Gr 7 Up--After surviving plague and escaping the hospital where he was left to die, 18-year-old Cas makes his way across a pestilence-ravaged nation, desperate to be home after three years imprisoned in an enemy country. His newfound ability to see the spirits of the dead everywhere makes his journey infinitely more difficult as he gets closer to home and sees more and more people he once knew. Cas makes it home just in time to save the infant prince on his naming day, discovering the royal family and their court have moved into his family's ancestral keep. When Cas discovers the assassin had not been aiming for the young prince, but his nurse, questions are raised about how the foreign queen arrived in Oliveras for her marriage and where, exactly, her royal entourage went. Cas's soft, slow-building romance with Lena, a clever young historian, is wonderfully authentic and adds depth to Cas's character arc from vengeful prisoner to trusted official. Lucier's a deft hand with layered relationships tangling her characters together in fascinating ways and propeling the story forward, and Cas's succinct narrative voice holding high stakes and hope in equal measure. Expertly plotted with complex characters, the book features well-crafted twists and turns as Cas is thrown headfirst into the mysteries of the royal court. The king is biracial, the other characters are unspecified. VERDICT Part political mystery, part dark adventure fantasy, this is a book you'll want to devour in one sitting. Deeply satisfying.--Emmy Neal, Lake Forest Lib., IL

Themes of loss, sorrow, and moral conflict, balanced by a delicate and emotionally mature romance, suffuse Lucier's (the Tower of Winds series) novel set in a time of plague. Three years before the book's start, Oliveran nobleman Lord Cassia was kidnapped by enemy forces from Brisa and kept as an indentured laborer until a virulent pestilence presented an opportunity for escape. Now 18 and possessed of the ability to see ghosts, Cas has returned home to Palmerin, only to be greeted by the news that the plague has driven the Oliveran royal family--its Brisan queen and Oliveran King, whose union ended 50 years of war--to Cas's keep. Though many welcome the lord they long thought dead, whose first act is to rescue the young prince's life, Cas soon learns that not everyone is thrilled at his return, and that the royal family's lives are in danger from a lurking assassin. Assisted by a historian-in-training named Lena, the king's sister, Cas digs into the killer's identity and works to navigate whirling court intrigue that threatens to plunge his kingdom into war. The gripping narrative glides along via Lucier's spare, deftly employed prose style, while Cas's fiercely affectionate relationship with his brother Ventillas lends the plot particular warmth, deepening its moving and thought-provoking depictions of variously traumatized characters, many with "bronze" and "golden" skin. Ages 12--up. (Nov.)

The plague of boils changed everything. When most of the people of Oliveras and Brisas died from the virulent disease, Princess Jehan of Oliveras married King Rayan of Brisas, and the never-ending war between the two kingdoms halted. Lord Cassia, long away from his home, returns to find more changes still: King Rayan and his new wife have settled down in Cas' home, bringing with them all the intrigue of court. Another mystery is Lena, the king's sister, who wishes to be a historian but has been traveling the countryside as a petty thief. When a mysterious assassin arrives, Lena and Cas are drawn together by their own histories and the future they might possibly make together. Lucier, known for A Death-Struck Year (2014) and other standalones, ventures further into fantasy, though leaves some loose ends--for example, Cas can see and speak with ghosts, but this strange talent is largely unexplored. An adventure for larger collections.

This romantic fantasy is set (aptly for our times) in the shadow of pestilence and war, albeit in a world of spirits as well as horses, swords and maces, muscular noblemen, and women in lavish gowns. Lord Cas of Oliveras has survived the plague and escaped from three years of slavery in neighboring Brisa; when he arrives home, he finds the king wedded to Brisa's princess, a hard-won alliance resolving decades of war. But even before Cas reaches his family's estate, he has had to rescue the royal baby from an assassin's arrow. Who is targeting the royal family and why? Together, Cas and enthusiastic aspiring historian Lena investigate a mire of secrets, deception, and treachery. Lucier's (Isle of Blood and Stone, rev. 5/18) plot, with its themes of mortality and loyalty, sickness, cruelty, and romance, makes an absorbing tangle of turns and twists. Each illuminates the careful, well-grounded features of the world Lucier has created, and of the scarred, romantic hero she imagines in Cas. Short, sometimes incomplete sentences and rousing action influence much of the pace, but relationships and characterization are at the heart of the story. Deirdre F. Baker January/February 2022 p.114(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A young nobleman struggles to find peace after surviving a plague and imprisonment in a neighboring kingdom. To settle 50 years of war between their kingdoms, Princess Jehan of Brisa marries King Rayan of Oliveras, and together they sign a peace treaty. When Oliveras' capital city, Elvira, is overwhelmed by a pestilence that leaves many dead, the king and queen are offered refuge in Palmerin by their friend Lord Ventillas. It has been three years since Lord Cassia and his personal guard were ambushed and captured by Brisan soldiers. Scarred, alone, and possessing an inexplicable ability to see ghosts, Cas journeys home to reunite with Ventillas, his older brother, and on the day of his arrival in Palmerin, he rescues the royal couple's infant son from a deadly assassin. When others close to Queen Jehan are targeted, Cas and Lena, an aspiring historian and King Rayan's younger sister, trace the killer's steps--but when they search the queen's past for answers, they uncover a harrowing secret that could threaten the fate of the kingdom. Lucier wastes no time in this gripping mystery: Every twist is carefully plotted, and the worldbuilding is intricate yet effortless. Each of Cas' relationships, even those with the spirits he encounters, is distinct, and, like him, readers will find it difficult to judge who is trustworthy. Most characters have black or brown hair and dark eyes; the few mentions of skin tone reference bronze and golden complexions. A well-balanced and captivating stand-alone fantasy. (Fantasy. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.