This book had me hooked from the beginning! The action paced and mysterious start to this novel really made curious for the rest of it, and I´m glad it did. We follow the story of Leyna and her path to glory, except, maybe her ambitions weren´t as glorious as she thought them to be. I had a love-hate relationship with her, but her growth is undeniable. My favorite character was The Jester, as he really shined through the book. His lines, his actions, his secrets. I was there for it all. I wished we could get more of Quinn and Grace, but I´m sure the author has a plan for it all. Overall, a captivating read full of action, twists and betrayals. Definitely reccommend. My thanks to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Leyna, a wizard in training, dreams to one day join the Royal Guard. When that dream turns to reality she is thrilled. However, her happiness is short lived when tragedy strikes and the King and his court are attacked and almost everyone is murdered.

Leyna is tasked with finding those responsible for the horrific crimes against the crown. No one is above suspicion and many have something to hide.

I initially chose to read and review this book because the cover caught my eye. But the write up was also very intriguing. And the book did not disappoint.

The characters were well developed. I was especially fond of the Jester who I could so easily picture and hear through the authors words. And I love the chemistry between Jester and Leyna.

This was an original story that offered mystery, magic, intrigue and bit of romance. This did not have the feel of a debut book. It was a fun read and I look forward to book two. 4 stars.

Ambition, intrigue, secrets, and betrayal amongst the court and wizards. Fantasy epic with good versus evil, but who is who? And woven through it all a bit of romance and solid friendship. A message of the blindness of naive ambition and pride.

Wizard’s Masquerade is a medieval fantasy novel with a little bit of mystery and romance in the storyline. The opening scene in which Leyna is undertaking her Maze Exam is exciting and tense and immediately drew me into the novel. It begins as an academia type novel, but quickly shifts away from this when Leyna leaves the Wizarding Guild for Rutherford Castle to join the Royal Guard. This is an interesting world and I liked the setting and the period of time in which it was situated. The castle, the costumes and the environment are described in detail by the author and you definitely get a feeling of the atmosphere.

Whereas Leyna was perhaps not my favourite character there was something about Jester which drew me to him and his multi-dimensional characterisation. He had air of mystery about him as well as a more sinister side. The romance was secondary to the storyline and I would have liked to have seen more of it and if you’re looking for spicy scenes, there was only one which I can recall. Jester’s relationship with Leyna is portrayed well and I liked their constant light-hearted needling and teasing of one another and general flirtatious banter.

The book felt too long, which doesn’t normally bother me, however there were certain parts which could have been tightened up and refined therefore reducing the length quite considerably. On the whole it’s an enjoyable read, it’s undemanding, fun and a well thought out fantasy novel. The ending is left open and definitely needs that second book. The cover art also deserves a mention too as it‘s amazing and really depicts what is within the novel.

Thank you so much to the author for sending an eARC via Netgalley and also a beautiful paperback copy my way.

I ended up getting sick while in the middle of reading this book and had to put it down, but it was easy to pick back up again once I was better, which for me means the story flowed nicely. I love the cover, and enjoyed the intricate world.

I felt the whole range of emotions reading this anger, disappointment, joy,anxiety, heartbreak , I laughed so much and ohhhhh the romance. It’s slow burn which is my favourite, not very much steam, but so many soft romantic moments, it’s just gorgeous. But it hurt to read the end I’m so sad but so excited for the next ! I need the next now

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

2.5 stars
These are just my opinions…

The opening chapters had me engaged because it gave me goblet of fire vibes when our MC Leyna is introduced. She’s in a maze for her practical exam for the wizarding guild and even the hospital where the students are being healed reminded me of Harry Potter. That’s where that comparison ends.

This book was too long for my liking. It opens with quite a fast pace and slows down for far too long! I had to stop at 50% for some time because I felt like it just dragged. A lot of it was repetitive and I’ve never read a book where I wanted it to hurry up and end… until now. I know what you’re thinking “why not DNF?”. I never have because I still want to find out what happens in every story.

