The Knave of Secrets is a caper about some card sharps trying to make a fast buck for themselves and stumbling across something much bigger, more important and - worse- political than they bargained for. This was ok, it had a lot of ambition and is trying to be a lot of things at once but I felt it got too caught up in the nerdy niche of the card games and this was detrimental to things like character. I had no idea who these people were at heart or how they really felt about each other. They actually had very little interaction with each other and one of the main characters does something behind the others back and i had no real idea why she would do it and why they would forgive her for doing it. It all felt a bit sketchy and I was not interested enough in the technicalities of the card games to overlook it.

It felt a bit too.. juvenile. I was not convinced with the characters' abilities, nor did I believe the high stakes.

It may be a very simple stance, but, in my humblest of opinion, any book that prefaces with a map is bound to be interesting. Provide me multiple maps, and I’m liable to put on a helmet before tackling chapter one.

This is how I knew that The Knave of Secrets was going to be an absolute page-turner.

After a quick little study of the two map (yes, TWO!), we drop right into an excerpt from a fictional reference book. That’s just next-level world-building, and now I’m really excited about this tale.

The Knave of Secrets is about Valen Quinol, his wife Margo, and his two-person crew — Teneriève and Jacquemin, respectably — and the cardsharping shenanigans Valen drags the rest into on a constant basis.

This is a story about power, the perception of power, and the gaps where all the in-between slides around to bolster, or destroy this power. Mr. Livingston does a marvelous job of setting up a myriad of class and political systems to reinforce the gap between the haves and the have-nots, along with the larger undercurrent of the shadow powers as well as how “common” street gangs fit into the mix.

The politics in The Knave of Secrets are vitally important. Much as it is in many modern societies, the established gentry are quite loathe to welcome newcomers to the table, and many complex steps are taken to keep the “new” away.

Tying absolutely everything together at all levels of society are the games. In fact, Mr. Livingston was kind enough to offer a very in-depth “Catalogue of Games” in the appendices to help the reader appreciate just how ingrained in the culture these games are.

Here’s the gist. Valen, naturally, gets into a bit of a mess because of his insatiable need to be on top of any game of chance that might be going on around him. As it is, he is staked to take part in a prestigious tournament where secrets are the currency of choice. What Valen, Ten and Jac get pulled into could shake the foundations of society, and have much larger ramifications in regards to the larger political climate.

It’s a total mess, but it’s up to Valen to hold all the pieces together: quite literally.

As I mentioned previously, Mr. Livingston goes above and beyond in the world-building department. The attention to detail, and the meticulous building of history and lore is just astounding.

Then there is the banter. The repartee between our merry miscreants is so incredibly natural and indicative of a very well-established, and well-tested, relationship. It was such a joy to barrel through the ribbons of sharp and flowing interactions the characters have. The familiar interactions intertwine and test with witty jabs and history-tested considerations while the exchanges between oft suspicious strangers is wildly calculated and sharp. This flowing consideration of vocabulary and inflection is just a treat for the readers.

I dare not spill any of the beans on how this wonderful tale builds or resolves, but I can say that I really hope that Mr. Livingston is not done with this world. My appetite has been whetted, and I absolutely desire more.

This was such an interesting read that has left me wanting more. It was well written with a good storyline and a well developed cast of characters and I really enjoyed the world building within the book. Overall an enjoyable read.

What can I say? This sounds like an amazing idea, right? And that is exactly what it still is, a great idea. The execution of this idea was not great, to put it lightly. I had to rate it 1 star in the end, and that is something I don't do often. Let me explain my reasoning:

I'll start with the positive things about the book. First of all, the book has maps at the beginning! I think it is safe to say that everyone who reads fantasy books likes maps in the book. It just makes it so much easier to understand the story and where the characters are moving to. Also, there were appendixes at the end of the book, which is great to keep up with the characters and the games that are being played.

