Thank you to Forever for the advanced copy of this ebook!

I LOVE LADY KNIGHTS!!!! This was everything I wanted and more. Grey is such a strong, dynamic character, and I love the way Kier balances her with his softness. They are so tender with one another, and watching the intimate way they know one another from years of friendship was just so beautiful 🥹 I love their love so much!!!!

The author created a really beautiful queer-normative fantasy world, and I absolutely loved being in it! I was especially stoked that both MC’s are bi (or under tht umbrella). The magic system was also really interesting, and the ideas of wells and mages felt so unique. I’m really excited to learn more about the Isle of Locke and its power as the series progresses!

Love, love, looooved this book and will be recommending it to everyone!

Bolavino is a miss or hit author for me, but The Second Death of Locke was such a HIT. Amazingly written, wonderfully crafted and such an original plot. I adored this.

An unexpected favorite of the year! I've felt a bit lukewarm towards Bovalino's YA novels, but The Second Death of Locke was an easy five stars. The romance was just amazing: typically I am not a fan of childhood friends-to-lovers, but Grey and Kier's relationship was so beautiful, and their years-long friendship made such a great basis for a relationship. The found family element was unexpected but certainly not unwelcome; Sela surprisingly became one of my favorite side characters.
In a lot of ways it felt like this book drew on the first Shadow and Bone book and the first Throne of Glass book, while still being wholly unique. The magic system was so interesting and I'm excited to learn more about it in the next book.

The Second Death of Locke sets up a deeply compelling dynamic between a knight and their mage—equal parts devotion, codependence, and yearning. The first half hooked me completely. The pining? Immaculate. The emotional restraint and unspoken bond? One of the most engrossing setups I’ve seen in romantasy.

But when that tension resolves early with a romantic confession, the rest of the novel struggles to maintain the same intensity. Once the central relationship shifts into a more typical dynamic, the plot is forced to carry the weight—and it doesn’t quite manage. The high-stakes premise becomes increasingly whimsical, undercutting the emotional complexity that made the beginning so strong. Fans of T. Kingfisher’s tone may love the pivot, but I personally found it diluted the impact.

There’s definitely an audience for this kind of story, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for lush prose, soft devotion, and a fantasy world where love is the greatest magic. I just wish it had held on longer to what made it special.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book absolutely shattered me. It’s one of those stories that leaves you feeling like you’ve lost something precious just by finishing it.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great fantasy read for me. I'm all about a strong female character, and for me this delivered! I would love to see even more magic at play too.

This book was such a pleasant surprise—dark, romantic, and beautifully written.

I loved following Grey, a knight with a quiet intensity and so many layers. Her bond with Kier (her mage) was one of my favorite parts, the yearning, the fierce loyalty, the way they just get each other. Their chemistry is palpable, but it never overshadows the darker stakes.
The world felt rich, with a fading magic system, crumbling kingdoms, and secrets tied to lost bloodlines. It had all the fantasy elements I love, but with a really intimate, character driven core. And the magic system was so interesting! The concept of Wells and Mages is unique and so well developed. It really informed the politics and the larger conflicts.
If you enjoy stories with knights, forbidden magic, and deep loyalty, definitely give this one a try.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever for the ARC in an exchange for an honest review.

The Second Death of Locke was a gripping, tension-filled story of loyalty, sacrifice, devotion and redemption and I loved every second of it!

Grey is a well - a power source for magic wielders, paired with her mage, Kier. Grey and Kier are very close (Grey wants more but doesn't know if Kier does - the yearning was YEARNING) and they get sent on a mission to deliver a prisoner to a location and encounter a lot of difficulties and enemies along the way.

A very large revelation comes to fruition midway through the story and it drives the plot of the book. It was so well done with how it was handled and what all the characters did to suppress it and how they reacted when it was revealed. With great power comes great responsibility and the weight of it was HEAVY in this book but it was managed so well.

Grey and Kier are an incredible pair: extremely devoted to the other and will stop at nothing to keep them safe. It was so refreshing to not have a betrayal or third act breakup be the driving conflict of the book.

It was an absolutely excellent read. Thank you Forever for the advanced review copy!