Leyna longs to become part of the knights guard as a huskarl to fulfil a dream she’s had, which she also does for her deceased sister Tash’s memory. She wants honour, duty and to be a protector of her kingdom Rosaria. As part of her final days in the wizarding guild, Leyna and her classmates decide to play a prank on the headmaster. In his office, she gets called to a secret compartment where a book lays and she gets controlled by a demon to summon it. There’s no control and when summoned, her leg is almost destroyed by this demon. A kind healer Cornelius restores majority of her leg, but it won’t physically look the same.

Because of her healing, most of which occurs when Leyna is unconscious, she misses her final exam and therefore can’t graduate nor be offered her lifelong dream of being a huskarl. Leyna gets jealous when her classmates Quinn and Grace are offered placements as huskarls. She’s devastated as you can imagine, but is given a chance after someone convinces the headmaster to give her a chance at the final exam. And then she gets to be a huskarl! Yay!

Leyna isn’t happy when her first assignment is to escort a jester and his entourage to the castle. The jester teases and tests her patience throughout the book. In amongst the slowed down pace of the story, she gets sworn in as a huskarl (which is supposed to be a big event but isn’t), her mother tries playing matchmaker with suitable noblemen at court, there’s some gala type events and she’s tasked to protect the king’s son Seth teaching him wizardry - which is also her cousin or second cousin (don’t remember). Most of the story at this point is Leyna just being angry, jealous or frustrated about something that’s going on in her life because it’s not what she expected. She has a lot of privilege and doesn’t realise it sometimes.

The king decides to visit another area for some months with majority of his staff to accompany. Quinn is selected but Leyna and Grace have to guard young Seth. Leyna gets frustrated by this. Then tragedy strikes when the king, queen and staff are all nearly killed. Only 2 guards survive leaving security for the kingdom severely impacted. Leyna is part of the arrest unit to find the culprits of the massacre, the mysterious jester is then tasked to sit in with Leyna’s time with Seth, Seth nearly unalives himself and then Quinn comes back only to be arrested. Apparently he killed the queen but Grace just doesn’t believe it and stands by it.

Lots of arrests are made in which Leyna never really questions the information - I found that odd. It’s only when the 2 guards that survived start changing their story which makes her suspicious. The demon book is then used to have demons guard the kingdom as extra security and they can be controlled. She starts falling for the jester, slowly finds out his identity and that he is a spy for the king. There is also an awkward sex scene with him which I felt like it wasn’t necessary as part of the story.

There are two secret factions operating within this kingdom - one to protect the king or spy for him and the other is who killed him. We find out who was behind all of it. Most of this picks up at about 85% of the book. The main villain seeking revenge because of a personal circumstance. There’s a final battle scene with lots of demons, in which Seth ends up stopping by commanding them off because he’s highest ranked. It seemed a bit uneventful and anti climactic when he did that.

In the end Leyna is asked by the jester to ride off into the sunset to his hometown. He’s done with his spying ways and assumed so many identities that he needs to find himself.

The story had so much going on. I’d say from about 40-80% of the book is where it really slowed down. If you like fast to slow to fast pace, then this may be for you. The book could have been split into two or condensed in some parts. The MC Leyna seemed naive and it was hard to like her. It was like she existed to complain and she would only be grateful if someone suggested the idea to her. I thought the jester was funny and provided entertainment to the read. The concept of the demon book was good, but it could have been abused more by the villain and the story could have had an epic magical defensive counter, but that wasn’t to be. Just fell a bit short for me. In the end, it became about love and is that what the second book is going to be focused on? I can’t foresee much happening unless someone does go abuse the demon book.

The cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous, bravo. Now what we were given about the world and the magic system was really neat and new and fun and I would have loved to have more of it. And I would have loved to have more expansion of characters other than those closest to our leading lady. Jester, was a fun character needed more of that. The romance.... I think needed more but overall thats how I felt throughout the book, we needed more and unfortunately our main character wasn't the best way to deliver it. There were hints at much bigger things at play but she wasn't part of it so hints. Many things happened off page which was a detriment. I also felt like character dialogue fell very flat and made characters a lot less defined for a good number of them. This was a fun read though and I'm pretty sure I'll be picking up the next one

Thank you Netgalley and the author for the arc.

