A great book reminiscent if The Lies of Locke Lamora with a female protagonist. I wish I had realised there was an appendix with all the terms etc at the end as the world building was so detailed it could be hard to keep track of the beliefs of the different religions for example. Completely my fault as I was reading this as an ARC on a device rather than my usual "old school" paper copies!

Interesting series with a captivating story and a very good LGBTQ + representation. Really enjoyed it.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Such strong LGBTQ+ representation, an amazing cast of diverse characters fully developed and morally ambiguous, the world building is rich and beautiful! The magic system in the beginning is subtle and not much used, but as the story develops it comes into its own. M.A. Carrick the pen name for the authors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms give us an introduction to what I’m sure is going to be a intriguing series! I can’t wait for the next book in this series

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

3.75 Stars

I finally finished his book about a week ago now and I’ve been trying to work out how to write a review for it so here goes… I started it as an e-book which I was kindly gifted via netgalley for review and it’s a heavy book, so I switched to audio and it became a bit easier to understand with all the different titles and political systems that we are just thrown to. In that first hundred pages I struggled to keep track of all the different houses that were related to the main characters, I managed to grasp the different points of view but the surrounding characters took me a while to engage with, remember and connect. I also struggled quite a bit with the magic system even 600 pages in I’m not entirely sure I understand it!

Once I got past all that this book was amazing I love the concept of the plot with our main character Ren disguising herself as a long lost cousin of what she assumes is a powerful rich house. The setting felt very inspired by Venice with all the canals and the powerhouses centring around trade. I loved how we got to see the world this world from different points of view, from the policing force, to the crime lords and con artists as well as the rich gentry. This helps create such a lush and well established city that I could visualise so clearly in this book. There is also quite a lot of politics in this book as all different running houses battle for power and control of different aspects of the city. And we get to see Rev and wade into this mess of politics to try and achieve her own aims and gain the approval and power of the established houses.

This is a long book and is pretty heavy going and I can understand why people have been put off by this book because it took me until quite awhile to get into it and I feel like I lost interest a bit in the middle but the final third I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down as I wanted to find out the answers to mysteries and see who would survive the brewing upheaval, and how that would change the city at large.

This book seems so polarising! Sadly, I’m in the ‘wanted to like it but was over (under?)-whelmed’ camp.

Gorgeous writing but so much information - confusing, almost frenetic. Perhaps this would be better on a second read but I wasn’t motivated to do so. I’m really sorry this didn’t engage me more.

Ren is a thief and street-rat, born with nothing, fighting for something. With the help of her sister, she plans to pose as the daughter of a noblewoman, reaching out to estranged family. This is the biggest con she has ever attempted but she will not let the fear of failure stop her. Her ‘aunt,’ head of House Traementis, Donaia harbours suspicions about Ren and asks Grey, Captain of the Vigil to trail her, uncover her secrets. But Ren is smart. She has had to be. And her infiltration of this important family of Nadezrea will give her and her sister, Tess, a better life, a better future. If she can just maintain this masquerade.

With strong LGBTQ+ representation, a diverse cast of characters who are all at once fascinating, lovable, intriguing and shocking and horrifying, this is a meaty book that will sweep you up instantly.

The authors have created a complex and compelling civilisation in Nadezra, a river city with cut-throat politics, masked civilians, crime lords, con-men, seedy nobility, men and women battling for power and wealth, poor folk battling for food and life.

The magic system isn’t prominent in the beginning but as the story unfolds, we see it come to the fore. I loved the magic and found the art of imbuing objects with power so intriguing. I particularly loved the masks, which can protect against diseases, for example.

The world building is rich and beautiful! The characters complex and often morally grey. There are twists galore in this book, you will be biting your nails at every turn.

There is a lot of information to take in and you really have to keep your wits about you reading this book. The section at the back is helpful in keeping track of the characters and their connections to one another. It took me a little while to get into the flow of this book, to bond with the characters and get to grips with the plot but once I did, my gosh, I was turning the pages faster than I could read them!

The Mask of Mirrors is a fabulous introduction to what I’m sure is going to be a great series! M.A. Carrick – pen name for the authors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms – has created a riveting novel. I’m super excited for book two in the Rook and Rose series.

I tried.. I tried so hard with this book! I loved the idea but it was just too much! Too many concepts, too many characters and too many names. It was so difficult to keep up with everything. I had to keep rereading pages and I still couldn’t remember who was who or what was going on.

