Centuries ago, necromancy almost destroyed the world. That's how history remembers it.

History remembers it wrong.

Mathaiik has trained all his life to join the sacred order of the Idallik Knights, charged with defending their world from the forces of necromancy. Only vestiges of that cursed magic remain, nothing like the fabled days of the Grim Lords, the undead wizards who once nearly destroyed the world.

But when an even stranger kind of monster begins to wake, the Knights quickly prove powerless to stop them. Whole forests are coming alive and devouring anyone so foolish as to trespass, as if the land itself has turned upon humanity.

It's a good thing, then, that the Grim Lords were never truly destroyed. One of their number sleeps below the Knights' very fortress. And when an army of twisted tree monsters attacks the young initiates in his charge, Math decides to do the unthinkable: he wakes her up.

This is only the beginning of his problems. Because said necromancer, Kaiataris, knows something history has forgotten. The threat of this wild magic is part of a cycle that has repeated countless times-life after death, chaos after order. And if she and Math can't find a new way to balance the scales, this won't just be the end of the world as they know it, but the end of all life, everywhere.

Green and Deadly Things by Jenn Lyons has a compelling magic twist, vivid world-building and engrossing characters. From the very beginning, I love Math and Kaiataris as they come together in the most unusual of circumstances. I love the concept of sentient trees and the unique monsters in the novel, most particularly the idea of necromancy not being evil but a pattern of order while life is chaos.

The novel deftly explores ideas like life and death, order and chaos and breaking the cycles that bind us when they no longer function. As Math and Kaiataris explore a relationship, as they find unexpected enemies in places they least expect and as they try to find a way to save the world, you just fall in love with them and the world.

If you like nature magic gone wild, necromancy as an agent of order and a romantic fantasy story that is also full of humor and pathos, I would recommend Green and Deadly Things. It is fantastic with an unusual ending and trees that live.

Rating: 5 out of 5 trees. ~~ Andrea Rittschof