When I started reading the book I loved how we immediately started in the middle of the action. It pulls you into the story and makes you want to read more. Unfortunately, this did not continue throughout the rest of the story.

The characters were a bit older than most of the characters are in the fantasy books I normally read. This was a nice change. Normally they are barely adults and this time they were older than I am, much more mature.

Now for what I did not like about the story. I really had to push myself to finish this book. I finished it because it was an ARC and I wanted to write the review for it. Writing reviews is not always about loving the book, in that case, I would only be writing reviews for 5-star ratings. But if it had not been for this and I had actually bought the book, I probably would have DNF'ed it because it was making me not want to read.

The worldbuilding was quite confusing. It was difficult to understand where the characters were and what their place was in the story and their world. The distinction between places was often not made very clear most of the time. The maps helped a little with this but, I could not continuously keep going back to the pages with the maps on them. I also feel like the history between these places was described very poorly. If more detail had been put into it, it might have been clearer to the reader what was going on and how this could develop. More descriptions would have pulled me more into the story instead of questioning what was going on the whole time. In the second half, it became a bit clearer but it was quite late. Normally I already would have put it down by this time.

I liked Valen and his crew at the start of the book, but quite quickly they started to annoy me. It was little things that made me not like the characters anymore. And because the story moved quite rapid and often with breaks in the story, the author could not really explain the motives for the characters actions. Many problems also would not have existed if there had been more communication between them. They had supposedly been working together for such a long time, literally years, but somehow they communicated like they had met the other day. I also felt like the marriage between Valen and Margo could have had a bigger impact on the story. Now it felt bland and like Margo was just 'the wife'. There was just so much more potential. Ten was also quite hypocritical, judging Valen for lying while doing it herself too. It added drama to the story that could have been added in a different way. How these characters ended the story was also quite underwhelming, and that might even be an understatement.

The book consists of numerous POV's, which did not work for this book and story. I often got confused because switching to a new POV often also meant a time jump or missing information in general. There also were too many different POV's. I counted at least five, which was just too many. If the story had been more detailed it could have possibly worked, but not in this case.

The last thing I want to mention is that the story in general just moved way too much. Important parts like the Forbearance Games moved by way too quickly. This is just an example, but there were more scenes where I just needed to know more and then it switched to a different POV.

In the end, I had to conclude that this book was not my cup of tea. I still want to thank Netgalley for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

TLDR
Characters - 3.5
Plot - 3.5
Setting - 4
Writing - 4
Final Impression - 3.75
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The world-building here is very strong, highly driven by the political machinations of various ruling parties. Gambling is a massive part of this society and one's ability at certain games determines the level of respect they get. It was all very lavish and glamorous and cool. The writing in this book suits the themes and setting it's going for. There's a certain flourish to it that at once feel both ostentatious yet utterly natural to the world-building. In other words, the style feels very fitting to the general vibes of the book.

Full Review

3.75*

Big thank you to Netgalley and Solaris for sending me an eARC ahead of the book's release date. All opinions are my own.

Characters

5 POVs

So here were have a crew of con artists. We've got Valen, cardsharp, failed magician and essentially the group's mastermind. We also have his wife, Margo, an expert forger. Jac, ex-pirate, brawler and distraction. And then Ten, diviner, lesser cardsharp, and just a general does-whatever-she's-told.

Jac had some cracking lines.
"We'll take payment in coin or wine, as the only difference between the two is time."

Love that the main character Valen is married. So often it feels like being in a thieving crew is the occupation of single men, so to find a mastermind who's married to a crew member, and devoted to her is so refreshing. I've only ever seen it done once before (Facefaker's Game) and loved it then too. Nothing says loyalty to the crew like being married to one of them. And I also loved how, at times, he and Marguerite acted like a normal married couple in such simple ways. Sharing a bottle of wine, visiting the in-laws. It was so simple yet felt so special to them.
All that being said, and as sweet as I found them, their relationship was very much 'told' to us, rather than 'shown'. Were we not told at all that they were married, I probably would never have known, maybe even considered them siblings. They were clearly very close, but there's not a lot of intimacy between them. They don't kiss, I don't even think they hug. I'm not saying I need romance in every book, but considering they were married, they lacked chemistry a little. Margo never really seemed to worry about Valen's safety when he played all these risky games. There's no sense of urgency or great concern between them. But all the same, I loved seeing a married couple within a con/heist crew.

