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ljp817's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
lilylovelovely's review against another edition
5.0
I JUST LOVE THEM OMG!! AFTER THE HALF WAY MARK IT WAS SO SO FOUND FAMILY VIBES I JUST LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM!! REN VARGO GREY TESS PALVIN GIUNA SEDGE, JUST EVERYONE THE ARE MY BABIES!!
rachelreadsrelentlessly's review against another edition
I genuinely love this series, it's one of the best I have read in a while, I just lost track of the plot and need to go back and start over.
brinipor's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Grey got me when he gave Ren that cat, HOWEVER, Vargo is still my ride or die. Me and Ren were beefing a bit when she was so angry at him, but we got over that. I look forward to Vargo breaking the city and putting it back together along with all the people he didn't intend to care about. I am very curious about Ren is going to do with her four different lives at the end of this.
head_dink's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
annettebooksofhopeanddreams's review against another edition
4.0
I'm an avid reader. I easily read a book a day. However, even I can get quite intimidated by bigger books. Because those books take me longer than a day to finish and there is something in me that is always a little scared to get invested like that. I did quite enjoy the first book in this series though, but I knew I needed a little push to make sure I would also read the second book in this series. That push came thanks to the publisher and Netgalley in the form of an arc.
I made an entire planning for this book. I was gonna read a certain amount of pages a day. Eventually I finished over a week earlier. And I guess that says everything you need to know about the second book in this series. Even though it's the second book, the excitement of the new world died down and they can't give us the grand finale yet, it was never boring, it never lost my attention, it never felt too long. The more I read, the more invested I got.
That's partly because there's even more magic in this book than in the previous book. We're discovering some new forms of magic, we see way more magic in action and we're also truly confronted with how dangerous the constant presence of a magic like this can be. Loads of questions from the first book are answered and I truly felt this book gave us all the pieces of the puzzle and now in the next book we're gonna see how all those pieces fit.
This book also helped us to grow more attached to the key players in this story. Somehow it felt like this book was more focussed on the characters that are truly important. Most chapters were either from Ren's, Vargo's or Grey's point of view. That doesn't mean the other characters are forgotten, far from it. They still have their own challenges and storylines, they are just not always described in that much detail and I personally liked that.
I'm now really looking forward to the next book in the series! The stakes are incredibly high now, so bring it on!
I made an entire planning for this book. I was gonna read a certain amount of pages a day. Eventually I finished over a week earlier. And I guess that says everything you need to know about the second book in this series. Even though it's the second book, the excitement of the new world died down and they can't give us the grand finale yet, it was never boring, it never lost my attention, it never felt too long. The more I read, the more invested I got.
That's partly because there's even more magic in this book than in the previous book. We're discovering some new forms of magic, we see way more magic in action and we're also truly confronted with how dangerous the constant presence of a magic like this can be. Loads of questions from the first book are answered and I truly felt this book gave us all the pieces of the puzzle and now in the next book we're gonna see how all those pieces fit.
This book also helped us to grow more attached to the key players in this story. Somehow it felt like this book was more focussed on the characters that are truly important. Most chapters were either from Ren's, Vargo's or Grey's point of view. That doesn't mean the other characters are forgotten, far from it. They still have their own challenges and storylines, they are just not always described in that much detail and I personally liked that.
I'm now really looking forward to the next book in the series! The stakes are incredibly high now, so bring it on!
booktalktaylor's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
fantasy worlds like this just aren’t meant to be judged book by book. this GENIUS story feels like folklore passed down through the generations. I honestly can’t get enough. these characters have my heart.
THE SLOW BURN ROMANCE is what I fucking live for. I couldn’t quite give it the full 5 stars until it happened. and I was head over heels 🥲 what a beautiful story, and one that isn’t even done yet!
i’m SO THRILLED that all 3 are out. the political intrigue continued, somehow even FURTHER complicated than last book. the threads that Ren weaves ((and honestly every other noble family)) are so intricate and in depth, it’s AMAZING that this story lived in someone’s brain and was able to translate onto paper so well.
I can’t wait to see how the complications and struggles from this book tie into the conclusion. ALSIUS better have a huge role in the next book because he is my FAVORITE 🤩🤩🤩🤩
A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.