I loved this novel!!

What I adored were the characters. The differences in all their personalities were well done.

The story itself is quite interesting. The world-building is light, you insert yourself quite easily into the story. And we start off with a bang with action right from the beginning. The magic system with the otherworld is something I haven't seen before. Just the general relationship with the other world was super intriguing.

The different settings were interesting as well. The characters developed differently in each different setting.

As for the characters themselves, can't say there's one I didn't enjoy reading about.

Leyna was struggling with her dreams, her aspirations, and what the world actually gave her. In a new part of her life, where she wanted to settle but no. Changes upon changes kept happening and had. her morals were questioned all throughout.

The Jester. By far my favorite character. I won't go into too much detail about him as I want the other readers to be as mesmerized as I was. So mysterious, funny, conniving, yet sweet and all the good things. He truly brought a smile to my face whenever he appeared on the page.

And obviously had to mention Floofy. Our mascot for the story. May I just say that I want one very badly.

Overall highly recommend it! I cannot wait to see where this story goes CAUSE I CANT STICK WITH THAT ENDING.

1st Disclaimer,
I'll be a bit hursh on this review, I don't want to offend anyone, this is just my opinion, maybe I didn't understand it or maybe I didn't have the right mindset.

2nd Disclaimer,
Despite what the book cover may show the main plot in this book is not the love story, so if you start reading the book because you hope to read a romance then it's not it. I'm not saying that there isn't, there are some scenes, even a couple of spicy ones, but still not the main plot. And to be frank I would have lived without those, they didn't feel right. There was one in particular where I wanted to shout "LOCK THE DAMN DOOR YOU'RE A WIZARD".
There is a bit more romance toward the end, as if they realized too late that it was supposed to be romantic.

Now we may begin

The story starts a bit slow at the beginning, the first couple of chapters were slow and hard to read, but once you get through those it gets easier and start to be interesting.
But I feel like that some important part in this book where not treated the way they were supposed to be, they felt rushed.
Some parts who did nothing to the plot were over detailed and given to much space.
It's also painfully obvious, there is no plot twist because you already know what it's going to happen.
Overall it was to long, some scenes could have been cut.

The characters,
there were a few that I actually liked.
The main one, Leyna, is really dumb, she couldn't see what was right in her face, and spoiled as hell, I get she's a rich kid, but there were some parts were I wanted to kick her.
She has to work on herself, needs to grow up and use the brain that was given to her. If I were to remove her from the book, it actually would have been better. She's the main reason why I didn't like much of this book.
Jester is the best, loved him. He has all the book on his shoulder. I just can't see how he can have feelings for Leyna.
Grace, who's the BFF of the main, is there just to cheer her on and to mope (rightfully) around. There is no other purpose for her here.
Quinn was interesting I wanted to know more about him but unfortunately there was no chance. At least for now, maybe in the next book I'll get to know him better.

This book confused me, I didn't like it but at the same time I didn't hate it, I can see how it could have been and I really hope that the next one will be better. Maybe I will give it another chance in the future, but until then, this is my opinion.

eArc provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Actual Rating: 0.5

Wizard's Masquerade was not the book I thought/wanted it to be. I found parts of the world and the magical system to be really interesting, but felt it was not explained well enough for comprehension. There was parts of the story where I was confused on what was occuring, especially, the beginning and the ending. Additionally, I felt the main character's voice sounded younger than her actual age, which was jarring at times. I am disappointed I did not like this book because I really wanted to.

This has left me feeling mostly frustrated and disappointed. There was an interesting mystery, world and even some of the characters were interesting enough. Overall, it just didn't work for me because nothing that happened felt surprising. It was pretty obvious to me what we would discover quite early on and watching Leyna be unable to figure it out left me annoyed at her.

