This book has been compared to Throne of Glass, but that is honestly selling this book short. It was so much better and certainly more diverse than that book. The comparison to Six of Crows is much more accurate. I really loved so much about this book, and I flew right through it. Sal is a wonderful protagonist, and I really found myself admiring and rooting for them. I cannot wait for the sequel to this book to see how things turn out.

This review first appeared on http://fictionistmag.com/

Before there is any other discussion, about the book or about the LGBT community, I want to say this:

Representation matters. Representation matters whether you’re in the group represented or not. Literature is meant to broaden your horizons (that’s right — even fantasy). Yes, you can still read about a genderfluid main character if you’re cisgendered. You can still read about an Indian main character if you’re a white American. I could go on.

Anyway, onto my actual review:


Thank you, thank you, thank you, Linsey Miller.

I loved this book. I loved it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was that I couldn’t stop reading it.

When I was at work, all I was thinking about was when I could get home to keep reading. I stayed up longer than I probably should have for a couple of nights to finish Sal’s story.

This story follows Sal, a lowly thief trapped under a slum lord’s (thief lord’s?) thumb. When Sal robs an Erland lady in a fancy gold-trimmed carriage — rich people. Sigh. — they find a flier. For auditions. For the Left Hand… AKA a group of highly-trained warriors that fight for Our Queen, no questions asked. Our Queen trusts the Left Hand completely, and they are named for her rings (guess what? They’re on her left hand) — Ruby, Emerald and Amethyst. There is also an Opal, but the previous Opal recently died. A rough audition process awaits young Sal, who is determined to audition for Opal after finding the flier.

Sal cuts off someone’s hand, heads on over to the castle (after wrapping the hand, obviously, they’re not an amateur) and it wins them a place as an auditioner.

I can’t give too much away without giving up major plot points, but this book was a delight. Miller’s writing lets you sink into Sal’s mind and stay there until you stop reading, and the nature of the Opal auditions makes sure there’s always something happening. There’s even some sinister court politics involved, which I’m always game for because I’m a messy b*tch who lives for drama.

I also loved the training scenes, because they were at least mostly realistic. They were harrowing, and tiring, and even at the end of a week or so of training Sal didn’t have the hang of archery or sword fighting. They’re hard skills to master in years, let alone a few training sessions, and I appreciate that even by the end of the book Sal is told they’re “awful.”

Now, I personally love that Sal is genderfluid because we don’t see characters like that too often anywhere, let alone in YA. Representation is important for lots of reasons (you can even hear me rant about it in podcast form), and I’m glad there’s one more LGBT+ book available for young readers.

Some of you might be wondering, how “obvious” is Sal’s gender-fluidity? Or, how big of a part of Sal’s character is it?

It’s honestly not a part of the book’s plot, and Sal doesn’t focus on it too much — they’ve been like that as long as they remember, and they know who they are. Sal has to explain it to a couple of people — to them, their gender is based on how they’re feeling day-by-day, so what they’re wearing makes it pretty obvious (since in court life, women generally wear dresses and men generally wear pants/tunics). They’re only really misgendered in one part of the book (twice in a row by the same character), and another character corrects it immediately. I can only really recall Sal mentioning their gender-fluidity about five times, all very brief, throughout the whole 384-page book. It’s easy to forget, but somehow still a presence.

My point here is, if you want to read about a genderfluid main character, this is your book! And if you don’t care about, or even don’t really like, the idea of a genderfluid main character, you could easily still enjoy this book. It’s not all about Sal’s gender fluidity. Their character, in my opinion, is even more heavily based on where they were born and what they’ve been through.

I will admit, the promise of a genderfluid assassin originally drew me to this book. But outside of that: A combination of characters, plot, court intrigue and general badassery makes this an easy five stars from me. I want to read more. Like, now.