It’s not a six stars read at the end but I just got a slap in the face (maybe a few actually) while reading that book. Is everything perfect ? The answer no but the plot and the characters imperfections make it so much more than a simple fantasy/romance book.

When I heard about that book I was sold straight away, I went to check Bovalino insta page and checked the tropes, but also the details of why and how she made that book. The message and the question behind the book is intriguing, and the way the author fulfilled it is mind blowing.

She wanted to explore the devotion and love, what we could sacrifice for the people we love. And f*** me it’s well done. Bovalino does a great work to make us feel pulled between what people expect of Grey and what she really wants. It’s a complexe balance between what is fair for her and what is fair for the others (including people she doesn’t love or care for). Bring in the mix a goddess that keeps asking more of Grey and you end up with a mind f*** where you will feel as helpless as the FMC is most of the book.

The characters (even if we have only Grey’s POV) are well deeper than we could think. We don’t stay in the surface with them and none of them are afraid of showing weakness or emotions. Again bravo to Bovalino to achieve that without making the book slow or boring.

The relationship between Kier and Grey is complicated, some might think it’s not because let’s face it it’s not a SLOW BURN !!! It’s more two idiots in love and very scared to mess up their connection and their friendship. It’s very clear that we are feeling more than BFF the entire 40% but Grey is always questioning that if she will ever get more from Kier. People might think is a bit stupid… well they you have that particular mage/hand connection and need to work and trust each other, emotions might and will make it harder. Like said in the book it could be interpreted as a weakness from one or the other.
The cherry of the book is Kier his devotion and love for her are just the epitome of the book. Because if you explore her feeling and her questioning we have other element to take in. Every single choice made in the book is about not only devotion but LOVE, and your beliefs, to stand by them but also being able to questioned them from time to time.


This book is insane I’m not going to lie it’s a wild ride, I cried a lot which I didn’t expect that from it. But it’s as well a book that makes you think further and question as well your own devotion/love to others what YOU will do in her place, in their place.

WELL DONE BOVALINO I’M AMAZED BY YOUR WORK. I might come back in a few days and tell you I was wrong and it’s a six stars but for now it’s still an incredible book, and I’m definitely going to get my copy and follow that author for more.

Heat Index: 6/10

—It's About The Yearning

—lady knight!

—boy oh boy is there a lot of angst and death (complimentary)

—legitimate stakes and sacrifice my love

The Basics:

Grey is a well, which means she holds a vast amount of power—channeled by her best friend, the mage Kier, on the field of battle in what seems like a never-ending war. They would do anything for each other, which is why they took part in an illegal binding ritual years ago, making Grey's magic accessible only to Kier; and their superiors would find that even more forbidden if they knew Grey was secretly the heir to the lost island of Locke, from which all magic is drawn. Which means... if she dies, all magic goes with her. And the latest mission she and Kier are embarking on together could make that a reality sooner than anyone could imagine.

The Review:

So here's the thing: I am a Stakes Girly. I want high stakes in books, regardless of their genre or subgenre, whenever possible. The definition of "high stakes" will vary from book to book. But nine times out of ten? I want a fantasy romance or romantasy or whatever you call it to have plot stakes... and relationship stakes. I want lives to be at risk, and I want feelings to be HUGE.

Well. Here's a book that understands.

I think there will be some debate over whether this is more fantasy or more romance. It hits the standards that define a genre romance, to be clear (wink, wink). But yes, the fantasy plot of Grey as the lost heir, Kier and Grey's mission to protect a rather surly child (and maybe resurrect Locke), and all that, is also the backbone of this book. And they serve each other perfectly. The Plotty Plot Fantasy Stuff builds slowly, luring you into the world, then Grey's past, then what's fated.

The romance? I was sold... from jump. There is just this immediate sense of chemistry and love and yearning and desire between Grey and Kier. They aren't together when our story begins—but they're clearly everything to one another. It's codependent, it's tactile (he casually massages her thighs and washes her hair; she's saved his life more times than she can count and sleeps tangled up with him), it's unspoken and yet? Something they're aware of. The question is really for Grey at least, isn't whether Kier loves her. That's obvious. It's whether he loves her the way she loves him.