I don't know how to feel about Ten. On one hand, she's very cool and competent, but on the other, she comes across as very disloyal. Considering Valen is one of her oldest, closest friends, she's always so quick to shit on him and doubt him, or flat out betray him. I'm so disappointed in her.
I don't like that vibe in a thieving crew. I prefer a more Gentlemen Bastards vibe where the crew is so unwaveringly loyal to their leader, and 100% trust him and each other. Who would die for each other if need be. And though Ten shows some of these qualities, she's also quick to hate on Valen when he finds other, more clever ways out of a scrape that doesn't involve her getting hurt. You'd think she'd be greatly he uses that big brain of his, but she just resents him for it.
Ten goes on about feeling betrayed by her friends, how they don't listen to her, don't appreciate her, etc. And I know she feels this, but I didn't feel it. And if I can't feel what the character is feeling in that moment then it hasn't been developed enough beforehand. I know the instances Ten is implying, but in those moments, none of it felt that bad to me, so then I'm left disliking Ten for blowing things out of proportion. It's a shame because in the beginning I really liked her, but by the end, she's such a whinge-bag.

In truth, I'm not sure what she actually brings to the team. She's not much of a fighter, she rarely gets involved with the games or card-sharping, she doesn't do any thieving, she just seems to hang around on street corners waiting for something to happen and then gets pissy with Valen when he makes something happen. I know Ten is a diviner, but so is Valen, so in reality, her skill isn't really required in this crew.

Another, very minor, issue I had was I found the character names a bit too grandiose, even random side characters. I struggled to pronounce about 90% of names and it got a bit tiring. It really says something when I have an easier time pronouncing French-sounding names than the general fantasy names. (French is not my strong suit). There was too much of a flourish to every single name, just felt over the top.

Plot
The premise of this book is so enticing. Set on the independent island nation of Valtiffe, there exists a political point of contention for the natives. The Tipping Point, in which two opposing empires are playing a long game in a bid to swallow up Valtiffe as part of their own empire. To own land on the island presents the opportunity to vote. As more nobles from each side of the political war buy up land, eventually there will be more from one side than the other, after which they can vote to join with either the empire or the queendom. Either of which could have quite dire consequences to the natives of Valtiffe.

Yet despite how cool and political this sounds, the plot does get a little bit lost within its own complexities. Perhaps there just wasn't enough foreshadowing to build up a satisfying conclusion. Anticipation is born from the hints dropped, and I don't think there were enough hints throughout to build all that much anticipation for the. For instance, the prize for winning the Ambassador's Game is a favour from the Ambassador herself. If this had been hinted at sooner and more regularly, I would have built up a lot more excitement for the game, anticipating what could happen next. I think if the book had a lot more foreshadowing, this would have been far more edge-of-the-seat reading.

Based on a few things that I thought was foreshadowing but turned out not to be, I thought this would happen. (view spoiler) and then I was a little disappointed when it didn't happen.

Though I did have a question throughout. Why was Dusmenil even gambling with such an important secret in the first place? What possessed the man? I'm not sure it was ever explained why he risked something so valuable and dangerous over a game of cards.

Also, I thought at first Ten was doing a double-doublecross on Valen's instruction, but turned out she was just double-crossing, which was a little deflating. I love those cons where the opposing side thinks they have the upper hand, but turns out it's all part of the plan to make them think they have the upper hand.

I did like the ending though, that final chapter that leaves it open for a sequel on a hopeful note.

