Reviews with content warning for Murder - Ace of Shades

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody

18 reviews

mairi99's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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beccisays's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Adored the way tarot cards are used within the story, true to the real life card interpretations with additional symbolism and meaning from the world and its magic woven in. The plot and games are slightly reminiscent of Caraval or The Night Circus but without as much whimsical charm, mostly as the setting and tone of the book, plus its unique magic system, is rooted in a much more realistic, gritty cityscape. This draws a lot of strong similarities with Six of Crows, in particular the long cons and politics of old fashioned street gangs, including all the (mostly) lovably rogue characters. As it's available in the Audible plus catalogue, I didn’t have the highest expectations but I’m very pleasantly surprised and definitely want to continue to listen to the rest of the series. I would say its use of words like “muck” instead of expletives was kind of jarring though and I would like to see some growth or character arc on Levi’s part as he seems an unlikely fit for the leadership role that is supposed to belong to him.

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ali_k0's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I usually don't enjoy mysterys but this book did it for me! The pace was slower than I prefer, but it kicked up enough that it kept me on its hook.

The characters were fun, their motivations unique. The world building of the City of Sin is unlike anything I've seen before. The world felt so alive it was as if it was breathing off the page.

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riflelizards's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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ramunepocky's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

So we pretend that I haven’t owned this book for literally years and never read it because reading it now, I wish I had been motivated to read it sooner. It was really incredible, enthralling and interesting!! I absolutely adored the world building and the magic system.; it was so unique and I loved learning about every aspect of it. The City of Sin is no beautiful place, truly living up to it’s name, with gangs and danger around every corner, esp for our protagonists, but I loved every part of it.

The magic system was absolutely my favourite part!!! I loved the concept of having blood talents that come from your parents and that they can be split, either equally or not so much, and how they can range from the mundane to truly horrifying talents that can bind and force others to do your bidding. I’m intrigued to learn more about the misers and what particularly made them so dangerous that the Phoenix Club felt the need to wipe them all out and everyone else was glad of it, considering the extent of what we know right now is that they have purple eyes and can make volts.
I am also fascinated by the Shadow Game and cannot wait to learn more about it !!! The concept of betting with your life energy and what you have to do to win/how no one has ever won is so interesting !!!

Character-wise, I rlly truly loved Lola, she was my absolute favourite !!! I love that she armed herself with knives, and I was saddened to learn of her backstory with her family/brother, and I liked watching her reluctant friendship with Enne blossom as she realised the person Enne actually was. I also think her talent of being able to read other people’s talents through their blood and reading their history was so damn interesting!!!

Levi was my second favourite and it pained me to see all the shit he lost through Vianca’s schemes, including being the Lord of the gang he’d built himself, in his desperate attempts to stay alive after she’d put him at risk and continued to take advantage of him. I loved his sarcasm and wit; he’d often make me laugh with the off handed things he’d say and I loved his friendship with Jac b/c they were both just so funny. I think it was sweet that after considering robbing her and sending her away from the get-go, and then only helping her to pay off his own debts, he became quickly protective of Enne and willing to go to any length to help her. Also the fact that he’d built up his gang by rescuing kids and saving their lives, after Raymond had done the same for him!!! It pained me as much as it pained him when Raymond was killed and he lost someone so important to him, and almost lost the same with Jac too.

I’m not currently sure where I stand with Enne; I hated her to begin with and she rlly grinded my gears, but as she built up her confidence and adjusted to the city of sin and relaxed into being ruthless, I enjoyed that side of her a lot more, like when she poisoned and later killed Sedric, and when she fought Lola for her life. She still winds me up fairly often and there’s certain aspects of the way she thinks/speaks that I just don’t get along with, but I’m excited to see her grow more in the following books and see who she becomes. I also don’t rlly understand why she was so surprised when she learned that Lourdes was dead after she’d literally told her if I don’t come back by this many days, I’m probably dead like ??? She legit told you she’d be dead, why are you shocked???? *doesn’t understand* I am intrigued to learn more about Enne and her backstory tho.\

I also loved Jac so much!!! He made me laugh so often and I adored his friendship with Levi and how they cared for one another.

All in all, a great book and I’m very excited to read the rest of the series and see where it goes and learn more about these characters that I’m already so fond of and learn more about such an interesting world and magic system !!!!

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ellie_gonzalez's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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huldasif's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

If you like Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows this might be right up your alley. It's not a heist story, but it does have a similar mood and crime lords dealing with bigger crime lords. The story is about Enne, an innocent, sheltered ballerina student who comes to this sin city to look for her missing mother. She meets Levi, a small crime lord with problems of his own, and employs him to help her find her mother. It's a medium paced fantasy, plot-driven but with some character development still. The climax of the book wasn't what I expected it to be and I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have wanted, but it wasn't bad by any means. Just... different and not as climactic as it could have been had the author gone a different route, but it was still interesting. The book was actually full of surprises, twists and turns, only a few that I saw coming. There was never a dull moment. This is a first in a trilogy though and you really feel it. Although stuff is resolved, there are several things left unexplored or not explored enough. So you kind of have to know going in that this isn't one of those trilogies where the first book can sort of stand alone and you have the option to keep on going. You are going to feel in the end that you need the next book to be fulfilled. I liked it enough to keep on going. In fact, I liked it better than Six of Crows.

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