There was a lot of world building, which I usually appreciate but again, it was just too much.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a long yet entertaining fantasy. We follow a few characters we get to know slowly but surplus. Ren was defiNITLy a favourite. There's a lot going on,especially in the political landscape. Different layers in the nobel houses, the rebels,the street rates and more. There is also some dark magic,which is still a bit mystrious but i just went with it. I really liked the ending and am very much looking forward to the SEQUEL.

'may you see the face and not the mask'

I don't even know where to start with this book.

Whatever I say will be inadequate to describe the complexities of this incredible new fantasy world and the stunning myriad of morally ambiguous characters.

Think Six of Crows meets Game of Thrones and yet nothing like that. There are multiple POV's that flow flawlessly, very fleshed out characters who always keep you on your toes and a unique, yet understated magic system.

Our *main* character is Ren, who escaped from a street gang as a child with her 'sister' after seeing her 'brother' murdered as a punishment for something she did. As as adult, and pro con artist, she comes back to Nadezra to trick a rich family into believing she is an estranged relative, with the help of her 'sister' Tess. There is also a magical masked vigilante called The Rook, who is a Robin Hood esque figure. And in her various personas, Ren crosses paths with The Rook often; one of the main mysteries of the book being the identity of The Rook.

There are a lot of politics and world building which at times can be confusing, especially as there are different ways to tell the time, different amount of days in a week, different amount of months etc. The magic system is also very complex. However, the different cultures and traditions are fascinating.

Whilst this world is arguably still racist and frequently mentions racial tensions caused by people stealing land, the queer side of things is much more positive. Same sex marriage is completely normal and acceptable, including adoptive heirs being fully legitimate. We also have a lot of trans rep in the book.
My only issue with *some* of the trans rep is that it is mentioned that in some cultures in this world, people adopt a different gender to inherit leadership titles. Which, in a world that has no issue with same sex marriage, adoptions, trans people etc, felt a bit off.
I'm not trans but I felt that it could come across as insensitive to say that some people choose to be trans to aid their situation when a lot of people struggle with coming out, being diagnosed, receiving medical assistance etc and in the end, being trans isn't a choice.

Overall though I really really enjoyed it. It's a gritty, deep, wonderful, intricate, layered, mysterious fantasy featuring found family and moral ambiguity and I'm desperate for book 2.

I have a weakness and it starts with heist and ends with fantasy. So, of course when I saw that the blurb of The Mask of Mirrors mentioned con-artists and it was published by my favourite publisher, I had to read it! Another interesting fact is that this is written by M A Carrick which is the joint pen name of Alyc Helms and Marie Brennan. Marie Brennan is the author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent series, which I also love, so there was no way I could pass this book up. So, how did it go? Folks, it was FANTASTIC!

This book has
- Con artists doing con artist things
- A female protagonist and a diverse set of characters
- A rich and luscious setting that reminded of Venetian Renaissance. Is that a thing?
- A world that’s queer normative
- A character that reminds me of Kaz Brekker at the age of 35
- An intriguing magic system. We have one based on tarot card reading and the other based on chalk writing? (ok I don't understand that one very well), but they were interesting to say the least
- Beautifully described dresses that I want to see (and wear) in real life.

I do have to say that a lot of terms and names went over my head for most of the book until I belatedly realised there was a glossary provided at the end. That said, the plot had hooked me enough for me to finish the book in 2 days. I'm hoping the sequel comes with in depth world-building and gives us a better understanding of the magic system cuz then I would have no complaints.

All in all, I loved this book and I can’t wait for the sequel!

Final thoughts: Pick this up and don’t forget that there is a glossary at the end!

Mask of Mirrors has everything that I like about a book. There’s stunning imaginery, fancy dresses, morally corrupt characters and no clear side of right or wrong. But nothing about it felt particularly new or innovative. For me personally, this was a fun read, but I kept craving more. While I enjoyed it, it did not pull me in on an emotional level, which I want books to do these days. It’s hard to find a systematic fault with the book, I think it just wasn’t the book for me.

There has been a lot of vaguely Venetian-set fantasy, and to be honest, none of it has really hit my sweet spot. The setting of Mask of Mirrors and its concept is wonderful and deep, the characters are interesting. I particularly liked Tess and found Vargo very charming despite being a fantasy-cop. But I guessed the big twist quite a bit before it was released, which took away the magic for me. I struggled with the fact that Ren doesn’t figure out someone else’s secret identity due to their voice – she is a con artist, she is by definition perceptive, and this just broke immersion for me. But again, I think this is a ME thing and not a BOOK thing. I’m definitely curious to pick up the second one in the series and see how the story continues.

