Somehow this book found me at the right time, it got me out of my reading slump and kept me sane during a tough time. This story was so so good I am so lucky to have had the opportunity of receiving an ARC!
I will start off by stating that I LOVED the FMC, Grey, and the MMC, Kier’s relationship. I loved their mutual passion, love, and quite literal obsession with each other. I absolutely love when characters demonstrate mutual pining and yearning, it’s my favorite thing in romance and I felt there was so much of that in this story between our main characters.
The magic system in this story was so unique and was pretty easy to follow. V.L. Bovalino does a good job of explaining how the magic works while also writing great world building. The plot was well executed, my only complaint is that I think Bovalino could have written more scenes of Grey and Kier’s childhood together, before going off into the war, so that we could have seen more of how their relationship evolved throughout the years.
This book ended up as one of my faves of all time (I keep talking about it and referencing it to my friends i’m so annoying about it idc). Words cannot describe how much I loved this story and I will definitely be rereading this one again so that I can go back into the world and be with Grey and Kier again.
Tropes/themes:
grumpy x sunshine
childhood best friends
found family
knights

Thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

YEARNING IS BACK BABY

I love a girl who is sick with love and also an oblivious idiot!!!! Grey is a soldier and a well of power, sworn to protect her mage, her best friend, and the man she is hopelessly in love with: Kier. They get an opportunity to go on a quest, that could be a death sentence but also the key to their retirement. The writing in this is romantic and beautiful, and I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

My only question is, how this will be turned into a series because book 1 wraps up quite nicely at the end.

ᯓ★ 2.5 stars rounded up ★ᯓ

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

⋮ read july 2025

⋮ format: e-book

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

「summary」

The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino is a medieval-set Epic Romantasy telling the tale of Grey Flynn, a well, and her mage and childhood friend/crush, Kier Seward. They live in a society where mages draw from the powers of wells, who are unable to perform any magic of their own despite being the source of their mages’ powers. After finding the supposed lost heir to the Isle of Locke, Grey and co. set out on a quest to return the lost heir and possibly revive the lost Isle.

「quick notes」

+ queer-normative fantasy world

+ a lot of longing

+ nice prose despite being repetitive

- shallow world-building and sociopolitical landscape

- underdeveloped magic system

- shoddy fight/action scenes

- relationship dynamic felt a little too pre-developed and -established; p.s. this is not a slow burn

- a decent-sized cast, but most didn’t get any significant development to make me care about them enough

「full review」

First, I want to commend Bovalino for writing a queer-normative world with ease. I love how seamlessly queer characters existed in this world, and I further loved how their existence wasn’t some controversy or phenomenon that needed to be explained. I find that a lot of mainstream Fantasy genre picks lack queer representation, so to see such a diverse cast is always a welcome sight. Additionally, I’m glad to report that there is a lot of yearning in this book, but your mileage may vary on how effective it is. I liked it to a point, but it wasn’t enough romantic development for me, which I will expand on in a bit. Nonetheless, I did like the writing, and the author’s prose is nice. However, the writing did become repetitive at times, especially when emphasizing the importance of Grey and Kier’s connection and Grey’s relationship with her lineage and legacy. Additionally, this was advertised as a high-stakes Epic Fantasy where the two lead characters are knights in an army stuck in an endless war. Still, the book’s few action scenes felt stale and lacking in tension, which I think was due to the writing being a little low-effort when it came to the fight scenes.

While reading, I can see that Bovalino obviously wanted to emphasize the relationship between Grey and Kier. Unfortunately, while doing this, Bovalino placed the entire world on the back burner. Even if ignoring much of the world beyond the GreyKier bubble wasn’t quite the author’s intent, it is the vibe I got since the world is incredibly underdeveloped despite the heavy-handed exposition in the earlier chapters. There is a lack of genuine political intrigue and machinations despite the predicative event of the book being one large attempt at overthrowing and taking over the seat of magical power. The politics is simple and cut-and-paste, and the apparent antagonists are quite one-dimensional. There was also potential to explore and commentate on the interesting, exploitative, and unjust dynamic between mages and wells, but that went nowhere. There’s not much reason and rhyme for how the magic exists and functions in this world. In most of the tense conflicts, the stakes were almost always undermined by the deus ex machina that is Grey. There’s no explanation or logic to it either, except for a little “Locke, bro, Locke… *shrug*”

