3.5/5 stars
If I could rate each section of the book differently, I would give the first third of it 3/5, the middle a solid 4/5 and the last third a 3/5. I felt as though the pace the events occurred at where not constant and I often felt the plot of the novel was constantly shifting. I think the book could have been shorter overall and my main issue falls with the MC and her inability to change or recognise herself or her surroundings. I thought the arrogant streak may phase off throughout the novel but it continued to persist and her poor lack of judgement made it difficult to read.
The romance was definitely more intriguing during the first section of the book with Jester being the main reason I continued reading, potentially the best parts about the book.
I think despite all the wizards and castle and these supposed fantasy and demonic elements, I felt as though the book fell a bit flat with the magic after the maze exam and the wizarding school, which is a shame as magic is meant to be a big part of the book.
Overall I think its a book that is good that some may enjoy and some might.
Thank you NetGallery for the arc.

Many thanks to Pellegrin Books and Jay Pellegrin for the advanced audio copy of Wizard’s Masquerade via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.

It is easy to see that this story is Pellegrin’s absolute passion. I wouldn’t want to begin to guess how long she worked on it – and it shows. Whilst the story is rich and intricate it is also far, far too long. What it would benefit from is an editorial team to pare it down. Perhaps turn it into two separate stories or turn the intended duology into a series of 3-5 books.

I enjoyed the amount of spice in the book, although I was convinced the author was male until researching the author afterwards due to the way the sex scenes were written. That is not how people with vaginas reach climax. It was disappointing to read that such a stereotypical ‘in-out-and-climax’ sex scene is still being written in 2022.

There were some great ideas and a magic system that could lead to a whole series but it’s desperate for an editor to rein it all in and sort it out.

Moods: adventurous, mysterious
Tropes: mistaken/secret identity, peril, redemption/dark past
Pace: medium
Character development: medium
Plot or character driven: 50/50
Diversity: medium
Spice: 3/5
Trigger warnings: Death, Death of a family member, Guns/weapons, Murder, Physical or mental abuse, Poisoning, Violence

Rating: 4

This book in my opinion has much potential but it was just not for me. The start was a bit slow and I just could not relate to any of the characters.

I wish I could like the book beter then I did.

Thank you to Pellegrin books and NetGalley for the ARC. I really appreciate being able to have access to this and this book was right up my alley. This immersive world of magic is one to definitely watch out for when it comes out. The characters felt so fleshed out and alive. I think a lot of people will definitely enjoy this.

Thank you for letting me read this amazing book!

There is fantasy, magic, mystery, romance... everything packed together perfectly. First we get to explore a bit of the magic school, then the court. There's questions to be answered and secrets to be revealed. And the magic system is intriguing.

The beginning hooked me and the story kept its grip on me. I love that the main character was flawed but still likeable enough. We need more FMCs like Leyna.

The book is well written. The story is refreshing. And for once a book in British English! This was exactly what I was looking for.

And I have to mention the cover... SO BEAUTIFUL!

I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves to read romantic fantasy. Just don't expect the romance to drive the plot.

Includes:
Masks and secret identities
Witty banter
Slow burn
Strong female MC
Political schemes
Magic
Secret admirer
Ballroom dancing

I'm still not sure what majes a New Adult novel, but if it's the plot beats of a YA fantasy mixed with the spiciness of adult romance, I think we have a prime example here. Wizard's Masquerade and its male love interest had me by the throat from the beginning, and if the pacing was somewhat sluggish (yes, we know, the protagonist has trained her whole life to assume the honorable position of a royal guard, or Huskarl, and won't hesitate to perform her duty, but listen, what if a hot capable man came along), I did not care as long as it awakened feelings in me.

I won't get into the plot, because it really just follows the simple outlines of a generic fantasy novel targeted towards a female audience, which can get tedious considering the length of this book in particular. Over 500 pages! But Pellegrin establishes a slow-burn romance plot that holds an exquisite balance between a boundary-respecting courtship and surprisingly explicit, dare I say, kink lite? Who would have thought I'd one day say this about the character of a jester, but: I'd lay my life at that man's feet. Further explaining this dynamic would necessitate spoilers, so just take my word for it.

To my further surprise, Wizard's Masquerade made me care about a magical pet side-kick, a bubbly best friend, and the annoyingly neglectful parents of the protagonist, all of which normally constitute literary pet peeves of mine. Not so with this book! Part of which must be due to Kathryn Vinclaire's lovely audio narration, her warm voice carrying me through literal snow storms with my earphones plugged in.

So sign me up for part 2 of the Huskarl Duology, because I can't let that ending stand.

Thank you to Net Galley and Jay Pellegrin for providing me with an E- ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I cannot wait until the second book comes out for this duology. The magical set up and world building was very fun in this book. I was so excited to see the friendship between leyna and the jester, it made the story so lighthearted in many places the story needed it. The story had so many twists and turns trying to figure out what was going on in the castle and who was causing the mayhem.