THE SLOW BURN ROMANCE is what I fucking live for. I couldn’t quite give it the full 5 stars until it happened. and I was head over heels 🥲 what a beautiful story, and one that isn’t even done yet!
i’m SO THRILLED that all 3 are out. the political intrigue continued, somehow even FURTHER complicated than last book. the threads that Ren weaves ((and honestly every other noble family)) are so intricate and in depth, it’s AMAZING that this story lived in someone’s brain and was able to translate onto paper so well.
I can’t wait to see how the complications and struggles from this book tie into the conclusion. ALSIUS better have a huge role in the next book because he is my FAVORITE 🤩🤩🤩🤩
A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.
onaquest's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
nonesensed's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Ren has reached her goal of becoming a member of a nobel family though it is a pyrrhic victory. The Rook knows of her masquerade as a noblewoman and she has more subterfuge to juggle than ever before. Some of the ruling elite of Nadežra are squabbling among themselves, doing terrible things to gain yet more power, and figuring out who they are might be the only way to stay alive. Because whether Ren likes it or not, she's somehow ended up a key piece in a terrible magical conspiracy game.
Okay, so, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR FOR BOOK 3????? In all seriousness, this was a really really good read with a great end point. Like book 1 of this series, this story has an ending that feels both complete and compelling in that I don't feel left on a cliffhanger but I do want to know more about what happens next. I love all the characters, I love the sub-plots that deal with romance and relationships, and Vargo has ended up one of my new favorite characters. All in all, I adore this book series, and if you enjoy found family, con artists with hearts of gold, political intrigue and identity games, this is definitely the book series for you! Highly recommended!
Okay, so, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR FOR BOOK 3????? In all seriousness, this was a really really good read with a great end point. Like book 1 of this series, this story has an ending that feels both complete and compelling in that I don't feel left on a cliffhanger but I do want to know more about what happens next. I love all the characters, I love the sub-plots that deal with romance and relationships, and Vargo has ended up one of my new favorite characters. All in all, I adore this book series, and if you enjoy found family, con artists with hearts of gold, political intrigue and identity games, this is definitely the book series for you! Highly recommended!
laelyn's review against another edition
4.0
The first book in this trilogy, The Mask of Mirrors, caught me kind of by surprise in early 2021. It had an interesting premise and a very cool cover, which, sometimes, is all I need to request or buy a book. But it turned out to be an incredibly rich, well-written fantasy novel that showed such great care for elaborate world-building that I fell in love. I couldn't wait to read the sequel.
Now said sequel, The Liar's Knot, is here, and once again I am in love. I have to admit that I did have to quickly reread the first one because the world-building is so dense, so full of made-up words and a plethora of characters and names and religions and factions that even though I loved it, I honestly couldn't remember who is who and what is what so well. I needed a reminder.
And I also have to admit that I still don't get parts of this series. The magic system is so complex with numinatria and pattern and what have you that I still, after reading two books, couldn't fully explain to you how all of this works. I read passages of The Liar's Knot where my brain went temporarily blank because it was just very confusing, and I don't think M.A. Carrick managed to really explain this part of their world very well. But honestly? It doesn't even matter that much.
The rest of the book is just amazing. The world-building is dense, yes, but so fascinating and intriguing that it's a joy to read, to find out more, to delve into this world. Nadežra is a living, breathing entity of a setting, and I do love the glimpses we get from other places and lands in this world. It's brimming with potential for more. The world, the plot, the characters, everything is expertly crafted, with so much thought put into every little detail. The love and care the authors put into every aspect of their work is visible on the page and frankly impressive.
And gosh, the characters! Rarely does a book, or series for that matter, manage to make me actually care about all the main characters.
Ren is an intriguing, complex and flawed but loveable protagonist that you cannot stop rooting for. The Liar's Knot manages to make her different personas even more distinct, adding the Black Rose to the mix as well as changing Ren's speech patterns, something that wasn't focused on in the first book so much. My girl is a genius at what she does, and while she is driven by the love of those she calls family, the book never shies away from showing her not-so-altruistic sides. I also really liked how the toll her complicated life full of lies and cons and secrets takes on her is shown very clearly.