I might get some pushback after calling this an Epic Romantasy, but I do firmly stand behind that assessment. If you remove or even slightly decrease the focus on the GreyKier relationship, the entire story suffers because much of this book hangs heavily on their romance. The Fantasy plot is deeply dictated by their relationship, with it only moving forward either 1) to lead to another stage in their relationship or 2) after something happens within their relationship. Grey and Kier’s primary motivations are each other, which isn’t necessarily bad, but the difference in just how big of a driving force their relationship is compared to everything else (i.e., saving their countries and thousands of lives) is too drastic. At times, it felt like I was reading a GreyKier Romance first and a Fantasy novel second. This part was particularly disappointing as I’ve seen this compared to Gideon the Ninth, which I thought balanced multiple aspects of the story without sacrificing the world-building or non-romantic plot lines.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this because it’s a Romantasy (I enjoy Romantasy books too). If the romance had been more compelling, I think I would’ve been quite alright with this book basically flipping off world-building and everything else. I find that a common issue with friends-to-lovers storylines is that a lot of the work developing their relationship has often been done off-page already, and the flashbacks we get just don’t hit the spot as well. It’s like getting dumped into the middle of the third act right before the couple gets together. I find it difficult to become invested in a couple that seems so set in stone before the start of the first chapter. There’s a lot of longing—yes, expect pages and pages of internal angst from Grey—but when the pairing is a half step away from behaving like a married couple, the angst almost seems contrived and artificial. Much of this couple’s relationship angst throughout the book is just the classic miscommunication trope, which again makes me firmly think this has more in common with Romantasy books than general Epic [Romantic] Fantasy. The big reliance on tropes to artificially create angst is characteristic of popular Romantasy books.

Also, this book would have benefited from having a Kier POV chapter once in a while. After pages of Grey’s angst, it would have been nice to balance that out with some Kier longing as well. With the way the narrative is set, the yearning is almost 85% from Grey and 15% from Kier. It’s tiring and boring when the yearning is just coming from one side most of the time. I’m not saying Kier wasn’t as reciprocative, but the narrative creates this imbalance in representing their feelings. We see Kier love Grey through his actions and words; however, Kier’s behavior towards Grey in Chapter 1—pre-love declarations—is basically the same as his behavior in Chapter 26. I think the relationship would have been so much better if there were at least a few Kier POVs where we read about him grappling with his feelings the same way we had to read Grey do non-stop.

Speaking about imbalance, I also had an issue with how Kier was characterized. He seemed more like a plot device and the object of Grey’s affection than an individual character. He is incredibly underdeveloped, having a defining character trait that can only be described as “in love with Grey.” By the way, there is such a thing as “too perfect,” and Keir was happily in the camp of being perfectly boring since the author gave him little to no flaws or issues of his own. Much like the rest of the story, Kier doesn’t stand on his own without the relationship. The same can be said about Grey to an extent; however, she at least has this personal arc where she comes to terms with her past, her power, and her legacy. Kier doesn’t have an individual arc separate from Grey.

On the other hand, Grey, being the protagonist and all, does have a character arc that’s not—or not as much—focused on Kier. However, even that is challenged at times. Grey and Kier are so co-dependent, and it leaks into every single crevice of this book. Grey faces multiple life-altering discoveries and choices, but many of those pale in comparison to whatever love angst she’s currently going through in that chapter. Literally. The way she grapples with her relationship problems is more pronounced and given more gravity than the way she grapples with the fate of multiple countries and thousands of lives. For an Epic, the scale is honestly quite small because the fate-of-millions-of-people level issues are not given as much room in the narrative as Grey-and-Kier level problems. Additionally, I never—not even for a single chapter—thought Grey was actually an interesting character, which is hard if you’re a reader trying to find something to hang onto in a book that’s very much centered on the aforementioned uninteresting character. Grey is like many chosen-one protagonists of Fantasy past—the only notable thing about her is that she was just born special.

As for side characters, I reiterate the point that this book is the GreyKier (ft. Grey) show, so the rest of the cast seems decorative while the GreyKier (ft. Grey) show commences. I thought the found family trope wasn’t as well-executed in this book either. Despite Grey being characterized as a little distant, surly, and cautious due to her past, she becomes pretty chummy with her quest mates by the 40% mark, despite maybe only two or three instances of team bonding. I quite liked Eron, Brit, and Ola, and wished we got more of them. I think if they were better developed and existed more as characters of their own, I would’ve rated this book higher since I love when the found family trope is done well. However, here, we don’t get to know any of the characters outside of Grey and, to a lesser extent, Kier.