Pros first. I thought the world was interesting. We were in 2 key settings and I had a relatively fair idea of what the world was like. The magic was clearly explained and probably one of the strongest elements of the book.

The romance was kind of interesting. I'm annoyed at where it went but it was like I didn't ship it so overall, the romance was decent.

Cons. I will keep this short and focus on the big reasons why this didn't work for me.
- I predicted pretty much everything super early on.
- Characters - I wasn't really invested in anybody. I think I just needed more from the secondary characters, just so that I was more invested and actively cared about what was happening to the characters rather remain unaffected.

Overall, this just didn't work for me. I feel mean saying it but I probably wouldn't recommend this. I do think that it had the elements of a 5 star read, I just think it wasn't executed in the best way.

I don’t really read long books. I find them difficult to read because the volume scares me and I assume there’s usually a lot of information which will hinder my imagination. Regardless, I decided to pick this book up solely for the cover.

This book has a very beautiful and unique cover that captivated me. I’m not sure if it’s the color tones used or the details but it made me look beyond the page count. The title is also very intriguing and a play of words clearly depicting what’s to come in the story.

Leyna is our main character and one I think I liked. Honestly I’m conflicted on her character. I liked her in the beginning, because I felt her feelings were justified for the biased and privileged system she was in but then she did the same thing she thought was wrong for someone else. She’s a royal so I understand the pride and selfishness she has but I think sometimes she took it too far. It made me dislike her character more than I wanted to at times.

Everyone is going to love the Jester. Funny and caring, he brings the story a much needed lighthearted conversation. Yes he’s annoying and pursuing Leyna but he does it ever so considerately. Whenever the Jester joined the scene I couldn’t help but smile while reading because his character didn’t just stand out but it stays in your memory.

The plot wasn’t to my liking. The world had an interesting concept although not unique. I felt the world wasn’t fleshed out thoroughly and there were quite a bit of unknowns on how the magic system worked. That said, the mystery element of the plot was easily solvable making the already short ending anticlimactic. There’s also a lot of details in this book that I felt were sometimes unnecessary or misplaced since they ruined the flow of the story.

I did enjoy the romance in this book. There are quite a lot of characters in this book and somehow most of the men felt like potential love interests for Leyna. Although we know she would end up with the Jester because the cover is a pretty good giveaway. I wouldn’t say any other potential love interest stood out for me mostly because they didn’t feel unique.

Overall, I did enjoy this lengthy book. I would have liked a bit more on the magic system and maybe a little less Jester chasing Leyna’s scenes. I didn’t really prefer to read Leyna ignoring the Jester countless times repeatedly when he was trying to help her out or understand her. I think Leyna needs to work on communicating a bit but maybe that’s for the next book.

This is truly a magical story! Also, I'm 100% obsessed with the cover! STUNNING!!!

*RTC*

Overall Rating → <b>4 STARS</b>
Price is Right? → <spoiler> Kindle version $2.99 RN on Amazon </spoiler>
Page Turner? → YES!!!
Would I recommend? → YES!!!
Would I re-read? → Yes
Would I read more from this author? → Definitely

I was sent a revised version of this arc - which I just reviewed under the other version on netgalley. I did not complete this entire book as this version, only the beginning. From what I saw, some things had been shortened a bit in the beginning which seems like a good idea. The maze scene at the beginning is ultimately to establish Leyna's past as a wizard in school and I think the revising was a good idea!

This was…interesting. I feel like there was so much promise but the blurb and synopsis were a little misleading. There was odd spots of world building and then just nothing. The romance left a lot to be desired. Again I feel like this had a lot of potential but then we got the skeleton of a good idea instead of the whole idea itself.

I’d like to start by thanking NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for this honest review.

Honestly, I’m pretty disappointed by this, but it might just be a me thing. The absolutely gorgeous cover and the interesting premise made my expectations for this book incredibly high, but unfortunately they weren’t met in the end.