Grey, well I had a harder time warming up to him in the first book but I absolutely adore him in book 2. His passion, his complicated love for his people, his dedication to justice juxtaposed with the goals and motives of his Rook persona endeared him to me more and more, and his more stern and serious voice is a necessary addition to the chaos that are the other two mains. Also, the relationship between Grey and Ren in all their personas is just swoonworthy. I do admit that I would have loved some more Black Rose and Rook, because especially the Black Rose was underutilized and could have been scrapped altogether without it changing the story much, but that's a minor complaint. I loved delving more into Rook lore, finding out more about who, or what, this mysterious figure actually is.
And then there's Vargo, who is now firmly set in my list of "characters I would die for". He was, to me, the most interesting pov character in the first book mostly because he's just my type of character, but he gained so much more depth and complexity in book 2 that he just became unforgettable. His complicated relationship with Alsius, who I adore, is both endearing and fascinating at the same time. He's so much more than a crime lord, so much more than the power-hungry villain Ren believes him to be at the beginning of this book. His power is actually believable, which is something that bothers me a lot in other novels with crime lord characters - often times I keep wondering how the fork these people actually even made it to this kind of position. With Vargo though, it makes sense, it's believable, he actually feels like a crime lord. At the same time, The Liar's Knot shows us his vulnerable side, his insecurities, and it made me fall in love with him even more. There is a reason for why he does what he does, thinks how he thinks, is who he is. And there are always at least seven layers to every decision he makes. He feels so deeply but is determined to feel so little, and there are several chapters in this book that made my heart ache just a tiny little bit for him. I love him and I shall protect him.
On a minor note, because I am a romantic at heart, I was first subtly rooting for some polyam love triangle between the three main pov characters, but that interest kind of faded away the more focus Ren and Grey's relationship got. Instead, I became more and more intrigued by the small scenes Vargo had with a certain noble - meaning after that last scene between them? Yeah, give me that Vargo-Iascat-Power Couple in book 3, please please! Vargo sure deserves the love and Iascat somehow managed to become one of the characters I'm most intrigued to find out more about in the sequel.
The side characters are mostly well-rounded characters that I formed emotional attachments to, like with Tess and Giuna, but often felt a little underutilized or underdeveloped, like Sedge who definitely needs more space to find himself as a character. A Very Special Mention goes to my boy Pavlin Ranieri, who is a hot cinnamon roll and his love story with Tess made me almost throw my Kindle away because I couldn't deal with the cuteness.
Stopping myself from swooning over the characters now, moving on to other things!
The pacing is, just like in the first book, on the slow side. The book definitely makes you work for it, but it's worth it. The plot is exciting and magical, with lots of intrigue and betrayals and some well-placed twists. It's both political in nature and deals with secret societies which I mean, obviously this book was written especially for me and my tastes. And even though I, as I said before, didn't get all the magical stuff that was happening I could still easily follow what was going on and was entranced by it. It has to be said though that this trilogy, so far, shines through its characters and world-building first, not necessarily as much through its plot. But it's solid, it's fun, it keeps you on your toes and it ends in a way that makes you crave that third book without relying on some forced cliffhanger.
All in all an amazing 4 star fantasy experience that I recommend to every reader that likes detailed world-building and complex, character-focused stories.
Many many MANY thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK/Orbit and Netgalley for feeding my Vargo addiction with this arc
Now said sequel, The Liar's Knot, is here, and once again I am in love. I have to admit that I did have to quickly reread the first one because the world-building is so dense, so full of made-up words and a plethora of characters and names and religions and factions that even though I loved it, I honestly couldn't remember who is who and what is what so well. I needed a reminder.
And I also have to admit that I still don't get parts of this series. The magic system is so complex with numinatria and pattern and what have you that I still, after reading two books, couldn't fully explain to you how all of this works. I read passages of The Liar's Knot where my brain went temporarily blank because it was just very confusing, and I don't think M.A. Carrick managed to really explain this part of their world very well. But honestly? It doesn't even matter that much.