The last thing I’ll talk about is the supposed secrecy and how Grey and Kier managed to avoid getting caught for 20+ years. The story reveals both secrets early on to the reader, but, with the way Grey and Kier were acting, the story might as well have hammered in blinking neon signs on Grey and Kier’s foreheads advertising the two’s secrets to every single character in the book. There were many moments where I questioned these two’s abilities to use their brains clearly, but every moment they faced where they had to hide their secrets? I have genuinely seen better acting on Disney Channel. The lack of care they exhibited in safeguarding such precarious secrets was so incredibly mind-boggling that I had to stop reading a few times.

「conclusion」

In the end, I think that The Second Death of Locke had a lot of potential. If the author had spent a little more time tweaking things to make sure several aspects of the book were more balanced, I feel that I would have loved reading this instead of just feeling like I was reading about a wasted opportunity. For me, this is one of those books that I think would have been a 5-star read in the hands of a better editor. A good editor would have caught the lack of development for everything besides the main relationship; a well-written Epic Fantasy would have done better in making sure things as essential as world-building were as robust as the main relationship. Truly—if the author just spent 20% of the effort she spent on GreyKier on making the sociopolitical environment more complex and interesting, this book would have made it to the 4-star realm. I didn’t hate my time reading this book, but I found it middling and would be perfectly alright with spending my time reading another book instead. Thus, I don’t think I’ll be picking up the sequel or any other entries in this world.

Overall, I’d recommend this for fans of Romantasy books where the main/only focus is the relationship and everything else—magic, politics, side characters, etc.—is garnishing. I would not recommend this to fans of sprawling, well-developed Epic Fantasies. Also, if you were drawn to this because of the Gideon the Ninth or The Seven Deaths of the Saint comparisons… just temper the expectations.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC.

This may be the first friends to lovers I’ve liked. And not just liked, I genuinely loved this story and the characters.

This could have been a series, but I’m so glad the story was told in one book.

The writing was beautiful. The characters were lovable. The magic system was really unique. The world building was easy to follow. The pacing was a little slow, but it made everything more dramatic and emotional.

Overall a really beautiful book with an exceptional romance.

4.5 stars! i utterly loved this book! the tension/yearning between the mmc’s was divine. the story was intense & intriguing. docked the half star because the very end grew mundane but it’s a standalone and did wrap up nicely! i’m excited to hear there will be more stories written in this world

4.5

Such a fun read - engaging and lovable characters, a story with depth, an always-moving plot, and a sweet love story.

Grey’s growth throughout the book was my favorite part. She felt closed-off at the start to everyone except Kier, and ended the story with such an extensive found family. Her relationship with Sela particularly showed this.

The mystery of Locke and the magic system was fascinating, and all the intricate connections to the politics of the region and to the mage/well system was really well done.

I did have to suspend my disbelief at how many people figured out she was Locke. But that seemed part of the fun.

I’m excited to see how the story evolves in the next books, though this book felt well-rounded and complete on its own (always a plus for me!).

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

This is a book that I requested because the cover looked really cool and the plot itself also looked cool. This just seems like a book that I didn’t wanna miss out on even though it’s more historical fiction vibes. It had a fantasy horror energy to it and if it’s sapphic,, I need to read it.

I tried to get into this one about three different times so this is how I know it’s just not for me. It’s just not connecting and it’s due to the writing style. The book itself is gorgeous. It’s got art in. The cover is gorgeous but this is a writing style I navigate away from when possible.

I think it’s the romantasy genre in general that just is not for me and I’ve tried and this was one of those books I needed to read it to see if I ended up loving it or not. I might end up buying it and trying to read it again once it’s in physical form because that could be a totally different experience but the writing style is something that I just cannot get past,

I made it to 50% before setting this one down.

Thank you for the ARC! I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.

This book is PHENOMENAL! I really loved Grey and how rough around the edges she comes off as sometimes in the book. The magic system is a refreshing new view on magic, and I like the idea of mages and hands needing each other to survive and cast magic. There's so much I could say about this book in general, but it all blew me out of the water and kept me hooked pretty much from the first page!

4 stars!

The Second Death of Locke was a deeply romantic and lush story about a knight and their mage caught between a war within nations. Where I think this book was the strongest was the relationship between Grey and Kier, and the writing. I also liked the found family that existed in the novel, and how descriptive the world felt. The magic system felt unique and fresh, and I enjoyed how creative the author was.