I really, really wanted to like this book, but it fell short for me in far too many aspects. I had to force myself to finish it out of respect for the author.
World-building was almost non-existent. Whoever said fans of Sarah J. Maas would love this has never read one of her books. I'm a reader who loves detail and has no problem conjuring an image in head. That did no happen here.
Same with the characters. Almost no one has a description beyond male and female and muscle amount, and everyone is named a number. Meaning, I didn't care about any of them at all. Same thing goes for Sal, the main character. It took four chapters before anything about Sal's appearance was mentioned and it was useless. As for the gender fluidness, all I'll say is it did not translate well. In fact, it annoyed me each time it was brought up because it did not fit in.
Finally, the story itself was lacking. Sal's motivation for joining the auditions is barely there in the beginning. It takes so long for it all to come to light that I had almost finished the book before I understood. Most of the time I was asking "What the heck?" because the only names that seemed to be used are for people we never meet and don't understand the significance. A lot of the auditions came across as unbelievable as well. As for the writing, it was often very abrupt and jumpy, forcing me to go back a paragraph or a page to understand what happened.
Like I said, I really wanted to like this story, but the emotion, the imagery, and the relatability was lacking immensely.

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed Mask of Shadows. I’m pretty sure this is the first book I’ve read with a gender fluid character and I felt that it really added to the story. Sal watched everyone he/she knew die and has wanted revenge ever since. Sal decides to try out to be Opal, a member of the queen’s “The Left Hand”. They are the queen’s assassins and the other Opal died while on an assignment. Sal was living life as a thief up until then, not able to read or write, but very skilled. While on their last heist, Sal meets a lady whom they feel something different for. Sal even let her keep a piece of jewelry. Sal found the paper about the Left Hand auditions, kills someone for the entry, and leaves.

While trying out for The Left Hand, Sal is competing against 22 others. Sal is 23 (fitting since it’s my favorite number). The audition includes learning different skills, both physical and mental. I really liked the poison lessons. Sal goes in for a lesson to learn how to read and write and finds Elise, the same girl he stole from. They flirt and she remembered who Sal was right away.

“I was Sallot Leon-one of the last children of Nacea, orphan and street fighter, highway thiefand Twenty Three.”

I loved Sal, but I really found myself loving Maud, the maid. She was funny and a great side character. Elise was bold and smart, always a good combo. I also really enjoyed the rest of The Left Hand.

I won’t ruin anything for anyone who hasn’t read this yet. Sal competes. There is a lot of death, some backstabbing, a little romance, and revenge.

I gave this book 4 stars. It was a little confusing with all the names and places, but the story was fast paced with a lot of action.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley for review. Mask of Shadows will be released August 29th 2017 by Sourcesbooks Fire.

This novel was reminiscent of/a combination of The Hunger Games, Throne of Glass, and Divergent (sort of).

What excited me the most about this novel was the fact that the main character neither identified as male or female and was fluid with his/her gender. This is an interesting concept and I've never seen this done before. Even though I didn't necessarily enjoy this book, I did enjoy the fact that the author included this aspect in this story.

Now, onto my opinion of the story. First, a big complaint of mine was that the auditioners were named by numbers. This made it hard to distinguish, personalize, or even care for any of the characters involved. To be honest, after reading the only ones that I can specifically remember are Two, Three, Four, Five, and Twenty-Three (our main character). Having these characters named would have increased my enjoyment/understanding of the story tenfold.

Unfortunately, I just could not get into this story. The plot and overall storyline did not seem properly introduced and left me feeling confused and bored throughout the majority of the novel. Admittedly, there were a couple of fighting scenes that did capture my attention because they were well written. However, overall I just felt that I was going through the motions of reading this book with little to no understanding or interest.

As this was an ARC, there were a few grammatical errors as well as words missing from sentences. I hope this will be corrected prior to be publication.

Even though this was not a popular read for me, I hope that others will enjoy it more.

