intricately built, steeped in political intrigue, featuring messy families, morally grey protagonists, and visceral blood magic.

thanks to netgalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for a review!

this rocks. every character is messy and morally gray. the politics are so so interesting and left me wanting to know more about this world. the magic system was was like nothing i had read before, and includes vampires in a non-traditional way. every one of the characters, big and small, was compelling with the perfect amount of angst and romance.

Thank you Net Galley for the e arc. Mistress of Lies is an amazing atmospheric queer vampire story. I love the twist and turns as well as the political system.

This was one of the books I’d been looking forward to the most, but it wasn’t anything like I expected. I knew there was going to be romance, but I didn’t think it was going to take up so much page time. The time spent on Shan, Samuel, and Isaac should’ve been spent on the very non-existent world building and character development. Even with all the time spent with our main characters, none of them grow or learn at all. Samuel gave golden retriever energy so I liked him well enough, but Isaac was bland and if I’m being honest, I didn’t like Shan at all. She’s supposed to be a spymaster, but made some really stupid decisions throughout the book.

This book also suffers from the curse of telling and not showing. There were so many conversations and so much inner dialogue that was unnecessary. Just write a cool scene, just put some world building in. Give us something outside of these four locations and let us use our brains; I promise we have them. Mistress of Lies was so promising. It could’ve been something really special if it’d stuck to the story rather than the romance.

This was fine but didn't live up to my expectations especially as a romantasy. I love court intrigue, politics, and clever characters. But this didn't fully deliver on that it quite the way I wanted. A bit convoluted and should have narrowed down what it was trying to do to just a couple of options and done those things well.

Amazon Review posted
Blog post scheduled for Nov 5th
Will be covered in an upcoming youtube review

**TL;DR**: A big miss for me that’s neither dark or romantic (per the pitch line)
**Source**: NetGalley! Thank you so, so much!

**Plot**: Shan kills her father (the first chapter) and the book slowly slides into blushing in library corners.
**Characters**: Honestly I didn’t really connect to anyone here.
**Setting**: A dark city with a dingy port is what I remember and this book took me two weeks to read.
**Fantasy:** Almost vampires, but not quite. This one is definitely set in a fantasy world but hangs mostly on the ‘politics’ than the fantasy or fantastical bits.

**Thoughts**:

What a disappointment. This one really threw me into a slump. This is described (from the Amazon description)as a ‘a dark romantic fantasy’ with a ‘villainous and bloodthirsty’ heroine - both of this things I’d say are quite untrue. If this is dark, I clearly live in a world of pastels and rainbows with talking ponies. Shan the not so bloodthirsty or villainous character, kills her father in the first chapter of the book and proceeds to attempt to take his place as head of her household and aims for the position of spymaster. To get the Not-A-Vampire King’s attention she finds the last heir to his household and the story goes from there.

Sure there are murders, blood, and political backstabbing and mechanics but it’s all cut at the knees with these downright nice and kind characters. Shan, Sam, and Isaac blush and date their way through the story. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled on truly darker toned books with actually murderous and mad characters but these three were downright lovely to one another for most of the book. At times when they’d clash there were typically apologizes all around. The twists were not at all that twisty and I had to force my way through this one.

There were attributes here that had some promise. I liked the ideas of the system and world, I liked the setup, and I liked some of the things that happened. Perhaps if the pitching and sell on this had been appropriate I would have gone in with appropriate expectations and would not have been so disappointed. I’ll try K.M. Enright again, but I refuse to believe any pitch on any future books of theirs.

A very low 3 out of 5 stars.

✨ 3 stars ✨

Thank you Orbit (ilysm) and Netgalley for send me this eARC!!


I really did want to love this and I do, BUT this needed to cook for just a teensy bit more. Hoping that happens in the rest of the series though!!

The concept of this book is PHENOMENAL and everything I'd look for in a book, but almost everything fell just a bit short. And that's why I have hope for the next books in the series.

The world building and magic system never truly felt completely fleshed out. Things just happened and were never really explained because the CHARACTERS knew already. It felt like magic system didn't have many rules and that it was just there to be like "oooo spooky blood magic~". Again. Hopefully this gets fixed in the next book.

The political intrigue of this book felt more YA and rushed than you'd expect in an adult dark fantasy book. Again, its THERE, but it really needs to cook more.

The characters I actually really loved. Shan, Samuel, and Isaac are great main characters and I enjoyed reading about them and their moviations. I really enjoyed how they got into their poly relationship and how they all wanted consent from each other to be in said poly relationship. I also enjoyed the transmasc rep and how an intimate scene involving a transmasc person and cis woman was written and handled. Super bonus points for that.

