A lyrical, tense, ambitious fantasy.
A reluctant hero gets caught between the shadows of his small Appalachian town and the fractured remnants of a forgotten war in Nash’s atmospheric YA fantasy. Marked by loss, bullied by peers, and haunted by visions of radiant swords and encroaching darkness, Will Daring discovers that secrets buried beneath myth are stirring once again. When a forbidden journal and a covert conspiracy draw him into the Covenant of Twilight and Dawn, he must decide whether to flee from fate or embrace the courage to confront it.
This is an ambitious opening that situates itself firmly at the intersection of mythic fantasy and contemporary thriller. Unlike the familiar chosen-one archetype, Will is hesitant, self-conscious, and bruised by loss. And, it is this vulnerability that grounds the novel, making his slow confrontation with destiny feel hard-earned rather than inevitable. The novel’s pacing is deftly managed, alternating between the small, claustrophobic cruelty of Will’s daily life—taunts from classmates, the disapproval of a teacher who is revealed to be more than she seems—and sweeping glimpses of mythic conflict. The presence of black moths, cloaked figures, and a radiant blade gives the narrative a menacing, unsettling undertone. Even before the Covenant and its conspiracies fully surface, the atmosphere suggests that Will is already entangled in forces far larger than himself.
What makes the book shine is its equilibrium. Nash balances the cosmic with the intimate. The Radiant Dawn prophecy and the Blacktide threat could have swamped the story, but instead they heighten the personal drama, with Will’s grief, loneliness, and faltering courage mirroring the greater war of light and shadow. The effect is that every small choice he makes—whether to speak, to hide, or to listen—feels like a rehearsal for the cataclysm to come. Nash’s prose is vivid and lyrical. At times dreamlike, the writing blurs the line between reality and vision, childhood and legend, perfectly echoing the novel’s concern with how old truths resurface in the present. Yet the lyricism never stalls momentum. The novel resonates with themes of courage, legacy, light and shadow, and the search for belonging. Fans of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson will be drawn to its mix of myth, menace, and a boy learning to carry a destiny he never asked for.
Timeless in scope yet relentless in pace, this is a fantasy done right.
Daring Books
Pub date July 7, 2025
ISBN 979-8998932007
Price $12.99 (USD) Paperback, $2.99 Kindle edition