Setting
The world-building here is very strong. I loved the French-inspired world, other than the fact I've always had a terrible time with French pronunciation. I had to look up how to say various phonetics to get an understanding of how to say a bunch of made-up names (yeah I know, pedantic, right?). Funny, I'm fine with pronouncing the phonetics of Italian, Polish, and Chinese, but give me something as simple as French (simple because the English language is already basically half French) and suddenly I'm like oH nO, I cAn'T sAy iT. *sigh* I really need to learn French one of these days.

Anyway, The world was highly driven by the political machinations of various ruling parties. There's an important social structure to the world with a clear divide between the nobles and the common folk, but interestingly, at the casino tables, everyone is equal. Gambling is a massive part of this society and one's ability at certain games determines the level of respect they get. It was all very lavish and glamorous and cool. I liked it a lot. It gave me vibes of the salons of Versaille back in the day when the nobles just used to sit around the king's court gambling, gossiping, and conspiring.

I'm really going to need to buy a print version just to take a proper look at the map. Although the eBook had one, it's awkward to refer back to it and impossible to do so in the middle of a chapter without losing my place. There were so many places mentioned that I struggled to keep track of where's where. But I do love how expansive and lived-in this world feels, and I'd love to get a better look at the map to really study it.

Writing Style
The writing in this book suits the themes and setting it's going for. There's a certain flourish to it that at once feel both ostentatious yet utterly natural to the world-building. In other words, the style feels very fitting to the general vibes of the book.

I enjoyed the writing, though I did feel the author deliberately chose long, elaborate words where perhaps simple ones might have sufficed. I don't consider myself an idiot and like to think I have a pretty reasonable vocabulary, but the number of times I had to Google words I didn't know only to discover they had such basic meanings got a tad boring. This isn't to say I think fiction should be dumbed down to nothing like mulch to feed the masses. Not at all. But sometimes it just felt like the author was trying to sound clever.
For instance 'internecine' instead of 'violent'.
'habiliments' instead of 'clothing'.
'Inculcate' instead of 'ingrain'.
They're nice words and all, and if they'd been used in dialogue I'd take zero issue. If there's a character that always speaks fancy, say no more. But mostly all they were used in the narrative and just seemed to over-complicate something simple.

Final Impression
So I didn't quite like it as much as I'd hoped, I did find a lot of issues with it that personally didn't gel with me, but ultimately I enjoyed it and had a good time with it. I really think the character could grow on me and I'm very interested to learn if there will be a sequel. If there is, I'd certainly give it a read.

The Knave of Secrets by Alex Livingston promised to be some sort of magical renaissance Ocean's eleven mixed with The lies of Locke Lamora and some political intrigue thrown in. Think clever heists pulled of by a motley crew of misfits led by some darkly menancing gentleman bastard (What's not to like?!)

Did it achieve this? No, the plot and the characters fall flat at times, but the promise is definitely there. This is a good read. Just not a great one.

*I would like to thank Netgalley, the author and the publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC, in exchange for an honest review*

The Lies of Locke Lamora meets... whatever.

That reference alone was my undoing. How was I supposed to resist?

The world Alex Livingston creates is detailed and unique. The plot is complex, featuring con masters with questionable morality and cunning spies and ruthless mages that weave layers over layers of schemes and secrets. In that respect, the Gentlemen Bastards' vibes are undeniable.

However, where the Lies of Locke Lamora intrigued me with its clever and vivid characters pursuing absurdly elaborate heists and delighted me with hilarious banter, the Knave of Secrets falls short. The main characters and their relationships feel pretty bland. The concept of a tournament where players gamble with secrets is very cool, but there is a lot of telling rather than showing that spoils readers' enjoyment.

It's a good story overall, but if you expect to find the new The Lies of Locke Lamora, well, prepare to be disappointed.

"A criminal is always well-versed in the precise details of the law she breaks".