This isn't a perfect five star for me because although I enjoyed the plot, I don't feel as if I am on pins and needles for a sequel. There also wasn't any major plot twists, which admittedly I love, but I am very satisfied with how the book ended,

The summer of lady knights continues and I’m absolutely here for it. ⚔️

Grey is a well of magical power and Kier is the mage who draws from her. Their lives are intimately intertwined. They’re tasked with a quest to protect a child from an enemy kingdom and must protect their very own secret along the way.

This was a fun Romantasy and I enjoyed the queer normative, medieval ish setting. The relationship between grey and kier is so tender, even in friendship. I liked the well/mage relationships that tended to be about unconditional/platonic love and devotion, rather than power dynamics.

I thought that the second half of the book felt rushed and there were a lot of plot devices for convenience. I think this would have been an excellent duology instead. The characters and story needed more time to be fleshed out fully. I enjoyed the found family aspect but it felt rushed and therefore the relationships were less believable to me. I think with more time, the relationships could have developed more organically.

Overall, generally enjoyed it.

“What is love, without freedom?”
“What is life, without you?”

This broke my heart in a thousand ways and was not gentle about stitching it back together. The setting felt familiar in a timeless old world magic way while still bringing a story and characters that felt new and full of life.

I wouldn’t remove a moment in the story, every page is needed and earned. There are moments in which it slows down and breathes, and this allows the story and characters to develop the depth needed.

Grey is a walking bag of trauma, and her journey centers around the acceptance of what others have done and will do for her. Her feelings of love, grief and the meaning and need of the sacrifices made to get her where she is was beautifully done.

And of course, Grey and Kier. Fiercely codependent, their relationship was the best part of the story. The intimacy between the two, even as friends, made my breath catch. We need more of this in books: down bad, nearing pathetic, yearning.

The Second Death of Locke has been added to my favorite books of all time, and I cannot wait for the sequels. Grey and Kier’s story seems fairly wrapped up, and so I’m crossing my fingers for a Eron/Brit/Ola book, as well as one featuring Sela. I can’t wait to see what the author does with this world!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the arc!

This was easily one of the best books I’ve read this year, no question.

Sometimes fantasy romance books have fantastic fantasy plots, and enjoyable romance plots. Sometimes they have fantastic romance, and mediocre fantasy/world building. This book is absolute perfection from every angle - the yearning, the tension, the sheer perfection that is their relationship makes the romance in this so satisfying. And the mystery/storyline around the isle of Locke, the wars between nations, the world building all feels incredibly well done without ever feeling dense or boring. This book is well-balanced, well-paced, and I will be thinking about this for days to come.

I also really loved the way this book approached representation - the world is queer normative, our main characters are both bi/pan, there’s also love shown between mages and wells who are not in romantic relationships which is just really refreshing and so so tender. There’s not enough deep love shown between platonic friends in literature, and this book delivers it in droves. I think it also made things really interesting that the world this is set in shows more power dynamics between mages and wells instead of between genders or ages - wells generally defer to mages, but you don’t have what we’d experience in our world where most mages are men, or all mages are older, or anything like we’d expect to see in something more historical fiction/“realistic.”

Lastly, even though it is the first in a series, the story itself wraps up beautifully. I’m looking forward to experiencing more in this universe, but I appreciate when a book has its own wrap up and doesn’t suck us in with a needless cliffhanger just to keep reading. This book will sit with me or awhile, and I cannot overstate how beautiful it is.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

This novel took me on a dark, mysterious and adventurous ride that I did not want to get off of! I absolutely loved this book and I cannot wait until the second book in this series comes out! It is emotional, tense and hopeful! It is filled with lovable and diverse characters. It is extremely well written and entertaining! It also comes with a Lady knight protagonist, which I absolutely loved her! The medieval fantasy world building was fantastic.

The magical system in this book is amazing! It’s about sacrifice, loyalty, loss, and a found family. While I was reading this book, it truly took me into a completely different world. The imagination that this author has is remarkable! I honestly did not want this book to end. The only critique I have is it did start off on the slower side, but it picked up about halfway through and continued to get better and better! It’s very engaging, comes with effective visuals and a slow burn romance that is full of tension. The characters have emotional depth and warmth to them!

“The Second Death of Locke” is the first book in “The Hand and The Heart” series. This book centers around a character named Grey Flynn, who is a warrior and has magical powers that fuels her mage, Kiernan. Secretly, Grey is the heir to the lost Isle of Locke. If Grey were to die, so will all of her magic. Grey goes on a quest to protect the child of an enemy, battles and is even willing to sacrifice everything for Kiernan! Overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars rating!