The start was pretty strong and the opening line hooked me from the beginning. But unfortunately, but I feel like the rest of the story got bogged down with a lot of useless dialogue and description and it took roughly 50% of the book before I got the the plot the blurb had promised me. Meaning I was left to read well over half of the book, where I already knew what was to happen and just waiting for it, so we could get into the story I’d been promised.

The world building was a weird mix of too much and not enough. Sometimes giving me tediously slow info dumping, other times giving me barely enough to understand it. I’d really have liked so some things to be explained more, whilst others needn’t be explained as much.

The cover and the blurb promised me a fantasy romance, which I’d really been craving. But sadly I feel like the romance wasn’t as prominent, but rather taking a backseat, whilst the mystery became the more prominent aspect.

The main character Leyna was frustrating to be honest. She spent a few chapters fainting, which just seemed like cheap trick to get me to keep reading. She was also a top student, but the questions she got on her exam were all text book level questions? Like the type my professors joke that “if I ask you this kind of questions, it’s going badly”. But I was somehow still meant to believe one of her teachers had rigged the exam and was purposefully trying to get her to fail? Idk,,, maybe it’s just me whose nitpicky. She also got out of a few situations ridiculously easily and without consequences. She had this habit from early on where she’d get into incredibly dangerous situations, but get out of them mostly unharmed and with relative ease. Most of the conflict she gets into also just,, very conveniently fades into the background, with no real development happening.

As for the plot, I’m honestly struggling with telling you what it was, aside from the fact it included a large amount of mystery. The story just seemed to be a lot of action, with no real substance or story, which in the end bored me a lot, as this was quite a long book.

As for the romance, I actually really liked the Jester for the most part! I found his jokes to be incredibly lame, especially the bacon one. That one nearly made me DNF the book, since all the characters found it hilarious. But he was charming, he was mysterious, he was cunning and then,,, his identity got revealed and it felt too obvious. There was another character I was hoping it would be and that it was just using the guy it turned out to be as a decoy, but it wasn’t unfortunately.

All in all, I still see a lot of potential in this author and I’m actually interested in reading the next book! There are many ways this book could have been improved, but it is a debut, which I do think some more experience could smooth out and make for an excellent book.

Review will be up on my Instagram, @Kratist0, before the week has ended.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC
The story started strong. The first chapters were gripping and action packed.
I loved the Harry Potter school of magic vibe it gave me.
The story had so much potentials .....
But then the plot slowed down and every scene seemed to drag on forever. I lost interest so I DNFed it 25% through.

This book was freaking amazing! The magic and court intrigue, secrets and silent blushes, were written to perfection, and the character growth of Leyna progressed at a good pace. I loved how I was able to see her grow into the person she became at the end of the book and how Finnigan also evolved so much in a good way. The setting swept me away and the flashback/s were well-placed. The overall plot and world-building was magnificent and the plot twists until the very end just made my stomach drop and return to normal like in a rollercoaster. The chemistry between Leyna and Finnigan was perfect and they are certainly part of my top fantasy ships now! I’m so excited for the next book in the Huskarl duology and I’m cheering for Leyna and Finnigan the whole way! The prose sometimes felt a bit underwhelming, considering that this is a fantasy novel, and that’s why my rating is 4 stars. Amazing read though and I will for sure keep my eye out for the next book! Kudos and congrats to Jay Pellegrin for writing this!

This book had an action packed, exciting opening chapter that I felt like really set the tone for what this book was going to be. After that, the story did slow down a little for me, but this book definitely is part political fantasy so there was a lot of plot development that had to happen. I did find myself a bit confused at some points but nothing I didn’t quickly catch back up on.

Once I got maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the way in the book I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading. I really enjoy a fantasy book but love the romance plots too, and I think it really delivered on both aspects. I’ve seen some debate as to whether people liked the MC but I personally really did!

A very enjoyable and addictive read and I’m excited for the next book in the Duology.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.