If I was asked to describe this book with one word I'd use "clever". Multi-layered story, the vocabulary, plot twists, the importance of details - everything feels well-structured, thought-through, wise and clever to extremity. Experience and language give a strong impression that "The Knave of Secrets" is not the author's first big novel, although I haven't found any other complete works by Alex Livingston. At first I had some difficulties with the complicity of the phrases, but I soon got used to the language (I'm not a native English-speaker, so this comment shouldn't matter much).

The title suits the story very much, I think it is a great choice. I also like how the cover reflects the events and atmosphere of the book, the colours remind us about the more archaic times where the story might take place. The design caught my attention at once.

Throughout the book we come across a lot of great remarks on many subjects, I found myself surprised at how I'd never given thought to certain things which are so clearly and wittily described here.

"...Jaq fought like a sailor. That was not to say that sailors have some particular style of fisticuffs <...>. Rather, Jaq fought as if a whole crew of shipmates would soon be by to pull him out of the worst of it, and that he wouldn't be back to this port for months if ever".

"Doubt was for a quiet room, a scrying bowl, and a complicated question, not for a scrap of terror in dark city streets".

The deeper in the story I dove the more epic it felt. Even though I still find the magic system in this world a bit unclear, hopefully there will be sequels and more adventures to explain it all in more details.

I want to wish all the luck to this book and its smart author! I hope "The Knave of Secrets" gains all the attention, hype and credit it deserves!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the team behind this release for giving me the opportunity to read and review "The Knave of Secrets" by Alex Livingston. #TheKnaveofSecrets #NetGalley

This book drew me in for its interesting world and characters.
The schemes of some of the characters were intriguing and clever, which I enjoyed. All of the characters were well-written, and there was a great deal of thought put into crafting the large-scale political plotting in the book.
It's a good story overall, but falls a bit flat in the telling, in my opinion. The inserts of excerpts from fictional writings in the world were distracting and not helpful; they break the immersion without any benefit to the story. The arc of the story becomes more complex and unexpected as it goes on, which made it interesting but also a bit cumbersome to follow, and the climax sort of fizzles out rather than wowing.
Since I'd read an advanced copy of the book, some of the kinks may have been improved by the time this goes to public printing. It could be a really good book with some adjustments. There were a ton of typos and errors in this advanced copy, which I presume will have been mostly fixed before it goes to print.

Hm. I went into this expecting to love this book - I'm a sucker for a good gamble especially with such high stakes - and while I didn't end up loving it I also didn't hate it. It was just 'okay' for me. It's not a bad book by any means! The writing was good, I enjoyed the main character, I just... didn't feel the tension in the first half of the book. I wasn't at the edge of my seat, wondering if Valen would win, because the synopsis told me he would. It just took too long to really hold my attention. Still, I think other readers will truly enjoy this and I do recommend giving it a chance!

4.25 stars

(ARC from Netgalley)
I really enjoyed this book! The writing keeps you hooked and the story and word-building are really interesting and that I haven't really read about before.
It is a unique world with gambling crooked thiefs who get entangled in a situation bigger than themselves as a secret involving the magicians of this world gets out.
I want to read more about this story as I am still a little lost with all the complex characters and different political intrigue. The end also lets you wanting more and is open for a second book, which I would gladly read!
Thank you to the publishers for this ARC !

Thanks, Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
This already is a read that will force your mind to sharpen in order to grasp everything that is going on with the plot. Sometimes the balance in the pacing gets lost with a lot of flash-back info and politics, but after 50-60% of the book, the story gets quite intriguing, because there happens an essential plot point, which was hinted in the synopsis of the book. I think the story needed more tension and mystery, but still, the narrative was really well written. Overall I enjoyed the book and would read more from the author!

In a setting where everyone in several different cultures is obsessed with gambling games, this book focuses on a crew of crooked gamblers who end up in the position to maybe do some good.

