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A review by mackle13
The Prince of Lies: Night's Masque, Volume 3 by Anne Lyle
3.0
I did like this book a bit better than the second, but still not as much as the first... and I didn't exactly love the first, either. :-/
For the first part of the book, I mixed the ensemble cast that had been developed through the other two books. It focused a lot on Mal as the protagonist, and Coby was sort of relegated to dutiful wife and mother, her 'spy' role being limited to becomming a lady in waiting and hoping to hear things at court, and Ned and Gabe were shipped off the France for their own safety.
Luckily, at the end, everyone did come back together and become a bit more relevant than they were for much of the story.
The weirdest thing, though, was the jumpiness. There was a lot that was fit into this last book, so a lot of things got compressed and we'd skip weeks, months - and then years - at a time. I felt like too much was sort of zooming past, and I didn't feel much in the way of the intrigue, which was better developed in the first book which was more able to take some time.
The, I believe, 6 year jump was the most jarring - but it actually ended up working out, because it was nice to see the older Kit, especially as he became very relevant to the story. The ending and the big final showdown took on a more personal feel - which was much needed, because the "intrigue" of the first end was rather dull. Making the stakes more personal really worked for the finale of the series.
So, to sum up, the first half of the story was something of a hot mess, but the second half was much better, and the finale was pretty satisfying.
Not a bad series, overall, but not a great one, either. While it's not one I would actively warn people against, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it, either.
For the first part of the book, I mixed the ensemble cast that had been developed through the other two books. It focused a lot on Mal as the protagonist, and Coby was sort of relegated to dutiful wife and mother, her 'spy' role being limited to becomming a lady in waiting and hoping to hear things at court, and Ned and Gabe were shipped off the France for their own safety.
Luckily, at the end, everyone did come back together and become a bit more relevant than they were for much of the story.
The weirdest thing, though, was the jumpiness. There was a lot that was fit into this last book, so a lot of things got compressed and we'd skip weeks, months - and then years - at a time. I felt like too much was sort of zooming past, and I didn't feel much in the way of the intrigue, which was better developed in the first book which was more able to take some time.
The, I believe, 6 year jump was the most jarring - but it actually ended up working out, because it was nice to see the older Kit, especially as he became very relevant to the story. The ending and the big final showdown took on a more personal feel - which was much needed, because the "intrigue" of the first end was rather dull. Making the stakes more personal really worked for the finale of the series.
So, to sum up, the first half of the story was something of a hot mess, but the second half was much better, and the finale was pretty satisfying.
Not a bad series, overall, but not a great one, either. While it's not one I would actively warn people against, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it, either.