ALCHEMISED
by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft\u002Dtrod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance."
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Helena and Kaine start this fantasy romance on opposite sides of each other — one a healer, one a killer — about as wide a gap as two leads can open a book with, and the story spends its considerable...
Our Review
Helena and Kaine start this fantasy romance on opposite sides of each other — one a healer, one a killer — about as wide a gap as two leads can open a book with, and the story spends its considerable length, 1,041 pages, closing that distance through shared trauma rather than convenient plot twists. The magic system runs on alchemy and stays tangled up with the necromancy at the center of the plot closely enough that the world-building and the romance are never really separate things; how the magic works keeps shaping what Helena and Kaine are allowed to feel about each other. The listed age range is 12 to 18, and at over a thousand pages, it's a paperback with real heft to it.
Readers who want fantasy with genuine emotional stakes attached will find plenty here — the alchemical rules feel load-bearing rather than decorative, and the healer-and-killer dynamic between the two leads gives the romance an actual obstacle to work against instead of a manufactured one. It leans dark in places, with necromancy imagery that doesn't look away from what raising the dead actually involves, so it suits a teen reader who already gravitates toward intense fantasy better than one just starting to explore the genre. For that reader, this is exactly the kind of long, immersive, romance-forward fantasy worth clearing a couple of weeks for.
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