The Mask of Mirrors is a book that seemed like it had my name written all over it: a female con artist worming her way into a wealthy noble family, a magical sickness plaguing the city, and more politics than you can shake a stick at. Despite the fact that there were some fantastic things about this book, I was left feeling a little let down by The Mask of Mirrors.

I think the majority of my trouble with The Mask of Mirrors was the unnecessary complexity that led to confusion and poor pacing. This book feels like five different books in one with the number of storylines running at the same time. I love a long book, however sometimes they feel unnecessarily long and this was one such book. I enjoyed the characters so much, but there were so many people with so many names running around that just added bulk to the book and ultimately dragged it down -- by the last 100 pages I was still unsure of who certain people were and why I should care about their actions. The authors had some really amazing ideas for these characters and their arcs, however so many of them just weren't necessary for the main story they were trying to tell. As a result, it felt like the arc of an entire trilogy, plus some companion novellas, crammed into one book. If there was a way to tease out these storylines into separate volumes, I think it would have really benefited the book and could have been an amazing and intricate series. Instead, it just felt bogged down and slow paced -- it took more more than a month to read.

The complications with the story were added to by the complications with the magic. There are three different threads of magic in the book. There is a dream world that can be entered via substance use and a kind of tarot magic -- these were both fantastic and complimented certain plot elements and characters really well. However there was a third kind of magic -- an inscription magic -- that was so complex and didn't make any sense to me. Unfortunately, this was so vital to certain plot points that those bits of the book totally fell apart. When it comes to complicated magic, I prefer the authors to really ensure that the reader understands when things go wrong with said magic, or the characters just shrug and don't explain it at all and the reader just rolls with it. This felt like it fell somewhere in the middle -- the magic was too complicated to understand, but the burden was on the reader to figure out what was going on (or going wrong).

The absolute best aspect of this book was the characters. The huge cast took some serious getting used to, however the main players were truly wonderful. Ren is amazing and an incredibly capable young woman. She's the perfect person to run her con -- she is quick on her feet and totally unshakable. The thing that I really loved about her character was how well the authors established why she is the way she is and how her past impacts her actions. As we meet more characters that knew her in her past or grew up under similar circumstances, the authors establish Ren as such a wonderful and complex character. 

Her relationships with other characters is also fabulous. Most notably with her sister Tess, Traementis heir Leato, and the crime lord Vargo. All of these characters are amazing in their own right -- although I think Vargo is easily my favourite of the bunch -- but they are enhanced by their relationships and interactions with Ren. For me, this web of characters and character interactions is one of the best I've ever read.

I think that The Mask of Mirrors is one that you really need to read and get your own opinion on -- there are so many complexities that will suit some readers and not others. I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for a complex con story with huge world building and lots of politics and backstabbing.

After reading a lot of YA fantasy recently, I definitely appreciated the depth and complexity of The Mask of Mirrors. I enjoy con artist trying to pull off the biggest con of their life trope and the Mask of Mirror executes it well. Out of the main characters, I enjoyed reading about Ren the most, although the Rook intrigued me. I really liked therelationship Ren and Tess had. The world building was fantastic although alongside the glossary I would have liked a pronunciation guide. Although, I enjoyed the novel, I did feel that it was a bit slow in place. That being said, I will happily read the sequel.

Ren “Renata” Viradaux is an ex-street rat and con-artist who has arrived in Nadežra with her sister Tess to insert herself in the House Traementis pretending to be a long-lost cousin. Easily accepted by her cousins, she has to work hard to win the affection and trust of Donaia, the family head. Soon, Ren finds herself involved in family feuds and the political intrigue of the city.

What I loved most about this novel is its variety of characters. They are all likable, complex, and intriguing, and full of secrets. Ren is very smart, always ready to keep intact her façade of wealthy young woman who wants to reconnect with her family. Her cousins Leato and Giuna are fun characters and I like how their storylines developed throughout the story. Captain Grey is asked by Donaia to look into Renata’s life, but he also becomes obsessed with the case of missing children while facing ghosts from his past. Vargo is a crime lord trying to work his way up to the nobility. A bit shady and mysterious, he is a character that it is hard to read and that I can’t wait to see how it develops in the second book. And, last but not least, there is The Rook, a Robin Hood-vigilante character that helps the poor against the nobles. Around from hundreds of years, his identity is a mystery that Ren spends the entire book trying to uncover.