And reader, I don't think you'll be shocked to find that Grey might be selling herself short on that front. But it doesn't read as insecurity so much as Grey being so wrapped up in her feelings, in this agonizing passion for Kier, that she can't really comprehend anyone being able to match that intensity. It's desperate and aching and a little sad (and at one point, a lot sad). But somehow, Bovalino both makes me believe that Grey doesn't recognize the nature of Kier's feelings, while ensuring that I, the reader know. It's pining without any sense of the pathetic. And this very easily could've fallen into pathetic, as friends to lovers so often does, which is why I often don't like it.

But uh, yeah. The obsession is mutual, your honor. It's ready to die for each other, whispered rituals, shared secrets, breathe each other's air kind of obsession. And while I was fully engaged in the rest of the story, that obsession is the soul of the novel.

And it matches a magic and a legacy that's really aching and full of pain. Like, there's a of loss in this novel. Grey's backstory? WOW. That is, uh, intense! There's a legacy of pain here, but it's somehow balance with a sense of hope and possibility and sensitivity—as well as a wry sense of humor. Grey is very self-aware about her unstoppable Feelings, there's a really fun cast of supporting characters, and I felt like I really had a sense of the world here. That levity and balance makes the gut punches, when they come, hit even harder. And man, do they hit.

I would also note that there's a really nice queernormativity in this novel. And yeah, you can have a queernormative world in an M/F romance novel, contrary to the views of some... Both Grey and Kier are openly bisexual, with one of the prominent supporting characters here being a former (female) hookup of Grey's; Brit, one of their traveling companions, uses they/them pronouns; you even get a mythology based on sapphic love and conception sans men?

I just loved the world and the sense of emotional and physical peril and sweeping romance here. It's what I'd love to see from more more fantasy romance—and for that matter, I'd love to see more in this world.

The Sex:

There's really only one (lengthy, but more on the side of subtle than play by play) "full" sex scene in this novel, along with a couple more fade to black moments. But I bumped up the rating there a little, because there's a lot to be said about how hot desire and fixation and again, the tactile! Moments! Can make a book.

When the dam breaks for these two, the way Kier describes wanting Grey, and for how long? OOF. HOOOOT.

The Conclusion:

Sometimes, you want an epic love story. It feels like a lot of romance novels are less epic at this moment. But this? This is an epic love story. And I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Forever and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this moody, tender story very much. The world is extraordinary, full of mist and brine and longing, and the characters all feel so alive. Kier is a dream and I'm already desperate for book two (lady knights forever!).

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the advanced reader copy ⚔️✨🌊

The Second Death of Locke was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025! I love the concept of lady knights, so my expectations were quite high going in.

V.L. Bovalino is an amazing writer, and this store was so beautifully written I really enjoyed it! I felt fully immersed in the story and world for the first like 70%. While I did find it quite fast paced and exciting, I felt like it dropped a bit at about the 70% mark and I felt my mind starting to wander. But this was the only negative for me!

I really liked Grey and Kier's relationship, and I'm an absolute sucker for friends to lovers. The magic system was also so unique I loved it!

I would recommend everyone going in blind, so that you get the full effect of the twists for sure. This is going to be a popular one, rightfully so!!

The mage/well dynamic in this book is such a complete and blatant rip off of the necromancer/cavalier dynamic from Gideon the Ninth that i am genuinely too shocked to be angry? And it has the audacity to be a straight dupe? There are literally different classes of mages who can control different parts of the bone and body. I'm speechless. Also very frustrated to see many reviewers praising this as a "queer normative world" as if that makes any difference when 2/3s of the novel are concerned with heterosexual yearning. Bovalino is an excellent writer, and an overhaul of the magic system and central conceit would have made this a lovely story of a lady knight caught between love and duty. Perhaps I'm just reading into things, but I was far too caught up in the troubling similarities between this and GtN to truly feel positively about this book.

I don’t think I can even begin to describe the emotional damage caused by this book. Everything hurt so much but I also loved it immensely.

