The Half King

Landers (Starfall) brings a mythic fairy tale aesthetic to this new adult romantasy, crafting a complex world and vivid characters. A thousand years ago, the heads of the noble families of the Allied Realm performed the Great Betrayal, a failed attempt to kill the goddess Shiera, which left each of their first-born descendants with an inherited curse. Now second-born Cerise, an acolyte of the goddess Solon whose expected gift of seership has so far failed to manifest, is sent to serve as emissary to King Kian Mortara. Kian’s bloodline curse causes him to disappear each night, and the curse is progressing to where he will soon vanish entirely—and without leaving an heir. As Cerise befriends the other important residents of the castle, digs into the previous emissary’s coded journal, and seeks to understand her fated part in an epic quest to break the curses, a sweet love blossoms between her and the doomed Half King. The heavy metaphysical worldbuilding emerges fairly organically, but readers will wish for a more in-depth exploration of the political, social, and religious conditions of this war-torn land. Fortunately, a sequel seems to be in the cards. Readers will be eager for its arrival. (Nov.)