Shadows of the Lost

DEBUT Martineau spins off her YA “Beast Charmer” series with a new adult romantic fantasy exploring duty and comfort in one’s own skin. Gaige, a former Charmer, was raised from the dead, giving him an assassin’s control of shadows but cutting off access to his tamed magical beasts. Kost, leader of the assassins, had Gaige raised because he couldn’t face his own undeath without him. A depressed Gaige now refuses to use his new magic, but Kost knows that wild shadows could mean death for everyone around them. A series of wild-beast attacks on local villages every time Gaige uses his shadows confirms their fears, but there may be darker forces at play. This is a fast-paced, queer, enemies-to-lovers romance with intense worldbuilding, but it tends to skim the characters’ deep shame and loss to get to the steamy scenes and mystery. There are also point-of-view shifts, mainly to set up relationships for future sequels.