✔ I wouldn’t describe this as a “romance” as much as I would say “deeply romantic”. Don’t get me wrong, this is a romance but from the very first word to the last, I knew the depth of love between Grey and Kier. There is no first chapter in which they don’t love each other. Though their relationship changes throughout the story, their love, their devotion, never wavers and you can feel it in every interaction. I love these two so much. This story was beyond friends to lovers, it was essentially a marriage the whole time and Bovalino expressed that in a way that made me feel a lot of feelings. When they say that they mean the world to each other, they truly mean it and the story shows that.
✔ Oh the pain. Oh Grey. This book has a lot of discussion about love and sacrifice, help and harm, and Grey’s experiences have tied the ideas together in a way that is not entirely healthy. Grey struggles with her choices in terms of these factors throughout the plot. Though I may have thought her decisions at times were reckless, if not stupid, they made perfect sense in the context of her character and lived experiences. Her trauma is very consistent and Bovalino doesn’t try to gloss over it or dial it down. We feel every inch of the pain. TL;DR, the writing felt incredibly strong, if not seamless, in this matter.
✔ Similarly, most if not all of the characters were incredibly well constructed - their motivations were complex but always clear. There was a very human touch given to the characters. Of course, there were main characters but each side character was given attention and care; interactions felt fleshed out in a way I don’t always see when so much of the story is centered on the interactions between a couple.
✔ Last, but not least, I was deeply engrossed by the worldbuilding. The politics, the magic, everything. The characters did a lot to make the story feel real but the world around them also felt deeply thought out and interesting. I fell into the story quickly and deeply appreciated how intricate every element of the world ended up being.

✖ It was perfect, no notes.

5/5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In this magic filled fantasy we meet Grey and Kier. Grey holds magic within her, she is the well to Kier, a mage. She is basically his magic battery. Grey and Kier have been friends from childhood, raised together since Grey was found as an orphan, now they fight together in a decades long war between multiple countries. Ever since the island nation of Locke was destroyed the last survivor of Locke has been hunted by the nations as only they can resurrect the island and release the flow of magic back into the world. When a young girl is found and believed to be Locke, Grey and Kier must embark on a dangerous quest and reveal truths long hidden.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the opportunity to read The Second Death of Locke. This book will probably go down as one of my favorite reads of 2025. I am 100% without a doubt giving this book 5⭐️.

At first I only requested this book because it is rumored to be an upcoming Illumicrate pick and I am so glad I did. This book has the perfect blend of romance, adventure, angst, and spice for me. There was no part of this book that I didn’t enjoy. I will absolutely be buying a copy of this book for my home library and look forward to posting about this book on my social media (TikTok and YouTube) closer to its release date.

As soon as I read the description I knew I would like the story. Immediately into the plot is how I like a book to go, there were a fair amount of flash backs and excerpts from books and letters that tied the story together really well. Grey and Keir have a great relationship, kind of Batman and Robin viewed from the outside but equals between them. The slow burn and friends to lovers aspect was written great, a lot of yearning which I love. This could have been a five star read, the plot line and writing were really good. The issue I had were the pronouns, it was just too distracting and confusing to read when there is a nonbinary character. I had to reread sentences a lot and felt so unnecessary for the overall story. I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so SO much to Forever for the eARC of this book!

I think this is a 5 star read for me. I got so absolutely engrossed with the story that I completely forgot to take notes (which helps me write better reviews) once I got to part 2 , and this is one of the few books that I purposely put off reading the last 80 pages because I simply did not want it to end (especially not realizing that this new series are interconnected standalones, I was full-on expecting some drastic cliffhanger of an ending and I did not know if my heart could take it). This is absolutely a story that will stick to your soul in the best of ways.

And even despite the notes I DID take, I find myself struggling to put all the swirling thoughts and vibes and feelings that this book made me feel into words. Because if there is one thing I can say for certainty about this book, its that it will make you FEEL, deeply, heartachingly, for the entirety of the story. It is a story about love and loss, devotion and duty, and what one is willing to sacrifice for those that they love. It is a slow burn with a strong undercurrent of unrequited feelings and a complex kind of love, that absolutely <i>explodes</i> in the most satisfying of ways.