**Thank you to NetGalley as well as the publisher for supplying me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

Orphaned street thief, Sallot Leon, is permitted to enter the audition to become the next member of the Left Hand of the Queen, a group of four assassins who serve as advisers and protectors of the throne. These four are named for the gems of the rings worn by the Queen: Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst and Opal. When the last Opal is killed, Sal and 22 others compete to gain the position, which will elevate the winner to enjoy the riches, security and honor that will come with a new noble status. Borrowing heavily from titles such as Hunger Games and Throne of Glass, the plot follows the Auditioners, who must fight to the death to earn the coveted spot at court. The 22 contestants are virtually undistinguishable from one another with no real character development for any of them– each are masked for the competition and known only by their assigned numbers. Sal, now known as Twenty Three, wishes to leave a life of thievery behind, but also has a hidden agenda to avenge the destruction of her homeland and people. In one of the more original and interesting aspects of this tale, Sal ‘s character is gender fluid and prefers to be addressed by the pronouns of “they” and “them”. Unfortunately, the gender identity for Sal seems to revolve around what clothing they are wearing that day. A romance with a noblewoman who serves as a tutor for the Auditioners, unfolds and the sexuality between the two is presented matter of factly, the only obstacle to such a romance in this world is the Sal’s lower-class status, which would change if they win the contest. Mask of Shadows details the growing violence and intrigue between the Auditioners as the competition advances and many of these scenes are gripping, violent and gory. But overall, the story lacks strong character development and the world building is not fully realized. Sal’s back story is only briefly visited and there is no real explanation or insight into the magic and shadows which caused the destruction of the old-world order, or the war between the kingdoms that led to the current shaky political reality. This YA fantasy with a strong, gender fluid character has an interesting premise and action-packed competition sequences. A secondary purchase for fans of violent fantasy.

You know those kids you see in the mornings lagging behind their parents and/or siblings, scuffing their feet, head down, on their way to school? Looking anywhere and at anything possible to maybe maybe avoid their fate? That's how I felt reading this book.

I was so. so. so. so (x infinity) bored. I'm sorry, I was. I almost DNF'd this at 5%. And again at 8%. And 35%. And 49%. And.. honestly, I should just get to the point, or we'll all be here all day.

MASK OF SHADOWS is generic fantasy starring some genocide and vengeance and dead magic. Which sure sounds interesting. But.. I never felt like Sal cared about retribution, so why should I? Everything felt very flat. Even the reasons for the death of their people. It was like, oops? <spoiler>Also, really, you're trying to tell me <b>you're the only one who survived</b>? I call bullshit on that, snowflake.</spoiler> Oh but we have a genderfluid MC. If only we'd have more than four, maybe five?, casual references to pronouns this might have actually excited me. Because other than being occasionally miffed when someone "didn't notice I was dressed like a man/woman and should therefore be called he/she".. that's all we got from this. Oh and I guess the love interest was also bisexual. So, uh.. yay? If only I cared even a little about anything. Because I did not.

The history confused me, I totally zoned out countless times, I still don't really understand a lot of what happened, and why this thief/street rat/whatever thinks they are better than <b>professional longtime assassins</b> I don't know.

There have been a lot of lackluster (lazy) fantasy offerings as of late and sadly, despite the unique elements that tried to make this different, this one definitely gets added to that pile. I never got so annoyed that I hated it, or any character or event, I was just so uninterested that my ambivalence felt painful. So this one star isn't a rage-rating. I just can't assign anything higher to a read that offered me so little connection, enthusiasm or interest.

Incase you couldn't tell I will not be reading the sequel.

It was so hard for me to get into this book. The protagonist was not very likable because they were so underdeveloped. The history of the setting was also dull and misplaced.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept my interest throughout and I found Sallot to be relatable. I loved the journey the author takes the reader on and thoroughly enjoyed reading about Sal's experiences during the Audition process. The ending also sets up the next book nicely. I can't wait to read what happens next!

Orphan Sal is a thief who enters a competition to become one of the Queen's new Assassins. During this fight to-the-death, Sal builds relationships and trust in unlikely places, while plotting to use the position to take revenge for their family's death.