Would recommend reading especially if you are looking for a book to escape into.

Enjoyable high fantasy. Political intrigue, an honor driven mc, and a mysterious love interest. Pacing at times was off but will probably read the sequel.

MY OH MY! I truly enjoyed this book right from this beginning and stayed wanting more way beyond the last page.

FMC Leyna has just graduated and is on to her dream job to defend the king.
Her first obstacle is leading MMC Jester and his merry band on a journey to the castle. The Jester was by farrrrr my favorite character and was very complex, mysterious, and playful.
I felt like Leyna often read younger than expected, but overall I did enjoy her character and look forward to seeing her journey continue in book 2!!!

Magic, murder, mystery, intrigue, steamy open door romance scenes, amazing world building, and a cast of curious characters make this book seriously hard to put down. I truly enjoyed it all and am waiting on pins and needles for the next book to come out to see what decisions Leyna makes.

4.5 stars - I was amazed at how well this was written particularly as it's indie-published!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Pellegrin Books for allowing me to read an eARC copy of this book. I enjoyed it so much that 30% in, I also purchased a Kindle copy to support it because it's absolutely worth the price I paid for.

At 552 pages (according to Amazon), it is a pretty chunky book, and I'm usually not so good with chunky books. However, I did not once feel like I wanted to stop reading or to take a break from this book. Something happened in every chapter, and I felt compelled to just keep reading.

I loved the way the story began right in the middle of a Goblet of Fire-esque gauntlet. I loved the banter between the main characters, the mystery and action, and I loved the fact that our protagonist was heavily flawed. She's prideful and vain and ambitious, which made for an interesting character development arc.

I would have liked to see a bit more magic-flinging in a fantasy and I'm hoping the sequel might delve more into the magic system. And also that ending... *sad face* I need the sequel to fix it all up for me!

I wasn’t 100% sold on this book when I first started reading it. The pacing at the beginning feels off and the magic school where we first meet Leyna and her friends feels like it’s only there to introduce how the magic system works. Things really start getting interesting the moment they leave the wizard school and go to work at the castle. The characters are very fleshed out and the descriptions are done well and easy to visualise. What starts out as a book about a girl becoming a Huskarl (a King’s guard with magic) becomes a fantasy mystery/romance. The story is filled with intrigue with the puzzle pieces laced throughout. I enjoyed the interactions between Leyna and the Jester.

Things I didn’t love: some of the word choices were a little lazy and as I said above the parts in the wizard school felt as though they went on for far too long.

I do look forward to reading the second book in the duology.

Thank you NetGalley, Jay Pellegrin and the publisher for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Edit: it’s been two months and I still can’t stop thinking about this book, it’s probably actually one of my favourites of the year

Leyna born of distant royal blood, has ambitions to graduate from the Wizard's Guild and join the Royal Guard, but she most prove to herself and others that she is worthy of such a prestigious position. However, after leaving the Guild and while recovering from a serious injury, a major tragedy occurs, which firmly introduces a mysterious Jester into her life. There are evil forces afoot which Leyna is tasked to uncover however, she doesn't know if Jester is an ally to be trusted or a wolf in colourful clothing.

To be honest I wasn't sure whether to pick this book or not due to a jester being a main character, but the description won me through. I was pleasantly surprised when the book turned out to be fantastic. It is very well written and enjoyable to read as I was fully engaged with the mystery and magic surrounding this book. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Rating 2.5 ⭐️s

I expected a lot more from this book, but it fell flat. A lot of repetitive dialogue could’ve been scratched and cut down by at least 150 pages. The ending has lack-luster and made me feel like ‘that’s it?’

Reading about Leyna was unenjoyable, but. Jester was a fun character and probably the only reason I continued the story.

* I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review* Fantasy is a genre I tend to gravitate toward, and this one was rich and decadent. The beginning is incredibly vivid and gripping, and is able to maintain the intensity throughout the book. I enjoyed the character dynamics especially. My only complaint was that while enjoyable, it ran a little long and felt heftier than I wanted it to be. But all in all, it’s fantasy at its finest: cool magic system, excellent world building, fun cast of characters, and a dose of chemistry. Rewarding but lengthy read.

I thought this was a great mix of fantasy and romance! From the beginning it suck’s you in, I really loved how for the world building it was sprinkled in as the story went it wasn’t just all dumped on us in the beginning! I think there is a great amount of things left unsolved so the reader is excited to go into the next book! It gives you growth in the story from both a plot standpoint and romance! I’m very excited to see where this story continues to go.

2.5 stars

I enjoy reading large books, but only when I am captivated the whole time. I felt that this could have been 100-200 less pages. Parts of this just did not feel needed at all.