Let's start at the beginning: this book is different from many of the other books I've been reading lately. Its two main characters, Grey and Kier, aren't strangers, nor are they in bad-standing with one another: when the reader enters the story, in the middle of an active conflict, Grey and Kier are already best friends who trust and care deeply for one another (in the manner of BFFs). They already have a good, long history together, and we as the reader get to untangle exactly what they mean to each other, getting well-timed backstory snippets in amongst the world-building of the current day to flush out their personalities and thoughts and feelings in amongst their history and their wonderful banter (oh, the BANTER!). The dynamic between the two was really interesting to read, as Grey very clearly yearns for Kier (and boy does she y-e-a-r-n), whereas Kier, while caring deeply for Grey, does not immediately appear to return the same kind of love back. But the shared love and utter devotion between the two is very evident, even early on in the story, and it was extremely gratifying to see how their relationship evolves and grows throughout the course of this book.

The world this story is set in is also very queer-normative, including Grey being bi and Kier being described as pansexual (both are confirmed by the author on her Instagram), and the level of acceptance and understanding revolving around all this is so refreshing against the contrast of real life. Even Grey in her yearning for Kier shows a deep level of understanding that, due to Kier's preferences, there is a very real chance that he does not or can not feel for her as she does for him, and is fully accepting of that potential, instead of being upset or angsty about it, nor does she ever hold it against him.

I don't want to get too deep into the actual plot of this book, because I feel it might take away from the reader's enjoyment: this book was so full of twist and turns and blind corners in the best possible way. As someone who can get bored with a story when I can guess what happens next, I thoroughly enjoyed how the story never seemed to take the most obvious path, always leaving you in suspense as to what will happen next and how it would reach its conclusion, and I very much thing that this adds to the overall enjoyment of the book (at least for me). The plot twists were SO intense, and it was thoroughly heartwarming to see how Grey's companions become so fiercely protective of her after a few specific plot twists, despite the fact that it might cost them their lives - especially Kier and his unwavering devotion to Grey.

The ending was a little quick? fast paced? as it works to wrap up the loose threads, but the ultimate conclusion was satisfying to both my brain and my heart. I think it only threw me off a little because at the time I was reading it, I did not realize this book was one of a series of interconnected standalones vs a single story drawn out across multiple books, and so my brain was amped up for a sudden cliffhanger instead of enjoying the end-of-story relief.

The entire premise of the book is extremely interesting, and the more I learned about the magic system(s) and the world this story is set in, the more I loved and enjoyed it. I am *thrilled* to know that there are future books set in the same world but focusing on different characters, and I absolutely cannot wait to explore more of this world through the lenses of more of these fantastically written characters.

4.25 🌟 ngl I had my ups and downs with this one but overall I was so pleasantly surprised!! I absolutely adored Grey and Kier’s dynamic, at times it even vaguely reminded me of the whole parabatai vibe from the shadowhunter universe so obviously that ended up being one of my favorite parts of the story. I also really liked how the magic system works and the found family element totally won me over little by little, by the end I didn’t want to say goodbye to any of them 😭

for me the only flaw was that the story kinda lost me a bit around the 30–50% mark but other than that I was totally hooked the rest of the time.

This is a romantic fantasy with a unique magic system of wells and the mages who can draw energy from them. The source of this magic comes from Locke, who is currently in hiding as Grey, a well for her mage Kier. The bond between them is very strong, and I was fascinated by their love, as well as Grey's backstory of how she came to be here with him. There are moments of heartbreak and grief, but I was happy with the ending! I also really liked the side characters.

What a delightful romantasy! The slow burn, so drool worthy!!
If you like lady knights, magic, slow burn rolled into one, this book is for you!

The characters and the world are fantastic. Easily imagined. Kier is almost too perfect but Grey is a very real FMC.

Grey is the hand of Kier her mage. She possesses the power (a well) of magic and Kier turns that power into magic. Both are selected to go on a dangerous mission to take the heir of Locke to their leader. But Grey and Kier know that this girl isn’t the real heir, because Grey is. Grey must now figure out how to keep her friends safe, save magic, and bring back her homeland while trying to not fall (more) madly in love with Kier.

Only a few things to mention:
Grey is a little obsessive. It’s a lot at first.
The beginning is a huge info dump but hang on it’s worth it.
Kier (as I stated previously) is a little too perfect. He doesn’t have any real flaws.

But even with these, this story was amazing. It kept me hooked and I barely wanted to stop. 4.5 stars! I can’t wait to read more of this world.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the arc.