The genderfluid main character was handled in a very matter-of-fact way. This character could have been any sex/sexual orientation and it would have been the same story. Although the competition is reminiscent of The Hunger Games, I felt it was justified to have this type of event, with the candidates killing each other, since in fact they are auditioning to be assassins. Nothing pretty about that profession.

Although I liked the book, there are some things I think needed tightening up. My biggest problem was that the history of this country was not more fully developed. I was doing a lot of filling in the blanks with the bits of information given - Why did the countries go to war?
Who were the magicians and what is the source of magic? How did the runes factor in? How exactly did the queen "save everybody"?, (I was never sure if Sal's loyalty to the queen was misplaced because I was so confused about the history of their (extinct) country.) Most importantly, I would have liked more thorough information on the shadow earlier in the book.

This was a "can't put down" read and I look forward to further adventures of Opal!

Sallot Leon, better known as Sal, is a street fighter and an excellent thief. Sal, however wants more from life than robbing nobles and fighting. In the midst of a robbery one day, Sal finds a flyer for auditions for the position of Opal in the Queen’s Left Hand- her personal assassins, named after the rings on her left hand, and decides to go for it. The auditions turn out to be not only training, but a fight to the death with the other contestants. This is a fight that Sal may not be prepared for, but is determined to win and get revenge for their country that was destroyed by the nobles that are in the capitol and the heart of Elise, who they are growing closer and closer to. Will Sal survive to live out this dream?
Guys, I finished this book, and immediately said that I needed more! Seriously, check my Twitter feed! This is that wonderful rare occasion where I have trouble believing that this is a debut novel. The characters were so well rounded and fleshed out. I absolutely loved that the main character, Sal, was gender fluid. It made this character all the more interesting, and definitely an underrepresented community that we should see more of. Miller writes characters that you want to become invested in. The world building was so lovely, and easily visualized. It had enough romance in it to add to the story, but not so much as to make it the focus. This is written as a YA Fantasy, but truthfully it is just a very well written Fantasy that would appeal to anyone looking for that type of escape. I can’t wait to find that escape again in the next installment!

I'm going to just get the obvious out of the way, and say what everyone else is saying about this book:  This could be called "Hunger Games with a Gender-Fluid Hero." It could be...if books were that simple.

But they aren't. So I'm not going to call it Hunger Games with a Gender-Fluid Hero. Does it have some similarities to that series? Sure, absolutely. They are both about battles to the death in post-war countries. There's a love interest with some sparky sparks elsewhere. But I find myself annoyed that Hunger Games is now a very narrow genre of its own, and if any other book is remotely similar to it...it is undesirable. Unpopular Opinion Alert.

Now for some unsimiliarities (that's not a word, Haley):  This is more high fantasy than dystopia. The world used to have magic, but it has been broken. This definitely isn't a modern society, and that's the biggest break from the HG dystopian genre. Also, these aren't kids. Sal is youngish, but the audition for Opal is seen as a legit job interview. We aren't sending 11 year olds to do this, and it's not an annual sacrifice. Not everyone has to do this, it's totally optional, and it's not seen as a game.

Definitely not a game. These people are not messing around with their tasks and their rules. It isn't an audition for the lighthearted--you're gonna die if you don't take it seriously. I loved Maud and how she kept pointing out to Sal how much she was doing everything wrong. I'd want her in my corner always.

Sal's gender fluidity is a big deal, so I don't want to skim over that, but I also realize it is very much not my lane. I admit that I was a bit confused by the pronouns--I've never seen anyone go by all three before, and I haven't been able to find anything online about that. In the book, they prefer which every pronoun suits the clothes that they are wearing:  'he' when wearing masculine clothing, 'she' when wearing feminine, 'they' when wearing both. For some characters, this was absolutely no big deal and accepted. For others, they were called she all the time--either out of confusion...or mostly spite. Again, this is absolutely not my lane, and because the book hasn't been released yet, there aren't a lot of own voices reviews yet. I will say that I am glad that there is some gender fluid main character rep in the market, and I will keep my fingers crossed that nothing problematic comes out of this. I want very badly for this to be a good thing for people.