Content warnings include death, violence, war, sexual content and mental illness (mainly panic attacks). I think fans of romantic fantasies with emotional depth would absolutely love reading this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, author V. L. Bovalino and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever for this digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is expected to be published on September 23, 2025!

I really enjoyed this book! It's giving lady knight but also gave Gideon the Ninth. I was dubious on that comparison point in the summary, as Gideon the Ninth is in a whole other realm of its own, but I definitely see the connections. The relationship between a Mage and a Hand is similar to that of a Scholar and Warden (Cam & Pal anyone?). However, that's pretty much where the comparisons end. This book is much more straight forward and lacks the over-the-top, almost ridiculous (I say with love) humor of Gideon the Ninth.

As many have pointed out, this is more of a character-driven novel than a plot-driven one. The plot is fine -- nothing I haven't seen before -- though I did guess many of the twists before they happened. Since I'm someone who prefers character-driven novels, this didn't bother me much, but I can see how it might not work for others.

Admittedly, the last 40% of the novel felt a bit rushed. There was so much packed into such a short amount of pages that it felt a bit unbalanced from the first half of the book. I do wish that it had been more fleshed out and I wouldn't have minded if the book had been longer to do that.

Eerie, haunting, and beautifully written—The Second Death of Locke is the kind of story that settles in your bones. The gothic vibes are immaculate, the twists are chilling, and the prose? Stunning.

Knightly story have been my jam and this story was evenly paced in a Qasi-medieval period.

Miscommunication is my least favorite trope and this heavily effected my speed in reading because it dragged.

The marketing of this book was a tad ambitious for I did not read such strong impressions. Did it reel me in and perk my interest to read yes? Was it as satisfying as I expected. Perhaps not but does not mean someone else would have enjoyed this more.

THE YEARNING IS MORE PALPABLE THAN EVER. My god, nothing hits quite like fantasy with a fantastic romantic subplot. I was ENRAPTURED by Grey and Kier even as I spent half the book shaking them both for being such clueless, lovesick idiots.

I had a lot of fun in the first half of this; Kier and Grey’s relationship was obviously the highlight for me, but I also was interested by the worldbuilding and the magic and the sweet found family of it all! Especially adored Grey’s relationship with Sela.

The second half lost me a bit, when we transitioned into war and politicking and goddesses and so many big decisions. It all got to be a bit overwhelming. I did like Scaelas and Cleoc. I love that the group stayed together and the epilogue was sweet. This says it’s a series starter on Storygraph … I’m honestly OK with reading this as a standalone but never say never!

Rating: 4.5

I’m not sure what I was expecting for this book, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed The Second Death of Locke. The story follows Grey (a well) and Kier (a mage). Wells are like the source of power that mages draw upon to use their magic. The heir of Locke has disappeared and all the different nations are looking for the lost heir. We follow Grey and Kier as they must transport a special prisoner that all the nations are after. However, all the nations may be after the wrong person.

I really enjoyed the world building and magic system. I don’t think I’ve every seen this type of magic system before; I thought it really added some uniqueness. I also thought the story had great plot pacing and nothing really dragged too much or was too fast. I really enjoyed that the story has queer representation. I also thought the book gave like medieval/gothic vibes which I totally was on board for!

I was expecting more romance but it was pretty small in this book. I wish there was a little more especially during the times where Kier and Grey finally come together.

I’m curious where this story will go. This is supposed to be a trilogy and this book feels like more of a standalone and all the drama wrapped up. No cliffhanger. I’m quite curious to see what the author has in store next for this series.

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing a free eARC for this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found myself pleasantly surprised by the Second Death of Locke. Despite not being a huge romantasy fan, I keep finding myself reading them while struggling to find more traditional fantasy books. The Second Death has that traditional feel. The plot is very classic but the magic system was unique enough to keep me engaged. What I think more traditional romantasy fans may struggle with that I think makes this lean a bit more towards traditional fantasy fans is that this book is bloody. You're dropped into a war where the air is filled with the stench of iron. What may bring back the romantasy readers is the relationship between our two main characters really is what propels the story. It's clear from the start that they are not supposed to have any more connection than professionalism but they want more. It's a good, longing, story. Are there flaws? Of course. But this has been one of my better reads of the year and one I will recommend to a few people in my life

Complex and lived-in world building without info dumping narration; great plot pacing; interesting magic system; fantastic characters and character development; and smooth and authentic queer normative world.