If you're a fan of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows series, read no further. Just go now and pre-order this book. Immersive world-building, mesmerizing, flawed, diverse characters, life or death stakes - all done masterfully.

The setting of New Reynes, the City of Sin, is a character unto itself in this book - I felt as if I were experiencing the dark, narrow streets, enticing smells of street vendors, and threats lurking around every corner. The guidebook references at the beginning of each chapter are entertaining and give subtle hints at what's to come.

Although she may fool you initially, Enne Salta is almost as badass as V.E. Schwab's Delilah Bard. An unexpected strong resolve and nerves of steel hide behind her 'proper young lady' exterior - don't underestimate her. Levi is pulled in several directions, makes questionable choices, struggles to do the right thing - and could charm a snake.

Ace of Shades offers a fast-paced plot, gangs, casinos, rogues, intrigue, mystery, romance, and magic - and it's one of my top YA fantasy reads. The second book couldn't come soon enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

In her <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2218538676?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1">review</a>, Cinda Williams Chima described this book as "<i>Six of Crows</i> meets 'House of the Rising Sun,'" and that's honestly the best description I've seen. I'm a huge fan of both of those things, so this should have been a total winner for me. Ultimately, though, <i>Ace of Shades</i> was too trope-y for me to rate it as highly as I did <i>Jade City</i>, which is one of the best gangster books I've ever read.

First things first, <i>Ace of Shades</i> has a killer premise: a gang leader and a lady-in-training get caught up in a mysterious card game which might cost them their lives. New Reynes has a distinct inspired-by-New Orleans vibe, with its old warm charm, big casinos, and reputation as a "City of Sin." And the different gangs and magic systems had a very <i>Six of Crows</i>-type feel. Overall, I liked a worldbuilding a lot, though I did have questions (Public telephones? That feels a little too modern, idk).

The plot is also fast-paced and moves us through the story (and the city) in a way that keeps you turning the pages. I was definitely never bored. If I weren't in school, I could have finished this book in a day or two.

Where <i>Ace of Shades</i> fell apart for me was the characters. I recognize that this is personal taste, but if you're going to write a book about criminals, I feel like you really have to *go* there. It's repeated multiple times that Levi is a good person - he rarely cheats people, unless he has to; he's never killed anyone, unlike the other gang leaders; and one of the other characters constantly tells him that Levi is better than the others. While it's hard to buy that a 17-year-old could be a gang leader, a problem both <i>Ace of Shades</i> and <i>Six of Crows</i> shares, at least Kaz Brekker *felt* like he could get the job done. Levi never comes across as formidable, and honestly, I was shocked that <spoiler>Chez or one of the others didn't challenge him earlier</spoiler>. This is something I thought Fonda Lee did very well in <i>Jade City</i>, especially in the character of Hilo: he's horrible; we see the terrible, violent things he does <u>from page one</u>, but we love him anyway. I wanted Amanda Foody to trust us a little more, give Levi a sharper edge, and let us fall for him anyway.

A second problem I had was the trope-y feel. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but <i>Ace of Shades</i> has a distinct YA flavor to it that I'm finding interests me less and less. For one, the romance (though admittedly never taking over the plot) feels both superfluous and inevitable. While <spoiler> Levi and Enne never admit their feelings for each other</spoiler>, we know they will in book 2. There's no surprise here. Nor was there any real tension, in my eyes. I wanted to feel like it's possible they might not get together, but as is so common in YA books, the romance seems sealed from the first chapter.

So in the end, while <i>Ace of Shades</i> is a fast read with interesting worldbuilding, I just didn't think it was as good of a book as other mobster-led stories I've read, notably the aforementioned <i>Six of Crows</i> and <i>Jade City</i>. I'd still recommend this one, though only to those who are hungry for more of Ketterdam and Kaz, and don't mind if the story doesn't quite live up to its inevitable comparison.

While it’s not technically a villain origin story, “Ace of Shades” offers the rare opportunity to watch a character who is the very definition of innocence thrown into the unforgiving world of lies, greed, betrayal and sin with little hope of survival but with the determination to come out on top.

This book follows Enne, a sheltered young woman desperately searching for her mother in the city of sin with nothing more to go on than a letter offering up a man, Levi who might be able to help but who also happens to have problems of his own and while their two stories intertwine, they are forced to trust each other and work together in order to find the answers Enne so desperately craves and work to keep each other alive.

This is a world that blends the allure of magic and the temptation of sin creating a dark and seedy atmosphere that draws you in while following these characters as they try to survive and establish a reputation that will allow them to advance in the world far better than any gambling den or dance hall would allow while offering the underlying political tension that could start a new war if secrets that were thought to be buried manage to make themselves known with the smallest slip of the tongue.

Fans of ‘Six of Crows’ will love this book as it shows the importance of loyalty and the dangers of pulling off the impossible with a horde of enemies lurking in the shadows and a game of chance that you won’t survive losing.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

Ace of Shades is a masterpiece of a book. The worldbuilding, the writing, the characters, and the plot are all phenomenal and I am so excited to see where the next book takes them all. It's wonderful and refreshingly diverse, clearly influenced by Six of Crows and Spirited Away but with its own delightful spin. I simultaneously didn't want to put it down, and wanted to stop reading it so I wouldn't finish it.