However. Saying Shan is a "villainous heroine" is laughable at best. Yeah, she did that Thing right in the beginning of the book, but was she Wrong? No!! Nor is she super politically savy like she thinks she is. Now is that a character flaw or an author shortcoming, that's for you to decide.

I don't know if this series will get better or if that's the copium just talking lmao, but I REALLY REALLY HOPE IT DOES!! BECAUSE C'MON!! POLYAMOROUS POLITICAL INTRIGUE WITH A SIDE OF BLOOD MAGIC ARE YOU JOKING!!!! 😭😭

Anyways, yes I'll read book 2 when it comes out.

This was a good fantasy book! It was a great start to the new series. The magic system was great and I feel like I was there in the world.

FIRST OF ALL, stunning cover. I felt like this was a fun read, however, it telled me than it showed, it leaned more towards romantasy, LOTS of political scheming

3.5 stars. While reading this, I loved it. Once I finished, I could see the flaws. If Isaac had a point of view, I think my feelings would be very different, since his dynamics with Shan and Samuel would have been so compelling to see from both sides. Almost every character has questionable morals, but I think all of them want to be doing what's right in the end, no matter what the price is. However, the male characters seemed to be treated better by the author than the female characters. Of the five most important characters in the book, the two least sympathetic are women, while the other three are men. Shan is supposed to be an amazing spymaster, but she keeps making stupid decisions. I loved the vampire-ish world, although the magic system is a little confusing. I plan to continue with this series because I think it can get a lot better, but this first book is missing out on a lot.

I am absolutely in love with the characters of this book and I can't think of anything coherent to say

Political intrigue! Foreboding music! Plots! The gay agenda! Yearning and lust! The best love triangle of all time! Am I supposed to be a good reviewer, MAYBE, OH WELL! I would die for Shan and also Samuel and also Isaac and -

Mistress of Lies is a mystery with political intrigue and a vampiric twist. Unfortunately the murder mystery part gets a bit lost behind the poly/love triangle relationships. The tensions built there were great, and it was interesting to read about those dynamics.
The descriptions were dripping with dark fantasy beauty.
All in all I enjoyed this but doubt I will read the sequel.

Took a while to read/rate this one because i think it would have worked much better as a New Adult novel.

I think this book had a super good premise, and really interesting characters. It did suffer a little from a lack of worldbuilding: I wish that we knew a little bit more about the world and its history. I think that the romance was really well done, and I enjoyed reading from the perspective of a morally gray main character (Shan). Definitely interested in the next book in the series, although hopefully the author includes a little more in the way of worldbuilding.

This book had one of the best first chapters I’ve ever read. I love morally grey characters and our main character delivered on that front. This was an amazing dark fantasy with an excellent plot, compelling characters, and a fascinating, bloody magic system. However some parts of the book were a bit confusing and didn’t seem well thought out.

It really gave Tempest of Tea vibes with a bit more holes. I really enjoyed the characters and definitely missed the part that Samuel was transgender other than the Poly relationship he wanted with the Leclaire's. The world building/ power details definitely needs more to it as I was not completely sucked into this story. I did get sucked back in towards the ending though because oooh that Eternal King!!!! The powers would be definitely more interesting if I understood it better. I may continue the series.
I do recommend reading over audio.

Mistress of Lies by K. M. Enright is an electrifying read that pulls you into a world of deception and intrigue. From the very beginning, the story grips you with its fast-paced plot and well-crafted characters. The protagonist is cunning and resourceful, navigating a web of lies and secrets that keeps you guessing at every turn. Enright’s writing is sharp and engaging, making it easy to visualize the high-stakes environment the characters inhabit.

3.5 I truly loved this in the beginning and around 2/3 of the way it started to fizzle out and didn’t deliver. Political fantasy is one of my faves but the schemes got convoluted and messy. Really hoping Book 2 delivers the answers. I loved the polyamory, bi/bi/bi, trans representation 🥹

I’ve been reading this book off and on for months. That should be enough to tell you how much I did not enjoy it. I found it slow and boring. The thing is, I can handle slow books. I just need the slowness to either be amazing worldbuilding and character development or leading up to something spectacular. Unfortunately, this was neither.

First of all, I love that this is written by a Filipino author! And then you add queer vampires? Amazing!
This story has such high potential, some of which fell a bit flat, but holds enough promise to see you through the next book, which I will definitely be reading!