Death's Daughter (Children of the Old Ones, 1)

K. A. Y.

Good world-building and intriguing characters.

"4.5 stars. DEATH'S DAUGHTER, is a Romantasy by author S.A. Barnes, whose Sci-Fi horror books I've loved. Since I read a good mix of horror, romantasy, and mystery/thrillers, I was interested in how her style would change. I honestly felt she did a great job coming up with a unique magic system. While I felt lost initially, I think this was the point--to get the reader to feel as the FMC, Jo, who is also unaware of her father's origins to a large extent. As Death's Daughter, Jo is half human. To survive in the world, she also needs to feed off certain "emotions" or the live force of others. She chose to sequester herself as far from "magical territories" inhabited by other "spawn" of what they call the "Old Ones". The Greek mythology connection was a big win for me as well. She tries to be "human", knowing she can never be fully, and her friendships/relationships/struggles were really interesting to see from her side. "Our sires aren't gods, no matter what they might want people to think . . . But they are old and extremely powerful." I loved seeing her meet others like herself (with different, powerful fathers), and finally learning more about the world/powers from that part of her lineage. There were a couple of parts I didn't care for. Mainly the possibility of a "love triangle", and a "spicy scene" thrown in that really didn't seem to fit in given the circumstances of the novel. However, the rest had me thinking positively enough to go from a 4.5 to 5 star rating. The best, I felt, was Jo's growth as a person. She goes from someone trying to hide from what she is, to someone determined to do what it takes to protect those she loves--realizing that she can't ignore that she's simply MORE than human. Her self confidence grows, in a way that feels right. ". . . You don't want to see what happens if I make it about me." In addition to Jo, I really enjoyed most of the side characters. There was a lot I wanted to learn more about with certain ones, but hopefully the next book in the series will go into that. While it does not leave off on a cliffhanger, it does have enough set in motion to easily jump into another novel set in this world. I'm excited to see what the next book will bring. Recommended. ["

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May 10, 2026

Anne (eggcatsreads)

Decent romantasy with kind of boring love interests

"SA Barnes is an author I absolutely love, and so I jumped at the chance to read her newest book in another genre. Unfortunately, I found I liked this book significantly less than I expected, partially because I found the main character to be kind of both naive and whiny and both of the love interests to be flat and uninteresting. I really wish I could have enjoyed this book more, but much of the worldbuilding felt a bit flat as well as the two main plot points seemingly being disconnected from one another. Not to mention that I found the one inclusion of a main antagonist a bit flimsy, especially since everything is resolved before the end of the book despite this being a series. I also didn’t really like the one reveal about one of the main love interests, nor did I like the apparent justification for a certain character’s death while the “worthy” friends are left unharmed. Not to mention that I found the priorities and attraction to this love interest strange, and even had a moment where I had to pause the audiobook as they had sex while I was wondering why we were ignoring the massive body count currently happening. Speaking of body counts, this book has such a huge one that it’s almost comedic and over-the-top outrageous. I also found the main character’s “inner voice” that focused on her enjoyment of death magic irritating, as if it was a separate part of her. I did enjoy the audiobook and found it nice enough to listen to, which is probably partially why I wound up finishing this book. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for providing me this ALC. This is a review of the audiobook. ["

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May 8, 2026

Heather B. @fantasyromantasy

Great start to the series!

"Death’s Daughter I listened to the audio of this one, and Ava Lucas did a fantastic job bringing the story to life. This book was layered in a way that was unexpected, and I loved the deeper themes throughout the book. Jo as a FMC has so much depth as she navigates trying to have a normal college life while being Death’s literal daughter. Feeding on disappointments rather than lives, she struggles with morality and really grows as a character. The tension was steamy, the characters morally gray, and there is a love triangle going on that had me flipping pages so fast. I really enjoyed this audio and am excited for the next book in the series. 𝓣𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓼 & 𝓥𝓲𝓫𝓮𝓼: 🥀 Dark Academia 🥀 Paranormal Romance 🥀 Mrder Mystery 🥀 Steamy Tension 🥀 Hidden Identities 🥀 Morally Gray MCs 🥀 Love Triangle 🥀 Gods & Mythology 🥀 Dangerous Magic 🥀 Slow Burn ["

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May 18, 2026

Kylee (bookish.dogmom)

Can't wait for the next book

"Thank you to Bramble and Macmillan Audio for the gifted e-ARC and ALC! Jocasta (Jo) has a mostly normal life at Beecher University. Even though she's the only child of Death, she's fought hard to hide her magic from those around her and stay out of the political machinations of the Old Ones and their offspring. But when a descendant of Lust shows up on campus hoping to form an alliance with Jo because Death has officially named her his successor, the normalcy Jo has fought so hard for will be turned upside down. She may even be forced to become the thing she hates in order to protect those she loves. I've read a lot of Barnes' sci-fi horror books so I was excited to read her first trip into romantasy. I loved that this still had some of her signature dark vibes, though I would probably classify it more as fantasy/magical realism with a romance subplot than romantasy. There's also the tiniest hint of a love triangle, and I'm curious to see if it becomes a bigger piece of the plot in the next book. The magic in this one was interesting, and I'm excited to learn about more of the Old Ones and the different types of magic in the next book. Those who possess magic feed off of other people's emotions (which ones depends on which Old One they're descended from). As Death's daughter, Jo feeds off of negative emotions, and she can completely consume someone's life force, decaying their body at an alarming rate in the process. Despite her abilities, Jo has spent her life trying to use them as little as possible so she can live a mostly normal life. But as things unravel around her, I enjoyed getting to see her start to really come into her powers and test the boundaries of what she can do. I listened to this one on audio, narrated by Ava Lucas. Ava did a wonderful job creating a unique feel for each of the characters, and really helping me to feel their emotions through her tone of voice. Read if you like: Dark academia Magical realism Love triangle Found family Mythology Hidden identities Murder mystery Single-POV ["

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May 5, 2026

Trisha

Fun, but missing something

"ARC Review I'm so torn on how to rate this, so I'm giving it a solid 3.5. This started off really strong for me and then just kinda...fell off? I was invested in the story (I LOVE a good fantasy/paranormal murder mystery!!) and the magic system was very interesting, but then around half way through it felt like we just weren't moving forward at all. Character development and plot development just stalled for about 100 pages and I started losing interest in everything. There's also a spicy scene randomly inserted a little past the halfway point that was...odd. Nothing wrong with the scene itself, but the timing of it just felt bizarre and really random. I'm torn on the audio too, because for the most part I really enjoyed the narrator! I listened at 2-2.5 speed generally, and thought the narration was solid. HOWEVER, you can hear her take a deep inhale before just about every line like she's fighting for her life (it's awful at lower speeds and one reason I had to speed up the narration), and it was killing the vibe for me. Maybe that's one reason I couldn't get invested in the story? I don't know, but it continues the ENTIRE book and once I noticed it I couldn't stop noticing it. Overall the story was interesting enough, and I might read the next one, but I'm not going to go tripping over myself to seek it out or preorder it. But I also felt similarly about the Neon Gods series, so I think that if you love that series, you'll probably love this one too! ["

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May 5, 2026