{"id":5451,"date":"2026-01-23T02:40:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5451"},"modified":"2026-01-23T02:40:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:40:45","slug":"review-asaylia-by-david-brimer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5451","title":{"rendered":"Review: Asaylia by David Brimer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Synopsis:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julie Wade\u2019s grandmother is not your ordinary grandmother. The locals tell wild tales about her supposed witchcraft and the myriad of secrets hidden on her vast estate in the central Florida swamps. During a summer visit, Julie discovers the stories may be more than just fiction, and her grandmother may be dabbling in more than just witchcraft.<\/p>\n

Julie suddenly finds herself trapped in the wintry world of Sidhe without memory of how she arrived. There she finds others who live under the iron will of The Great Spirit, none remembering how they became prisoners in the perpetual winter. It is only upon the arrival of the enigmatic stranger, Asyalia, that Julie discovers the horrifying truth of The Great Spirit and accepts a destiny she never knew was hers.<\/p>\n

David Brimer, author of the acclaimed\u00a0The Devil You Know<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Piedmont<\/span>, returns with a brand new epic of suspense and wonder. Full of the same sharp storytelling and unexpected twists Brimer is known for,\u00a0Asaylia<\/span>\u00a0explores new territory of fantasy unlike anything you\u2019ve ever read before.<\/p>\n

Favorite Lines:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are so proudly backward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll only be as miserable as you make yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet time decide whether our paths cross again.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Opinion:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

Asaylia<\/em> begins as a deeply grounded story about displacement\u2014geographical, emotional, and generational. Julie Wade isn\u2019t swept into another world right away\u2014she\u2019s exiled from Chicago and dragged into a summer she doesn\u2019t want, in a place that feels sticky, isolated, and wrong from the moment she arrives. Central Florida presses in on her with heat and silence, and the story lets that discomfort linger. It\u2019s the kind of opening that trusts the reader to sit with unease instead of rushing toward spectacle.<\/p>\n

At the center of that unease is Julie\u2019s family, especially her grandmother. Mrs. B\u2019s home feels carefully arranged, overly controlled, and just a little too watchful. The garden gnomes, at first odd and almost funny, slowly take on a different weight. Rules are everywhere. Explanations are not. Julie senses that the adults in her life are managing her rather than protecting her, and that realization lands with a familiar teenage sting. The book does a good job of showing how confusion can feel like betrayal, especially when it comes from people who claim to love you.<\/p>\n

When the fantastical elements finally rupture the realism, Asaylia<\/em> does not abandon its emotional core. Instead, it expands it. The mushroom circle is not just a portal\u2014it\u2019s a reckoning. Memory, guilt, and buried identity become literal forces, and the cost of ignorance is made brutally clear. Asaylia herself emerges not as a benevolent guide, but as a hardened survivor shaped by violence and duty. Her world is cold, ruthless, and governed by consequences, and Julie\u2019s arrival destabilizes more than just the balance of power. Watching Julie move through this world is less about learning magic and more about learning the truth\u2014about herself, about her family, and about what has been done in her name.<\/p>\n

The latter half of the novel accelerates into something darker and more urgent, where family history, magical warfare, and moral responsibility collide. The reunion between Julie and her mother is one of the book\u2019s most emotionally charged moments, transforming love into a weapon against erasure. By the time the truth of Mrs. B\u2019s role is confronted, Asaylia<\/em> has fully shed any coming-of-age softness. What remains is a story about choosing to remember, even when remembering hurts, and about deciding whether love excuses harm. It doesn\u2019t offer comfort so much as clarity, and that choice gives the ending its weight.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Overall, Asaylia<\/em> is a dark fantasy rooted in family secrets, lost memory, and the damage caused by people who believe they\u2019re doing what\u2019s best. What begins as an unwanted summer slowly turns into a fight for truth and survival. It\u2019s unsettling, emotional, and often harsh, but it never loses sight of the human cost at the center of the story. Happy reading!<\/p>\n

Check out\u00a0Asaylia<\/em>\u00a0here!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: Julie Wade\u2019s grandmother is not your ordinary grandmother. The locals tell wild tales about her supposed witchcraft and the myriad of secrets hidden on her vast estate in the central Florida swamps. During a summer visit, Julie discovers the stories may be more than just fiction, and her grandmother may be dabbling in more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}