The world-building is incredible and rich. I was fascinated by the different noble houses, the rebels groups, and the different layers of magic. Sometimes the story feels slow-paced by the many information the author gives, but the more I read the more I found myself completely addicted and, thanks to the perfect and gripping ending, I can’t wait to see what happens in book number 2!

Listen. I was quite conflicted when I started this book because my mind just didn’t want to read it. Sure, when I was actually reading it I was quite invested, but as soon as the book was closed I was “uuuuh nope don’t want to pick it up”. That’s one of the reason I took more than a month to read only the first 20% of the story.

The other reasons are, well, it is a long book, almost 700 pages. And while the magic system, the fantasy world and all is quite interesting, I was just confused for most parts of it. Even now that I have read the entire book I am still unsure about things, so imagine when I was just only at the beginning. Thankfully we have a glossary at the end that helped me A LOT but not always. I couldn’t understand the world the story was happening and that’s why it took me so long to really get into the story.

And there are so many characters!! We also have a dramatis personae at the end but sometimes I just couldn’t be bothered to check who was who. So!! Many!! People!!! And some have different names/titles so sometimes I didn’t even notice that person was the same as that one. Phew. With times I could remember about all the main characters and some secondary ones, but there are so many more than can be really minor. So, that was a little bit of brain work.

I’m done with the negative points of this book, now let’s talk about the POSITIVE ones. Ok so first, it took me more than a month to read the first 20%, but then I read more than the last 50% in just one afternoon. I was that invested in the story. It took me some times to really get into it but it’s really around the halfway point that the story took a turn I was expecting and then I just couldn’t stop reading.

The book is divided in four parts, and I think the first one is the harder to read, since we’re thrown into a world we don’t know anything about and not a lot of explanation, and the story is a little slow. But in the second part, that’s where everything becomes way more interesting and just!!! so full of mysteries.

And then the third and fourth parts… I already said I read it all in one sitting because I just couldn’t stop. I was captivated by the story and some of its characters and all the secrets. I’m still thinking about it. I cannot stop thinking about it, truly.

Then you get to one final twist at the end and I dropped my book on the floor and had to take a walk. That’s how much it got me, and all the implications!! I just. Cannot wait for book two to see how everything will go and I just have so many ideas I may be writing fanfictions in my head you know.

Ok now I think I should give you more concrete reasons to read this book. So, read the Mask of Mirrors for:

➞ a con girl with an even sharper mind tricking her way into a noble family
➞ (she also has a knife strapped to her thigh and that’s just sexy excuse me)
➞ normalized queer world!! homophobia doesn’t exist!!
➞ different cultures/religions that see (and use) the world and its magic differently
➞ deception everywhere. seriously, don’t trust people
➞ secret identities!!
➞ morally grey characters everywhere
➞ important blood (and not blood) family ties!!

I hope this made you want to read it because I desperately need people to talk about it with!!!

The Mask of Mirrors, Rook and Rose Book One, M. A. Carrick

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Sci-fi and fantasy

Having been caught before by trilogies that I loved – and series – which never got any further I contacted the authors to see if there were plans for the next two books. Hurrah, there are. Book two, The Liar's Knot, is out later this year in November, with book three scheduled for November 2022. Given how complex and detailed this story is that's good going ;-) It must be a nightmare to write, having to constantly check things, unless the authors have become fully immersed in the world they'd created.

I loved this story but...I almost gave up, its so incredibly detailed it took me well into the book before I began to get a sense of this world and its characters. I think I didn't really feel familiar with the place and characters until about the halfway mark. I'm so glad I stuck with it. The end section with the explanations of who and how people fit together, and some of the terms used was incredibly helpful, I found myself referring to that many, many times! Read it before you start, and then keep checking back, it really helps.
If you're struggling with the beginning as I did, stick with it, it really is worth it. I already know this is going to be one of my re-reader series, where I indulge in a few days back to back reading of all the novels.

Its really hard to write a review. Its a new world, with, pretty much like here, two main classes, the rich and the not rich....but within that there are different heritages, religions, and those groups are further divided with the ruling classes having a complicated and rigid structure in place and the underclass being divided further into different groups and knots.
For the ruling classes life is about appearance, never showing your hand, never showing or admitting to feelings, and under that there are the deals, the money making, the backbiting, cheating, manoeuvering, but all done with smiles and unseen.

