Publisher: Hodderscape

The answer arc and part two of Ibañez’s Secrets of the Nile duology, Where the Library Hides is a sequel that many fans of the first book likely didn’t sign up for. While continuing its 19th‑century Egyptian premise on paper, in many ways this book feels like a product of misguided and unfortunate creative and narrative choices. Focusing heavily on familial conflict, betrayals, and character drama rather than its compelling historical fantasy elements, it may not be every reader’s cup of tea. This book picks up right after Where the River Knows ends, following the dramatic events in the backstreets of Cairo. While the first book posed a lot of interesting and mysterious questions about Cleopatra and Whit’s traumatic history in the armed forces, most of those storylines were left unresolved, compelling material for Where the Library Hides to answer. Where book one covered exploration and discovery on the island of Philae, this book sees Inez and Whit drawn to the ancient and war‑torn city of Alexandria with all of its famed history and lore. Starting with the positive points, Ibañez’s casual yet polished prose continues to be well‑suited for YA readership, as does Inez’s character narration, which is fitting…

18th century Egyptian history layered with myths surrounding Cleopatra, Isabel Ibañez’s What the River Knows is part one of her YA historical fantasy duology Secrets of the Nile. Featuring a great balance of mystery storylines, familial relations, romantic banter, and light fantasy elements based on magical objects, this book hits all the right marks and is a well‑crafted YA read. With a solid start and appealing main characters, this book is really fun despite some pacing issues in its back half and a sequel that ultimately does this book no favors. Intended to be a historical fiction book with a fantasy romance story, easily the strongest element of the book for me is the way it successfully captures the sense of adventure reminiscent of stories like Indiana Jones despite having little action. From the moment Inez receives the unfortunate letter in Argentina, the story maintains this great motif of exploration. Whether Inez is exploring cities in Egypt, hiding as a stowaway on a river barge, visiting historic sites, or simply on the run while evading the peeved and exasperated Whitford Hayes, the story has a genuine adventurous spark that makes the book so fun to read. The tone also benefits…

Following an unlikely group of islanders finding their way under an authoritarian and oppressive magical monarchy, Katalina Watt’s Saltswept is a maritime focused fantasy novel featuring interesting narrative elements with folklore and flavor inspired by Southeast Asian culture. Fast-paced, straightforward, and as queer and colorful as the fruit section at a port of call market vendor stall, this book has all the right ingredients and promises a high seas heist and exciting adventure. While there is a heist and an adventure out at sea, the end result may not quite live up to that lofty pitch for most readers with the book feeling more like a collection of loosely connected ideas, lacking the development and details to solidify the tale it wants to tell. Described in the author’s acknowledgement, Watt set out to write a book that honors their Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander culture meshed with queer representation, and those ambitions clearly show as easily the book’s best features. While the chain of islands that make up Paranish are fictional, their real-world inspirations have clear SEA influences. While each island is varied in terms of climate, they all have wonderful visuals and atmosphere. The title of the book serves dual…

Cyber warfare, citywide virtual reality recreations, AI applications, political and immigrant conflict, cadet academy and post-grade school placements, Chloe Gong’s novel Coldwire has a lot of fascinating elements going on. Marketed as a YA cyberpunk dystopian series debut, this book is full of excellent ideas with a story that mixes action with deeper social commentary. Though it possesses excellent material in theory, unfortunately the messy handling of its world-building and an assortment of storytelling shortcomings hold Coldwire back from being the exciting book by all accounts it should be. Set in a futuristic, technologically advanced world, the story has a dual-perspective presentation. Eirale is a contracted NileCorp soldier who is part of a response team firmly situated in Downcountry, aka the physical real world. Eirale’s team is assigned to capture an anarchist figurehead Nik Grant who is seen as a threat to both the country of Atahua as well as the NileCorp organization, a private business turned political asset who has developed a virtual reality recreation of the real world referred to as Upcountry. Meanwhile cadet-in-training Lia Sullivan attends the Nile Military Academy, a government mandated requirement for all orphaned children or wards from the opposing country Medaluo. The last…

Set in a gothic and snowy city where its citizens put their trust in the church to protect them from dark forces held at bay, their faith is put to the test when a series of mysterious murders occurs. As the holy wards and seal appear to weaken, murder victims are found, and unrest within the city grows, the head inquisitor, a blessed izir, and a selfless church caregiver without a soul work to discover who is to blame for these seemingly unrelated disturbances. The first book of a planned duology also serving as Cate Baumer’s full length traditional published novel debut, the Faithful Dark is a tense and atmospheric dark fantasy book that features highly relevant themes that touch on faith, heresy, testing one’s loyalties, and what it really means to be blessed. Two of the most important elements when it comes to dark fantasy stories for me are the book’s sense of tone and sufficient world-building to ensure the stakes are set high. When it comes to ambiance and style, the Faithful Dark is a beast of a novel. Baumer’s fictional walled city of Silgard appears to be loosely inspired by a more urbanized version of the Vatican…