Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Dance of Thieves

Loved this book! It was a perfect mix of romance and fantasy world building/politics kind of vibe. It starts out a little slow, but just give it a couple of chapters and you’ll be hooked! Love Jase and Kazi ❤️❤️ cute lil enemies to lovers moment but it’s predictable so I’m not spoiling dw. ALSO THE END???? (There’s a sequel btw)

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pageafter_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I haven’t read any fantasy in a hot minute but I think this was a good one to read to get me back into it! I like how after the first 20 pages or so I was able to fully comprehend the fantasy world without much effort. I also love a dual POV and an enemies to lovers trope (also lowkey has the forbidden lovers thing)!

It was definitely a slow burn romance wise. I think the book had a pretty good pace, maybe a little slow at some parts but not too bad.

Honestly the thing that annoyed me the most was how the FMM being constantly described as an untouchable warrior but like we see she makes mistakes that seem a little obvious… maybe she blinded by love though so who am I to judge.

Overall I liked Jase’s character a lot and hearing the history of his family was VERY interesting I almost wish there was a book on that! Kazi was also likable and gave me Inej vibes form Six of Crows (except Inej is actually untouchable lmao). I’ll be interested to see what happens with them in the second book.

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ktoreilly's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Pearson drops us into a complex world of high-stakes politics with two guides of very different, sometimes opposing, backgrounds that can’t help but feel a connection to one another… Even though it had a bit of a slow start, I was fully hooked by page 50ish.

I really enjoyed the two perspectives we got from Kazi and Jase, though their voices didn’t always feel very distinguishable at times as they share many similar traits (stubbornness, loyalty, propensity for violence, etc…). I really loved the beginning of their story, and thought their dance between enemies and lovers was a refreshing take on the trope. However, their continual miscommunication / lying got pretty annoying towards the end. (They’re seriously both in positions of authority but don’t have the maturity to just talk to each other???)

I did like the ending, but I wish there’d be a scene of them reconciling and clearing the air. It felt a bit sudden that they reunited after their big conflict.

Otherwise, I found the story very compelling, but the details were burdensome when reading - there were so many names to keep track of (esp. the Ballengers, omg), there wasn’t much context provided for the setting and world building, and it was difficult to feel connected to the motivating events that took place before this story. (It wasn’t until now, reading through other reviews, that I’m learning there are other books that take place in this world, ahead of these events. I wish there’d been some acknowledgement of that or some additional background provided, since this a separate series, but oh well.)

I enjoyed Pearson’s writing and this story so much, I’ll probably pick up the sequel so we’ll see how that one is!

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