, the key to restoring magic, the mysterious and dangerous assignment Kier and Grey are tasked with, the conflicting nations and power struggle, all are compelling plot threads and details are all tied back to the novel’s romance. While the romance has a bit of semi-open/closed door mild sexual content, the romantasy elements are tastefully classy, appropriately placed, and is clearly a “romance” novel, not a “spicy smut” kind of novel.

While the story is well-crafted and the romance and fantasy effectively balanced, I personally found the romance to be a bit repetitive in the first half of the book. While the slow burn dynamic between Grey and Kier is intentionally done to add weight to the events in the back half of the book and to add hype to their eventual mutual feelings, I found Grey’s pining for Kier to get a bit stale over time despite the good chemistry and narrative material caused by their forced proximity assignment. However, a more notable recurring thought I had was wanting the story to focus more on the magic and mystery of Locke vs the book’s obvious romantic intent and focus. It is perhaps a roundabout, indirect compliment to Bovalino’s plot that while I found the romance to be well-written and crafted, I would’ve loved more time exploring the novel’s world, history, and magical mechanics. The novel features short spurts of action and magic sequences that are surprisingly quite gritty and well-choregraphed, but they’re relatively few and far between. To the novel’s credit, the story does a serviceable job revealing and exploring what happened to Locke and the island’s magic, but it’s condensed within the last 15% of the book and splitting the focus between Grey and Kier’s future as well as the grand final battle (given the book’s strong romance and fantasy elements, the final clash of forces and action got the short-end of the stick and was both brief and a touch underwhelming). I know that this novel is first and foremost a fated romance or romantasy adjacent story, but I found The Second Death of Locke’s fantasy elements and world-building so compelling that I personally felt like the romance-heavy emphasis was limiting the scope of the novel and filling up so many pages with repetitive romance in an already very lengthy book. That said, I am also a fantasy reader that prefers high/epic fantasy over romantasy so those that prefer romance reads will likely not find this to be an issue. Some readers that prefer recent contemporary romantasy reads may in fact even find the fantasy and political details too excessive and the romance to be too slow for their liking.

Effectively balancing and interweaving its romance and fantasy elements within an epic fantasy narrative, The Second Death of Locke is a solid and well-crafted novel. With its diverse cast of characters full of representation, an appealing lady knight main character, and a devoted (as well as occasionally tragic) romance, this book has it all. Not only does it deliver a strong romance story with the deceptively tricky friends to lovers arc, it also fully utilizes its fantasy elements to support the romantic intent while still having the complexity and ambition to satisfy non-romantasy SFF readers. And despite being the start of a new trilogy series (at least at the time of this review), Bovalino’s handling of the book’s ending is smartly written in a way where this novel can be picked up as a standalone read, there’s no requirement to continue the series as this book wraps up its story cleanly unless one is invested in seeing Grey’s future. While there aren’t any strong hints as to the content subsequent sequels will cover, this book has only explored a small section of Bovalino’s fantasy world and I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing where she goes with the rest of the series!