The rest of the book is just amazing. The world-building is dense, yes, but so fascinating and intriguing that it's a joy to read, to find out more, to delve into this world. Nadežra is a living, breathing entity of a setting, and I do love the glimpses we get from other places and lands in this world. It's brimming with potential for more. The world, the plot, the characters, everything is expertly crafted, with so much thought put into every little detail. The love and care the authors put into every aspect of their work is visible on the page and frankly impressive.
And gosh, the characters! Rarely does a book, or series for that matter, manage to make me actually care about all the main characters.
Ren is an intriguing, complex and flawed but loveable protagonist that you cannot stop rooting for. The Liar's Knot manages to make her different personas even more distinct, adding the Black Rose to the mix as well as changing Ren's speech patterns, something that wasn't focused on in the first book so much. My girl is a genius at what she does, and while she is driven by the love of those she calls family, the book never shies away from showing her not-so-altruistic sides. I also really liked how the toll her complicated life full of lies and cons and secrets takes on her is shown very clearly.
Grey, well I had a harder time warming up to him in the first book but I absolutely adore him in book 2. His passion, his complicated love for his people, his dedication to justice juxtaposed with the goals and motives of his Rook persona endeared him to me more and more, and his more stern and serious voice is a necessary addition to the chaos that are the other two mains. Also, the relationship between Grey and Ren in all their personas is just swoonworthy. I do admit that I would have loved some more Black Rose and Rook, because especially the Black Rose was underutilized and could have been scrapped altogether without it changing the story much, but that's a minor complaint. I loved delving more into Rook lore, finding out more about who, or what, this mysterious figure actually is.
And then there's Vargo, who is now firmly set in my list of "characters I would die for". He was, to me, the most interesting pov character in the first book mostly because he's just my type of character, but he gained so much more depth and complexity in book 2 that he just became unforgettable. His complicated relationship with Alsius, who I adore, is both endearing and fascinating at the same time. He's so much more than a crime lord, so much more than the power-hungry villain Ren believes him to be at the beginning of this book. His power is actually believable, which is something that bothers me a lot in other novels with crime lord characters - often times I keep wondering how the fork these people actually even made it to this kind of position. With Vargo though, it makes sense, it's believable, he actually feels like a crime lord. At the same time, The Liar's Knot shows us his vulnerable side, his insecurities, and it made me fall in love with him even more. There is a reason for why he does what he does, thinks how he thinks, is who he is. And there are always at least seven layers to every decision he makes. He feels so deeply but is determined to feel so little, and there are several chapters in this book that made my heart ache just a tiny little bit for him. I love him and I shall protect him.
On a minor note, because I am a romantic at heart, I was first subtly rooting for some polyam love triangle between the three main pov characters, but that interest kind of faded away the more focus Ren and Grey's relationship got. Instead, I became more and more intrigued by the small scenes Vargo had with a certain noble - meaning after that last scene between them? Yeah, give me that Vargo-Iascat-Power Couple in book 3, please please! Vargo sure deserves the love and Iascat somehow managed to become one of the characters I'm most intrigued to find out more about in the sequel.
The side characters are mostly well-rounded characters that I formed emotional attachments to, like with Tess and Giuna, but often felt a little underutilized or underdeveloped, like Sedge who definitely needs more space to find himself as a character. A Very Special Mention goes to my boy Pavlin Ranieri, who is a hot cinnamon roll and his love story with Tess made me almost throw my Kindle away because I couldn't deal with the cuteness.
Stopping myself from swooning over the characters now, moving on to other things!
The pacing is, just like in the first book, on the slow side. The book definitely makes you work for it, but it's worth it. The plot is exciting and magical, with lots of intrigue and betrayals and some well-placed twists. It's both political in nature and deals with secret societies which I mean, obviously this book was written especially for me and my tastes. And even though I, as I said before, didn't get all the magical stuff that was happening I could still easily follow what was going on and was entranced by it. It has to be said though that this trilogy, so far, shines through its characters and world-building first, not necessarily as much through its plot. But it's solid, it's fun, it keeps you on your toes and it ends in a way that makes you crave that third book without relying on some forced cliffhanger.
All in all an amazing 4 star fantasy experience that I recommend to every reader that likes detailed world-building and complex, character-focused stories.
Many many MANY thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK/Orbit and Netgalley for feeding my Vargo addiction with this arc