I was annoyed with Leyna for some of the book because she would flip from arrogant to clueless. She did have a lot of good qualities and as the story went I feel as though she grew a lot.
I really loved her and jester though, he was my favorite character. I guessed his identity extremely quickly, but that did not take away from how much I liked him.
The overall story just did not hit for me as much as I wanted it to. The writing, while a touch repetitive, was great and kept me wanting to know where the story was gonna go.

I want to know what happens in the next book, but I am not sure if I will be jumping for it.

thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

blurb:
wizard leyna, age 22, finds her dream of an illustrious career in ruins after surviving a terrible injury—that is, until she is offered a position in the royal guard. leyna's fantasy, however, quickly turns into a nightmare as she learns tragically that the king and his court were attacked while traveling. leyna dedicates herself to reestablishing order at rutherford castle and identifying the real perpetrator of the attacks while her world is turned upside down. but everyone in the castle has a dark secret, even the strange jester, who is both annoying and endearing. can lena trust the jester with her heart as she is drawn deeper into a web of lies and secrets?

i liked the world, the setup was excellent and could have carried this novel so far. though intriguing and captivating, it wasn't eventually sufficiently explored. i had a hard time connecting with the main character. her character made no progress at all and some characters felt like a caricature to me. but i like leyna and jester as a pair. they have a fun banter that rich with wit. these two have wonderful chemistry together. furthermore the ending wasn’t to my liking, i think it could’ve done better. it wasn’t so bad per se, i just have high expectations towards it.

So this book... I'm still processed it if y'all can't tell.

Okay let me just convince you to read this with a few words.

- enemies to lovers
- magic
- mysterious men
- masquerade balls
- battles
- FLOOFY

This book was absolutely so cute. For some reason the beginning was slow for be (idk I read it while in a slump) then suddenly it hit with a bang. Plot twists, secret admirers and don't even get me started on the ending. Almost had me in tears a couple of times.

Absolutely love it! Even though I'm not giving it 5 stars it was definitely a 4.5/5

It took me 5days to read this. 5days. In a timeline where I can read a book in a day or two, 5days is a tell tale sign that I needed some time to compose myself because I am darn frustrated and at the verge of DNF'ing a book.

I really liked the side characters, especially the Jester (and then I didn't). I liked the concept of wizards protecting the royalty (fantasy book that includes magic, yes!). I liked the air of mystery, secret organizations, betrayal and uncovering the traitors part. What I did not like, the FMC; which is rather ironic since this book was told on the POV of the FMC and the underwhelming twists on how the book ended (Yeah, I know there is a second book but given the premise of this one, rather unnecessary)

The FMC has to be the most self absorbed, pretentiously self righteous and irritatingly st*pidest cast in this book (I am really so sorry for the lack of of a better term) It took her 30pages before the book ended to uncover the real villain behind the betrayals. The author tried portraying her as this intelligent and fierce badass FMC but truly, she is just a spineless lap dog unable to do sh*t for her friends. Stickler for rules even if the truth is right in front of her. As a reader, I find it sometimes offensive if authors brands their casts this way just to illicit emotions and extend the story. Who would want a lame as*s character all the way to the end?

The ending. My goodness. So each character has this secret on whatever lives they led before meeting the very oblivious FMC, which is all and great. Explanations were done at the ending, albeit not really helpful. A twist was mentioned which I think was an attempt to have a premise for the second book.

I'll end the review there are there's not much more that I can share that isn't a replication of the boorish repetitions from the book itself.

I'm seesawing with this book and what rating to give it. There were many good sides but the magic system and world building was a real big trigger.

Characters
Some of the characters like the mother were well written. She had a distinct personality that put pressure on the main character. I like it when authors give their characters flaws and personality, especially if they grow throughout the book. Leyla definitely had flaws and personality, she was selfish, jealous, grumpy, and a snob, but that seems normal for a spoiled noble living in luxury & given everything they want, unfortunately there wasn’t much growth to her character. The joker, of course, was a hoot, even if some of his lines were awkward and didn’t flow with the feeling in the moment.

Romance
The interactions between the Jester and Leyla were the most exciting part of the story, but given her bad personality, it wasn't clear why he was attracted to her at the beginning. Their relationship did grow from their many interactions, some of which were endearing, but initially, he had his eyes set on her and must come up with my own reasons why that could be.

Magic System & World
Unfortunately, the magic system philosophy is a negative influence for the reader since it's based on demonic/satanic philosophy. Because of this negative philosophy that can be harmful, I cannot recommend this book to anyone. The world was not enjoyable to read about and I almost quit the book.

Also, some of it wasn't clearly explained, are they using their hands or wands to use magic? Do they say spells in their minds or do they use a wand? Why is their source of magic a harmful source, when they at the same time ban anyone using books based on that same negative source?

Story
It felt like there was a missing book 1 of this series. Leyna mentioned how people at the school didn't like her, but the reader didn't see how or why that transpired. Nonetheless, the book had intrigue and suspense to keep the reader going in the beginning.

And I applaud the author's ability to write poetry.