Innamorata

The first in a duology, this disappointing dark fantasy from bestseller Reid (Lady Macbeth) gets off to a strong start but quickly loses focus. The story’s ascetic, nonspeaking heroine, Lady Agnes of the land of Deprane’s fallen House of Teeth, hopes to use her cousin Marozia’s marriage to Prince Liuprand, scion of the conquering House of Berengar, to find a way to raise her recently deceased grandmother from the dead. The secrets of necromancy, developed by the nobles of Drepane generations prior, were stolen and hidden by the House of Berengar. Agnes’s slow but steady investigation keeps the pages turning, but as her mission brings her and Liuprand closer, she forsakes her grandmother’s cause for his love. The romance plot, built on the characters’ instalust, quickly overshadows the intrigue and frustratingly strips Agnes of agency, transforming her into a complacent protagonist pushed around by forces outside of her control. Reid’s language is lush and she grapples with some deliciously dark gothic themes, but the storytelling is not well served by the flat, fairy tale–esque characterizations. The result lacks both direction and, ironically, teeth. (Mar.)