Then of course there's the actual story, with Ren and Tess being in for a long con, persuading House Traementis that she's a lost relative, with Grey Serrado of the Vigils, wanting to find out who killed his brother, and who is stealing children from the streets, Derossi Vargo, well, with Vargo who knows what he wants, he's like spider with bits of web touching everything.
Its seems everyone is hiding something, planning something or doing something they shouldn't. Ren gets deeper and deeper, constantly involved in deals for different people, all the while pushing her claim forward, but along the way finding there's much more to this society than she imagined, and finding she hasn't left her past as far behind as she thought.
I wasn't sure about Ren at first, but her loyalty to Tess and the things she's been through make her what she is, and I grew to really hope for her. I loved Tess, clever Tess with her nimble fingers and ways of chatting to staff and finding out what she and Ren needed to know. They work together so well.
Donaia Traementis I really felt for, trying to keep the house together, keep up appearances despite lacking finances. Leatro, her son, I loved him. He's on the surface all light and fluff but there's a lot more to him. Then Giuna, his sister. We didn't really seem to get to know her well, both her mother and her brother seem to keep her incredibly sheltered and I'm not really sure why.
Grey Serrado, one of the Vigil, a kind of police force, though mainly a corrupt force, was an anomaly there. He's there to do right, to protect people and I wondered why he joined, knowing its full of corruption.
Derossi Vargo – who couldn't be intrigued by him. And Peabody! He's from the streets, has a fearsome reputation and yet he can be smooth and cultured when it suits. He's got a fount of secrets, one of them huge and I really want to know how that came about. Sedge, one of his henchmen was a great character too, we soon find out he's got more connections than he knew.

I did find some of Ren's/Renata's deals went a little too easily, given that the others had been struggling to get things done, but there's so much else going on that it didn't really bother me, it was needed to push events forward. At times I just continued reading even when a bit lost, til I found my ground again, the story is so complex that if I tried to reason every event I'd never get through it ;-) The dreamworld events, night of hells, was one of those. Its all made sense later.
I'd got a good idea of who The Rook was and was pleased I was right – that doesn't happen often, and tbh I just got lucky!
The practice of Pattern and Numinatra was fascinating, I'd love to know more of that.
I loved the ending, wrapping up parts neatly and yet opening up a whole deal more. Yay.
I guess its time to stop. Hopefully I've not given anything away, its a really fascinating read, despite my first fears. Stick with it, if you love complex fantasy this is a perfect trilogy.

Stars: Five. Fantastic, complicated story. I really enjoyed it and know its going to be a long time favourite trilogy.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

If a book is described as a political fantasy, the chances are I'll reach for it immediately. I've been looking forwards to this one for a while - deception, a con-artist in politics, a <em>beautiful</em> cover, and the start of a new series. What about that doesn't tick all my boxes?

I wasn't disappointed.

If you like luscious clothing in fantasy, then this is a book for you! The clothes are gorgeous, and as much part of the story as the characters and overt plot. They build the world, show the roles characters are playing, and add a flair to the story. For a book where most of the characters have at least one façade - if not half a dozen - their clothing is a subtle way to work out what they're playing (as much as you are able to, for the sneakier characters!)
This book is a complete chonker (over 600 pages!!), and I love those sorts of books. I've been reading a lot of very short books in 2021 so far, so being able to just sink my teeth into a world and its characters was so rewarding. I could stay with a world for longer, follow a complicated, ever shifting plot of intrigue that had the space to knot and snarl.

It is a very twisty book, full of scheming characters who you are never quite sure exactly what they want. I loved trying to guess motives and what characters would do next, as their political schemes wove around one another. With all the characters having facades of one sort of another, they were playing a balancing act of finding out others' secrets to use as blackmail while protecting their own.

Plus, the question of "who is the Rook?" (a hooded, mysterious rebel of legend) hung over the book, and all the clues and misdirection's there was so much fun. It made the reveal so satisfying. And, of course, the reveal came on the heels of a new piece of information that turned the plot upside down, leaving it on a very interesting premise for the next instalment!

trigger warning
<spoiler> trauma, grief, mutilation, lack of sleep, being drugged, kidnapping, mention of rape, mention of suicide, mention of slavery </spoiler>

Two thieves are setting up a heist which relies on the one being able to act at every time in every place and the other to to sew a new outfit nearly dayly to create the illusion of wealth.
They underestimated the amount of intrigues going around.

