The second death of Locke

   "What is love, without freedom?”

  “What is life, without you?”

“The Second Death of Locke” by V.L. Bovalino — A Review by Someone Who Just Had Their Soul Reshaped

( This post contains affiliate links — at no extra cost to you, but with all the love in the world. If you choose to purchase through them, you’re not just buying a book.

You’re helping me keep doing what I love: reading, reviewing, and sharing the stories that feel like home.

So thank you, from the bottom of my little bookish heart).

There are some stories that don’t just touch you — they find you.

In that quiet, secret place where your younger self still waits for that story.

The one you’ve been chasing since the days of Labyrinth, Fantaghirò, and The Last Unicorn.

The one that doesn’t just entertain, but sees you.

This year, I was lucky.

I found two of those stories.

And now… I’ve found a third.

And this one?

This one might never let me go.

🖤 The Premise (and the Promise)

The story begins nearly two decades after the fall of the Isle of Locke — the cradle of all magic in Idistra, now nothing more than smoke and ghost stories. Its heirs are hunted, its wells of power nearly dry, and a relentless war has left nothing untouched.

In this broken world, we meet Grey Flynn and her mage Kier Seward — battle-worn, soul-bound, and tethered by a love that defies time and rules and ruin.

Their task?

Protect the impossible. A child who may very well be the last heir of Locke. And deliver her right into the mouth of the enemy.

The catch?

I’m not telling you that.

You need to read it. You deserve to read it.

✨ What Bovalino Has Done Here

V.L. Bovalino didn’t just create a world.

She crafted a feeling — a pull, a longing.

Something you don’t just read, but remember.

This book isn't a story. It’s a soulprint.

Her prose is atmospheric, aching, delicate and bold. It doesn’t ask for attention. It commands it, quietly. Like a lullaby sung over a battlefield.

The magic system?

💔 Heartbreakingly fragile.

The politics?

🔥 A slow-burn of power and impossible choices.

The relationships?

🩶 Found family through blood and sacrifice. The kind of love that doesn’t need to be loud — because it never leaves.

💔 Kier and Grey

Grey is the protagonist I’ve been waiting my whole life for.

She’s soft where it counts, and steel where it matters. She feels ancient and young all at once — the kind of character who would walk barefoot across a battlefield if it meant saving even one more spark of hope.

And Kier?

Don’t talk to me. I am unwell.

This man — this gentle, haunted, utterly loyal mage — took my heart in his hands and never gave it back.

My soul folded itself into him and forgot how to leave.

🥀 This Book Didn’t Just Break Me…

It found pieces of me I didn’t realize I’d lost.

And for the first time in a long time, I cried in that way I only cry when a story sees me. Not tears of sadness, but something deeper. Like being understood. Like finding home.

This is the kind of book that reminds me why I write.

Why I chase stories like they’re stardust and I’m dying of thirst.

Because maybe, just maybe, someone out there is still waiting to find their own “Second Death of Locke.”

And they deserve to feel what I just felt.

Because this?

This is why we read.

This is why we believe in magic.

This is why books matter.

I don’t care what this book was for anyone else.

I know what it was for me.

And that’s enough.

So if you’re looking for a story that aches, that heals, that burns, that holds you — this is it.

Bovalino didn’t just write a novel.

She wrote a home.

And I will carry it with me always.

Publication date ‏: ‎ 23 Sept. 2025

Amazon:The second death of Locke