Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller


Hardcover384 pages
Expected publication: August 29th 2017 by Sourcebooks Fire





Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class and the nobles who destroyed their home. 


When Sal Leon steals a poster announcing open auditions for the Left Hand, a powerful collection of the Queen's personal assassins named for the rings she wears -- Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, and Opal -- their world changes. They know it's a chance for a new life.



Except the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. But Sal must survive to put their real reason for auditioning into play: revenge.







I went into this book with high hopes of loving this book, but I ended up feeling disappointed. I have a feeling a lot of people will really enjoy this book, but it just wasn't for me. 

For me, this book felt very slow. I was waiting for the pace to pick up, but it just...didn't? The book seemed repetitive and boring. I wanted to see a lot of stabbing, intrigue, and mystery. Instead, there was just a lot of training. Now, I find training scenes to be really interesting, but it felt like that's all there was to the book at times. Also, there felt like there was a lot of info-dumping. I would have liked the world building to be more detailed and drawn out throughout the story.

Another thing that bothered me about this book was that it felt so much like the Hunger Games. I couldn't help but feel like I was re-reading that book again. There were so many similarities, which drove me crazy! It was also hard to keep track of all the characters because each character was referred to by a number. The only one I could remember was the romantic interest.

Speaking of the romantic interest, I actually really loved the romance in this book. I thought the romance was well paced and so stinking cute. It was a slow burning romance that made me feel all the feels. I WAS SHIPPING THE ROMANCE SO HARD. 

I also really liked the inclusion of a gender-fluid main character. I loved the diversity that added to the book and I want MORE DIVERSITY IN BOOKS, PLEASE?

Overall, I thought this book had a lot of potential to be the fantasy book of my dreams. Even though it had wonderful diversity and a sweet romance, it just fell flat for me. 

2 / 5 Fangs

*This ebook was given to me in exchange for an honest review. * 

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