I really enjoyed this debut for Linsey Miller. It's a solid high fantasy series starter. I'm super interested to see where the rest of the series takes us!

I was really disappointed by this book. I was really excited to check this book out and I got it from netgalley so I'm doing this for an honest review.

The description of this book sounded amazing - honestly, but reading it, I never felt a connection to the characters, I had to force myself to keep going and read, and it wasn't as amazing as it sounded.

I hate HATE giving bad reviews. I hate not liking books and I hate not giving a book another chance.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review, which has not altered my opinion.

As soon as I read the premise of this book, I knew that I had to give it a read. I feel as though there have been some very different and very good assassination books as well as some very different and very good lgbt+ books over the past year and this book can be added to both. I’m actually going to quickly start with the second part of that sentence because our main character is openly gender fluid and I have to say that I loved the fact that this world just took that all in stride. Literally, everyone totally respected that Sal would chose their gender each day (take note real world!). On the other side, Sal was a complete and utter badass! They knew what was wanted and did just that, damn what everyone else thought.

The entire concept for the story didn’t remind me as much of Hunger Games as I worried it would, but there was for sure that distinct possibility lurking in the back of my mind. But this story was so well thought out and well planned, and surprisingly the politics did not bore me at all. There wasn’t a huge lull that caused me to get bored although I did lose track briefly at the beginning what the jobs of each of the Queen’s Hands was. I remembered Opal is the assassin but I couldn’t recall Ruby’s job for the life of me until the next chapter and I nearly hit myself in the face with my kindle for forgetting. The biggest plot for this entire book, however, is for sure revenge. Basically, it’s about getting revenge and not letting anyone figure out it was you. Talk about some brutal death scenes, this book really had them!

As far as the sequels go, I’m really hoping that there is going to be more information on Sal and their family. It will also be exciting and interesting to see how Sal’s change in views affects their performance in the future. I can’t wait to see what happens!! Five out of five from me!

Ok, a strong story with a unique and complex character to lead it. The story would have benefited from a strong editor, as there were several places where the main character acted in ways that made no sense or it was unclear about why they were acting that way. Each time, this was a distraction to the story. The magic system absolutely needed more clarification and the (mostly) off-screen characters that the protagonist wanted eliminated due to their actions in the war were poorly drawn, when they were drawn at all. However, the on-screen characters were well-drawn and given personalities and motivations that were easily understood. The love story was rather hollow but clear and made sense in the context of the story. The amorality of the entire group, except for two characters, was rather disturbing but completely in character. Overall a good story, but it could have been great very easily.

***Link not active until 1 week before book's pub date***

Assassins are popular these days.

His Fair Assassin trilogy, which I thought was going to be stupid but which was a dazzlingly well-researched historical and religious drama, and Godsgrave, which was a crazy-cool assassin rock concert at full blast. Hit is about corporate assassins, and Throne of Glass is a competition for the best assassin. I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the latter, and I was ready for a new take. Linsey Miller is taking up that challenge with Mask of Shadows, also about an assassin competition, but more like The Hunger Games in that the competition involves picking each other off to win.

Sal is our assassin, a bandit who has larger and darker dreams than ripping off carriages by the side of the road. As a child, Sal witnessed the bloody end of a bleak and cruel war, and now they want their vengeance.

Yes, they. Sal doesn't hold to one gender, and they are male or female or neuter depending on how they feel. For the sake of convenience, they dress according to the pronouns they want others to use. Mask of Shadows is a great exploration of gender but it's not about gender. I see a lot of stories focused on self-discovery—and that's awesome!—but not everyone has the luxury of protracted self-examination. Sal found out who they were while under the thumb of a ruthless gang lord, and asserted themself as safely as possible while also having to make concessions to make their changing gender identity apparent to others. They had so much to cope with, and they found a way. That's an important story to tell too, and I applaud Miller for doing it so well.