There are a number of viewpoint characters, including two of the crew but also several other players in the complicated plotting and counter-plotting; at times I found myself wishing for a diagram, which I suspect the author has probably drawn. There's a kind of cold war going on between two powerful nations, an Empire and a Queendom; a third nation, an island where the story is mostly set, is coming increasingly under the influence of the Empire. Because landowning grants voting rights there, and because immigrants from the Empire tend to be prosperous and often buy land, the Parliament is heading for a "tipping point" where it may vote to become part of the Empire rather than remaining independent, which will shift the balance of power between the superpowers. Meanwhile, a supposedly apolitical order of wizards (to which two of the gambling crew used to belong) are keeping secrets that could upset the balance in a different way.

All of this sets the plot in motion, as one of the crew wins a game where people play for secrets, and somehow (it's never explained how) the man he beat knew the wizards' secret and gambled with it. They decide they have to try to keep the current détente between the Empire and the Queendom and the independence of their island, and prevent a war from starting, using their gambling abilities and some unreliable magic.

<spoiler>Unfortunately, they're ill equipped for this task and flail about a good bit, and the author has to rather obviously plot armour them against being assassinated. Someone who has every reason to kill them off and has already demonstrated that he is physically and morally capable of doing so (by killing several minor characters) simply decides not to for no discernable reason, and they also face no consequences from a run-in with a gang boss whose threats got them into the game in the first place; he just vanishes from the board and is never mentioned again. Later, the crew leader wins a game he probably shouldn't have been able to win, reveals the wizards' secret, and appeals to someone to do something she probably can't do (given that she is not really in favour with her superiors) to prevent that revelation from starting a war. </spoiler>

The issues in those spoiler tags, and my difficulty in following the overly convoluted plot at times, took this book down to the bronze tier of my annual Best-Of list, but it does have a good many strengths and shows potential. I particularly enjoyed the worldbuilding, the different games and the feeling of deep and rich cultures. I also found the idea of a nation (one of the two superpowers) where the wealthy gain access to formal power by funding public works to be an interesting one, though I'm not sure how it would arise or how long it would be enforced in reality.

I received a pre-publication version from Netgalley, which needs some work for typos (mostly words missing, added, duplicated, or mistyped) and the occasional vocabulary glitch, but is otherwise largely sound.

I've settled on 3.5 stars for The Knave of Secrets. With an intriguing premise and comparisons to The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Mask of Mirrors, two of my favorite books, I had to give it a try. And, though quite unlike those books (particularly in tone and character) beyond being about con artists, it was ultimately worth a read.

However, until the last third, I wasn't entirely convinced.

The Knave of Secrets begins well enough, with a fun introduction to our cast of miscreants in the act of relieving a nobleman of his money in a game of cards. But after that, I really struggled with the first half of the book. There's quite a bit of info-dumping backstory as well as history and politics, and it slows down the pace significantly. However, I soon realized that my largest issue was that a major plot point is revealed in the synopsis— one that doesn't happen until almost exactly 50% in to the book.

***Spoiler that is revealed in the synopsis so it's apparently not actually a spoiler***
Knowing that Valen wins the secret in the tournament takes all tension out of the lead-up and execution of that plot point, all of which could have been really interesting as a reader who doesn't know what to expect. I wish the synopsis had indicated that IF Valen won the secret, he would make himself a target for those who would kill to bury it. If not, he would lose his livelihood— and the secret could fall into the wrong hands. That would have given tension without necessarily making the outcome entirely obvious (and making the first half of the book feel sort of pointless to read).

Beyond this, all other complaints I have are smaller: a good handful of typos and a wish for a better understanding of the relationship between Valen and Margo (do they love each other or just work together and happen to be married? Their interactions seem rather... flavorless). But the plot picks up as characters shift loyalties and the final gambit is played out. I really enjoyed the last chapters as we see what Valen is really made of.

Livingston is a solid writer, with some good turns of phrase and great snatches of dialogue, and some fun executions of cons. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first in a series, judging by the ending.