I was not in the mood for this. As I picked it up, it was the stupid huge arc that was overdue, with nearly 700 pages, and then YA fantasy. I've had no luck with the genre in the past few weeks.
This book turned me around good.

I am into heists in fiction. Thankfully, I have no real-life experience, as I am sure I'd be on the losing side, and it can stay that way.
The plot showed how much work there really is, that the fun parts are only a tiny aspect of all that's going down. You need to be on top of your game at all times, sleep is for others. Illness? Doesn't matter. Either win or lose.

Sometimes, we're simply told what happened <i>but</i> in the right places. Listen. Everyone has their own game. As I was halfway through this book, so much had happened that it felt impossible that it was to go on for another 300+ pages.

It remembered me of the Leverage episode in which they try their hand at legislation, to protect cheerleaders through thicker gymnastics mats, and one of them tiredly says "no wonder government is so slow, it takes a grifter to change anything".

I am unsure of how much more I can say. There are themes of found family, and taking your fate and your future in your own hand while having to dodge things that are thrown into your way, possible by a higher being. Clash and interchange of cultures.

I liked it. I want to read on once there is more.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

I think the more I think about this novel, the more I realise that I might have to re-read this one soon because the thing is, despite me not enjoying it as much as I thought I would, I keep thinking about it. That doesn’t happen a lot, if I am being honest. I keep getting those thoughts of awesome diverse characters and the complex intrigue about the world. Of course, it also has the not-so-awesome part of me not really feeling the world building as much as I wanted in the first part of the book and I wish I could have shaken off the feeling of disappointment enough to truly enjoy it for what the authors were going for.

Ren, the main character, is a con artist who decides to pretend to be one of the noble family members. It is for the sake of having better futures for herself and her sister. However as she steps into the world of nobles, she realises something. She might be involved in something far more dangerous than she might have thought. The family feuds and political intrigue is interesting and kept me interested to the part where I truly started to enjoy myself. Otherwise, the start was rough, it took me a while to find my ground in this one. It also didn’t help that I didn’t know there was a glossary list thingy at the end of the book and I didn’t realise it till I finished the book. Yeah, so save yourself and check out the glossary when in doubt.

I loved the characters, they had depth to them and they were very diverse. Not just in the loose sense of the word, yes, there were LGBTQIA characters but I meant personalities as well. It’s just so important that characters (all characters) shine through the book with their own personalities and this book certainly managed that in spades. There isn’t a single character that feels like a cardboard cutout, almost everyone has gray shades to them. I mean, the main character is a con artist who’s fooling people into believing that she’s noble. So, that sort of comes with the territory. I have seen a lot of people comparing this to Six of Crows and I would like to disagree with it. While it does have the morally gray characters and a con happening, it’s also vastly different. Six of Crows is a firmly YA book whereas this certainly does not or should be categorized as YA. It feels more adult than YA and that is its saving grace. If I had such a book in YA, I might have more unkind thoughts about it because unfortunately, whether I want to or not, there are certain expectations from YA fantasy that this one would not be able to deliver. I am glad for it. I love the other characters in the book too, I loved Tess and I especially loved Vargo. There’s a whole bunch of characters to love in this one and I can see why people would come to the conclusion of Six of Crow-ish but it’s different. I don’t know why I am yammering about this one point. Never mind me.

My biggest problem with this one was, pacing and world building. Despite being rich in description and just brilliant writing, I just couldn’t quite imagine it or felt like it was truly building up for me, you know? That’s the biggest thing I struggled with throughout the book. A book can be 700+ pages and still able to make me fall in love with its world and the pace can still be evened out. For me, the pace seemed glacial at times and then something would happen and then it would plateau again. A bit choppier than I like but that’s probably a me problem than a book or authors problem, really. However it lowered my general enjoyment of the book and part of the reason I rated it as low as 3.75.

Although I would definitely recommend it because 3.75 is still an awesome rating for a first in the series, I am definitely gonna be reading the next books if possible because the world is intriguing enough and the characters interesting enough that I would definitely spend hours lost in this world again.

I don't really know what to think about this book. The premise was excellent and the writing is pretty good. But this is a very slow story that takes a long time to get into place and for the most part of the book i was really confused. I also didn't really grasp the world therefore the consequences of what happened in the book were a little lost to me.
Overall i think it's a good story but a bit too slow and lacks some worldbuilding.