Miller likewise pays attention to the realities she has set up with her world—the flux of commerce and power, the economic consequences of the loss of magic, and the difficulties of peace. The setting is solid: two nations uneasily united under one conqueror-queen, a woman whom Sal worships as the woman who ended the war. This almost chivalric devotion is unusual in modern fantasy, so it's pleasant to see such uncomplicated faith and optimism.

The queen has empowered her Left Hand--her closest confidants and deadliest assassins--to choose a new member after one of their number is killed. The Left Hand calls for "auditions," and Sal volunteers, thinking it will get them closer to both the queen and revenge.

The members of the Left Hand seem vaguely likable and interesting but not terribly distinct from one another as characters. Other auditioners are likewise hard to distinguish even when Sal begins to know them a little. They die quickly but (with a few exceptions) not very notably. There are no gruesome or heart-wrenching details of their deaths, no impressive feats like getting killed in a locked room or a bare field. And since Sal has no emotional connection to any of them, they barely make any impact. That's not really what you want when you're telling a story about a competition to become the next Super Awesome Death Ninja.

Their successes and failures also feel muffled by the writing. Some authors are adept at throwing you into situations and then gradually peeling back the layers, making the whole book a mystery you're constantly examining. Gene Wolfe is a master, and Genevieve Valentine isn't far behind. But to do this, you have to reveal what but not why. Unfortunately Miller stumbles at times with revealing what. There are frequent instances of scenes that do not properly introduce the action, and I don't just mean the fighting. I mean that I had to frequently page back to determine that, yes, people were suddenly reacting to things that had no antecedents. Let me give you an example: some of the candidates are eating dinner and then suddenly they are reacting to someone talking about important notes. We don't see these notes described and we don't understand how (or even if) they get from one person's hand to another's until specific characters react. And the conversation does not reveal the action in any way--they could be hiding these notes, passing them out, having servants take them to hand out, etc. I may get the gist (sooner--or later) but I can't actually picture things.

Now, I sympathize with this impulse. You don't want to over-describe, and snappy scenes feel good to write and to read. There's also perhaps a certain new-writer shyness or embarrassment around writing too much and having your prose seem purple or amateurish. But Miller is leaving us out of basic mechanics, making it harder to picture the flow of the action, not easier. She's also shooting herself in the foot a little, since mechanical actions are just as useful as dialogue or emotional descriptions at conveying mood and intent. As she settles into writing I think this tendency will fade, but right now, it's really distracting.

The narrative as a whole is also bumpy. The auditioners' training is oddly protracted, and I'm not sure I like the structure—it seems unfair, and not terribly interesting on top of that. Perhaps it's a good way to gauge candidates' ability to learn and adapt, but it seems rushed. They're supposed to learn a huge range of skills, but only the basics, and we don't even get to see most of those basics. We don't learn cool or interesting things along with Sal, we just hear that Sal learns about archery, or poison, or what-have-you.

Sal seems more lucky than skillful—they depend very heavily on their servant Maud despite frequent assertions of mistrust, and they find ways in and out of places without anything going wrong or putting in much time or work. I like to see characters who either work harder than everyone else, or who are cleverer or more talented than everyone else in a tangible, demonstrated way. We understand that Sal is a good thief, but we don't see a whole lot of it. At several points they pick locks on buildings within the palace or owned by very dangerous people—yet they are able to overcome these locks with equal finesse and blasé. How did a highway robber learn how to get through the best locks that money could buy? Their former master didn't seem the teacher type, and lockpicking isn't always simple.

The politics of the realm are also far from simple, yet Sal doggedly persists in assuming they are. Vengeance can make a person myopic, sure, but even as Sal learns how complex some situations and people can be from their romantic interest, they fail to apply that lesson elsewhere. They murder nobles and believe it will help the realm, yet they have no idea what kinds of long political games the Queen they profess to adore is playing. They could be ruining things and would never know—but of course, they aren't. Things work out for Sal. Sal gets to be the hero, even when others have to be borderline incompetent for it to happen. And Sal gets to keep their illusion of righteous vengeance while also sidestepping the hard questions of compromise and the greater good.

A hypocrite would be an interesting flaw for a character—so often we have characters who are conflicted but ultimately honest—but I think it's not one Miller meant Sal to have. We're supposed to sympathize with Sal's purehearted vengeance, but they were willing to kill strangers on command. That's morally grey at best. Sal doesn't get to condemn other's hard choices and retain credibility as a paragon of virtue, and it's a huge misstep for Miller to demand our continued sympathies for them in that light.

The ending sets up a sequel, which I will probably read so long as it comes out next summer. Mask of Shadows was a good beach read, enough for a weekend away. It was fun enough and diverting enough, but the next book will have to be more than enough to compete.

Mask of Shadows comes out August 29th.

This book is a masterpiece that was cleverly written on a plot that we have seen in a few different ways. You got a character who describes herself as " Thief and a killer, trained by childhood of fear and violence" who sets out in a competition to take a prized position. I loved that we jumped into the story with little knowledge of how our wayward character got to where she is. Sometimes I feel the first book of a series gets bogged down with filling us in with backstory that it takes to long to get to the meat of the story. Since this is a book one we got more books to fill in backstory with as the main character continues on her path beyond achieving what she wants to in the competition.

Some may hold issue with the love interest in this story as it two females but I did not feel it was overly weird or that it distracted from the action filled story. In fact I not sure it could of played out well or at all if it been a male and female relationship.

My favorite quote came right at the end of the story when the now crowned opal tells the queen just what she thinks of her. " I used to love you. I adored you. I would've died for you. I thought you were lady sent to save us, to pull us from the chaos magic and greed brought down upon us, but your just like us. Your not any different from them, maneuvering people to keep your power". What a powerful thought and accurate description of how the political leaders actually think and work. Makes you wonder if the magic was ever truly banished? Makes me intrigued for book two.

The book ends on rousing cliff hanger with our love interest being stolen away and the new opal taking on the task of her the previous opal. "They'd taken my country and my life, and I would take their heads". Gives me tingles.

This was a DNF for me. The action writing was good to a point but the limited character descriptions (in both the physical and personal senses) became frustrating and kept taking me out of the story. The similarities to other fantasy/dystopian stories (mostly other YA and even Once Upon a Time in the intro) also took away the motivation to keep reading. That said, I appreciate the opportunity to read an advanced copy and am sorry I was unable to give a review of the complete story.

I totally love this novel. The characters were fantastic and loved the plot twists. The author did a fantastic job creating a different world. Salad lost everything when he was young, with no parents to protect and guide him, he was forced to become a thief. When he stumbled upon a poster found in one of his targets purse he found the perfect opportunity to change his life. Can he outsmart all the other candidates to become the next opal?

<i> Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy </i>

This started off a little shaky for me. I couldn't get into the story and I thought it would be a DNF. But after a few chapters the story started to pick up and then I couldn't put it down.

Initially I picked it up because the description said it's for fans of Sarah J Maas and Leigh Bardugo, so I was instantly intrigued. I wouldn't say this is on the same level writing wise as Maas or Bardugo, but it was still highly enjoyable and written well (if a little confusing plot wise at times). I also got 'Nevernight' vibes when reading this, which isn't a bad thing as I adored that book.

There were certain characters in this that I loved (Maud) and wanted more from -- and the killings were a lot more brutal than I was expecting for a YA book about assassins, which I enjoyed. The fact that the main character was gender fluid was refreshing to read about too.

Highly enjoyable read and I can't wait for book two.